Super-curriculars for biology and chemistry applicants: what to do in Year 12

Biology and chemistry applicants tend to do the right kind of preparation at the wrong intensity.

They read popular science, watch lectures, and enter nothing. Meanwhile the activities that competitive applicants actually use — the national olympiads and challenges — are free, run to a fixed calendar, and are open to Year 12s who know they exist.

Most do not, because they are announced through schools and easily missed.

What do the courses actually require?

Two structural facts shape everything else.

Cambridge Natural Sciences requires "Mathematics, plus two other science or mathematics subjects from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Further Mathematics." That maths requirement catches out a surprising number of biologists, who assume Biology and Chemistry will suffice. It will not.

Applicants choose a Biological or Physical entry route, though Cambridge notes this "does not restrict your IA choices but serves to help us better assess your application."

All Natural Sciences applicants sit the ESAT: the compulsory Mathematics 1 module plus two more from Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Mathematics 2. Cambridge advises selecting "the sections that best align with your current studies" rather than matching them to your entry route.

Oxford requires the ESAT for Biomedical Sciences, but does not list an admissions test for Chemistry. Requirements differ course by course and university by university, so check each one rather than generalising.

Registration for the October ESAT opens 20 July and closes 28 September, with tests from 12 to 16 October. Confirm the current cycle before planning around it.

Which competitions actually count?

Oxford's Chemistry department publishes a list of competitions it points school students towards, organised by age group. It is the most useful single page in this subject area and almost nobody outside UK schools has seen it.

The Year 12 and 13 entries:

Note the pattern. C3L6 is the Year 12 chemistry competition and the RSC Olympiad is the Year 13 one. A student who only discovers the olympiad in Year 13 has missed the natural progression, and more importantly has missed a year of the kind of problem-solving that both the olympiad and the ESAT reward.

Biology has an equivalent ladder through the British Biology Olympiad and the Biology Challenge, and physics through the BPhO. The principle is the same: they are free, they run annually, and the entry route is your school. If your school does not enter, ask. Many will if a student requests it.

What should you read?

Cambridge colleges publish their own recommendations, which are more useful than any commercial reading list because they tell you what the university thinks good engagement looks like.

Corpus Christi's super-curricular resources name Isaac Physics for the physical sciences, BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, The Conversation for research written by the researchers, and undergraduate faculty reading lists, which are public.

HE+ carries Cambridge-written science material. Staircase12 at University College Oxford runs a Reading Bank with student and tutor reviews across the life and physical sciences, and its advice is the sharpest available: "think actively and ask questions. Don't just accept the arguments that you come across," and "follow your interests. Don't do an activity just because you think it looks good."

For reading specifically, the highest-value shift you can make is from popular science to primary literature. You will not understand a whole paper in Year 12 and that is not the point. Read the abstract and the figures. Work out what was actually measured. A student who can say "they claimed X but the effect size was small and the sample was 12 mice" is doing something no popular science book teaches.

What does a Year 12 look like?

The Nuffield row deserves emphasis. Cambridge's Computer Science department names Nuffield Research Placements explicitly among the super-curricular activities it values, they place UK students into genuine research environments over the summer, and they cost nothing. For a UK-based science applicant they are among the best-value things available anywhere.

The mistake that costs applicants most

Choosing subject combinations that close doors, and finding out in Year 13.

Cambridge Natural Sciences requires Mathematics. A student taking Biology, Chemistry and Psychology — an extremely common combination — is not eligible, and often does not discover this until they read the requirements properly in the autumn of Year 13.

The same applies within the course: Cambridge publishes prerequisites for individual first-year subjects, including "Essential: A Level Chemistry" for Chemistry and "Essential: A Level Physics or Further Mathematics, including the section on Mechanics" for Physics. Earth Sciences, by contrast, states that "no previous subject knowledge is necessary."

If you are reading this in Year 12 with a subject combination you can still change, check the requirements for every course on your list today. It is the single highest-value hour available to you, and no amount of super-curricular work compensates for an ineligible combination.

Does independent research help?

Yes, and the sciences have an accessible route most applicants overlook.

Wet-lab work is largely closed to school students for good reasons — cost, safety, supervision. But a great deal of real science is computational or analytical, and public datasets in ecology, epidemiology, genomics and climate are freely available. A question you can answer with public data, a method you chose, and an honest account of what went wrong gives you exactly what an interview probes.

CREST Gold Awards and the EPQ both formalise this, are externally assessed, and cost nothing beyond your time. That is the efficient route for most students.

For those who want supervision from a working researcher, we run mentored research programmes, and for science projects specifically, Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal publishes high school research at no cost — with the constraint that it opens for submissions only once a year. Our guide to writing about research in a personal statement covers how to present the work once it exists.

What is a waste of time or money?

Popular science books instead of problems. Enjoyable, and they do not build the problem-solving the ESAT and the olympiads test. Do both; prioritise the problems.

Paid laboratory experience programmes. Expensive, and a CREST Gold project you designed yourself demonstrates more independence than a supervised week in someone else's lab.

Entering competitions in Year 13 only. The ladder starts in Year 12 with C3L6 and the Biology Challenge. Starting late means arriving at the senior olympiad with no practice.

Reading whole papers you cannot follow. Abstracts and figures, in quantity, teach you more at this stage than one paper you struggled through.

Test preparation courses before the official materials. The ESAT publishes practice content. Exhaust it first.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need A-level Maths for Natural Sciences?

For Cambridge, yes. Natural Sciences requires "Mathematics, plus two other science or mathematics subjects from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Further Mathematics." Requirements differ at other universities, so check each course — but a biologist without Maths closes off several of the strongest UK options.

Which olympiad should a Year 12 enter?

For chemistry, the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (C3L6), which Oxford's Chemistry department lists as being for "Year 12 (and able Year 11)." The RSC Chemistry Olympiad is the Year 13 competition. Biology has the Biology Challenge and the British Biology Olympiad on a similar ladder. Entry runs through your school.

Does Oxford require an admissions test for Chemistry?

Oxford's admissions test list does not include Chemistry, though it requires the ESAT for Biomedical Sciences. Cambridge requires the ESAT for Natural Sciences. Testing arrangements have changed repeatedly in recent years, so confirm on each university's own pages rather than trusting any summary.

Is a lab placement necessary?

No, and it is not available to most students. Computational and data-based projects demonstrate the same scientific reasoning. UK students should look at Nuffield Research Placements, which Cambridge names among valued super-curricular activities and which are free.

How do I read scientific papers as a Year 12?

Abstracts and figures first. Work out what was measured, on what sample, and what the claimed effect was. Understanding one paper's methods properly is worth more than skimming ten, and it gives you something concrete to discuss at interview.

Should I do CREST Gold or an EPQ?

Either works, and they can often be the same project. CREST is science-specific and project-based; the EPQ carries UCAS points and is more widely recognised across subjects. If your school supports both, use one piece of work for both.