This Chemistry Race is a chemistry competition for a team of 3–5 Sixth Form students. The Race originated as a Czech competition Chemiklání at the University of Pardubice in 2015 and is now organised by students at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

The teams race against each other in solving chemistry problems; whoever gets the most points within the time limit wins! Our Year 12 students competed against Year 13 students and attained a respectable position on the leaderboard.

Dr Numbere, Science Department

A week before half-term, we were selected, due to our high grades in Chemistry, to take part in the Cambridge Chemistry Race, alongside Caspar, Fope, and Tobi.

The entire competition lasted two hours and the aim was to complete as many questions as possible in a race against other teams, each question increasing in difficulty as the competition went on. Though we managed to answer quite a few, we were faced with many tough chemistry questions that we had never seen before. However, the competition really stretched us and was an amazing experience, even though we were at a slight disadvantage as Year 12 students competing against mostly Year 13 teams with more prior knowledge. Despite this, we performed really well and were only one point away from achieving a bronze award!

We would highly recommend this opportunity to anyone who has the chance to participate, as it was a great day out and also gave us the chance to explore Cambridge University.

Caitlyn Osei-Tutu & Angela Luong, Year 12

Although I originally was quite anxious about how many questions we would be able to answer in the competition, I actually found myself having a lot of fun with the Cambridge Race. Our team worked as quickly as we could, and the questions we were given rewarded persistence and helped to expand how I think about Chemistry outside of just a subject in school.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Cambridge Race. I would recommend that, if you get the opportunity to do it yourself, you take the opportunity to take a day off timetable dedicated just to the love of Chemistry.

Fope Odutayo, Year 12

Overall, it was exciting to compete against multiple other schools in a subject that I both enjoyed and did quite well in. I was a bit nervous knowing that the other schools had teams of mainly Year 13s who had studied chemistry at a higher level for longer than any of us on our team. However, Dr Numbere told me that even if we did terribly, or we came last, it didn't matter since it was all about the experience, which helped to relieve some pressure and calm my nerves.

The questions were quite simple at first, but as time went on, and we racked up more points, they got harder and more time-consuming. I remember trying to balance a massive equation with Angela, which took us about 10 whole minutes until she finally figured it out.

We may not have done as well as other schools, but at the end of the day it was a great experience, and I'm glad I was chosen to take part.

Tobi Orimoloye, Year 12  

Click on the link here to view the Chemistry Race Photo Gallery