Do a summer CoCo course & take the Bio SATII.
For biochem at Oxford what they will care about is how much you love biochem, that you understand what this specific course is about, and you have a reason for taking this path. They also want evidence that you are academically able for the rigor and intensity of the course (which, btw, is extreme).
How do you know you want to study biochem? for most people, if they really love something, they spend a lot of time in it. They marinate in it. They find every excuse to stay longer in the lab, to solve problems on the side, to read around the subject at advanced levels, etc. Your school offers AP bio in grade 10: why didn’t you take it then? is biochem a new interest?
Don’t think of Oxford as a famous school that would be really cool to go to. Think of it as a giant nerd camp where nerds of every stripe are collected in one place. Although many of them will put on ‘too cool for school’ faces, you will generally find that most Oxonians really do love their subject. Think Harry Potter fan nerd level of loving. Is that you & biochem?
“Think of it as a giant nerd camp where nerds of every stripe are collected in one place.” Good description, @collegemom3717. As I read somewhere once, Oxbridge wants students who love the subject(s) they picked to study more than they love Oxbridge.
Quite the opposite from American elites, I would say, though it all makes sense when you realize that it’s faculty doing the undergraduate admissions in the UK and adcoms doing so in the US.
“Although many of them will put on ‘too cool for school’ faces, you will generally find that most Oxonians really do love their subject. Think Harry Potter fan nerd level of loving. Is that you & biochem?”
Yes completely agree. By way of a personal anecdote, even though I’m nearly 30 years removed from doing any real math, I still found it really enjoyable when I came across a Putnam math paper last year to spend a long haul flight doing some of the questions on it for fun. If it wasn’t a competition and was of no benefit to your college applications, would you still choose to do the Olympiad tests for fun?
@Twoin18 so guilty here. My second kid looked at the Cambridge NatSci entrance exam a couple of weeks ago to see how prepared she was and we were soon racing each other to see who could answer each question first.
At St. Andrews biochem is centered in the Biology department and they are going to look for a 5 on AP Bio most importantly and a 5 on Chem or a good score on the subject test.