Gaining a place at Oxford or Cambridge University

Gaining a place at Oxford or Cambridge University: The Abbey College Cambridge guide for international students

Dr Lucy Sweatman

Contents About the author .................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5 The structure of this book ................................................................................................................... 6 Symbols used in this book ................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1 - What are Oxford and Cambridge really like? ....................................................................... 9 So what makes Cambridge and Oxford University so different? ...................................................... 10 International and diverse institutions ............................................................................................... 13 A brief overview of life at Cambridge and Oxford University ........................................................... 16 Am I right for Oxbridge, or more importantly, is Oxbridge right for me? ......................................... 18 Chapter 2 – The Importance of preparation ......................................................................................... 22 Choosing the right course ................................................................................................................. 23 Early preparation .............................................................................................................................. 24 The importance of reading and thinking........................................................................................... 26 Using the Internet intelligently ......................................................................................................... 28 The Oxbridge mind-set ...................................................................................................................... 30 Super-curricular vs extra-curricular activities ................................................................................... 31 Work experience and gap years ........................................................................................................ 39 Reading Lists ..................................................................................................................................... 43 The application timeline.................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 3 – Which university and college should I choose? ................................................................ 52 Oxford or Cambridge – what’s the difference? ................................................................................. 53 Which college should I choose? ........................................................................................................ 56 Open applications ............................................................................................................................. 61 Chapter 4 – Entry requirements ........................................................................................................... 62 GCSE/IGCSEs or equivalent ............................................................................................................... 63 A Levels or equivalent ....................................................................................................................... 64 Cambridge and Oxford University required A Level grades .............................................................. 66 International and equivalent qualifications ...................................................................................... 70 English level requirements ................................................................................................................ 71 Chapter 5 – The application process..................................................................................................... 73 The UCAS application system ............................................................................................................ 74 Academic references ......................................................................................................................... 75 Written work and external tests ....................................................................................................... 75

Additional application forms............................................................................................................. 78 Chapter 6 – Entrance tests.................................................................................................................... 81 Cambridge University – pre-interview assessments ......................................................................... 82 When and where? ............................................................................................................................. 86 Registration and costs....................................................................................................................... 87 Cambridge University - at interview assessments ............................................................................ 88 When, where, registration and cost? ................................................................................................ 89 Oxford University – admissions tests ................................................................................................ 90 When, where, registration and costs? .............................................................................................. 98 Example test questions ..................................................................................................................... 99 BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) ............................................................................................ 99 Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA - Oxford) .................................................................................. 106 Physics Aptitude Test (PAT) ........................................................................................................ 110 Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA – Cambridge) ........................................................................... 113 Economics Admissions Assessment (ECAA) ................................................................................ 118 Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP) ......................................................................................... 126 National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) ................................................................................... 131 Chapter 7 – The Oxbridge Personal Statement .................................................................................. 135 General advice on writing your Personal Statement ...................................................................... 136 A Personal Statement template ...................................................................................................... 138 Example Personal Statements......................................................................................................... 141 Chapter 8 – The Interview................................................................................................................... 154 General interview advice................................................................................................................. 155 Are the interview questions really as bad as I have heard? ............................................................ 158 Don’t forget the obvious ................................................................................................................. 162 The importance of interview practice ............................................................................................. 163 Chapter 9 - What happens next? ........................................................................................................ 165 The pooling process......................................................................................................................... 166 If you are unsuccessful .................................................................................................................... 167

About the author

Dr Lucy Sweatman, née Bates, BA (KCL), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Durham) was educated at The Perse School for Girls and The Leys School in Cambridge where she was an academic scholar and won the Harvard Prize for leadership potential. After securing an offer from Queens’ College Cambridge she went on to read Theology at King’s College London, where she won the Bishop Collins Memorial prize and the Sellars Prize for securing the highest first class honours in her subject.

After some time as an independent scholar at the University of California, where she studied Medieval Latin Palaeography, Lucy completed an MPhil in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge (Clare College). She then gained a PhD from Durham University as a member of St. Chad’s College writing her doctoral thesis on national days of prayer in England between 1640 and 1660 as part of an AHRC funded project at the university.

She began her career in education at CATS College Cambridge in 2006 before moving to MPW Cambridge where she became Director of Studies (2012) and then Assistant Principal (2015). Lucy joined Abbey College Cambridge as Vice Principal Academic in April 2017.

Throughout her career she has enjoyed sharing her knowledge and expertise on Oxbridge entry with her students and is keen to dispel some of the myths about Oxbridge entry for international students. Lucy is married and in her spare time she enjoys ballet (RAD Adv. 2) and spending time with her family which includes her 3 year old son James and her 7 year old Labrador dog Penny.

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank all of the generous Oxbridge students who have shared their experiences, case studies and Personal Statements for use in this book. My gratitude also goes to all of my colleagues who have provided helpful suggestions and of course my current students at Abbey College Cambridge who keep me inspired on a daily basis. I am also indebted to my friends, family and husband for all of their support during the production of this book.

I would like to dedicate this book to all of those who have a love of learning of any age and any background. They inspire my own love of learning and endless curiosity that energises my life and work. A special mention goes to my grandmother whose work in the manuscripts department at the Cambridge University Library was a constant source of fascination to me as a child.

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Introduction If you are reading this book then it is probably safe to assume that you may be considering, or are in the process of making, an application to study at Cambridge or Oxford University for an undergraduate degree. If that is the case then there is some good news and some not so good news. Let’s start with the not so good news. The not so good news is that if you do make an application you will be one of approximately 35,000 other undergraduate hopefuls doing so for a total of only around 6,500 places. Although the exact numbers vary from course to course and college to college both Oxford and Cambridge receive roughly 5 applications for every place available. If all else were equal you would only stand close to a 1 in 5 chance of being successful. However, the good news is that, with the help of this book, your teachers and Personal Tutors, you can make the best application possible and give yourself the best chance of successfully being accepted for a place at Cambridge or Oxford.

It cannot guarantee you a place at an Oxbridge college, nothing can, but it can push the odds in your favour by making you better prepared than many other candidates who will be applying.

The aim of this book is two-fold. The first aim is to demystify and simplify the Oxbridge application process which is often seen by students as a complex and daunting task.

Whether you already know all about the Oxbridge application process or if you are starting with little or no knowledge this book aims to give you a comprehensive and clear view of all stages of the application procedure. It will take you through the entire process from choosing the right subjects, A Levels or equivalent qualifications, to giving you the best support and advice if you are successful in gaining an interview. The second aim is to help you to decide if you are right for Oxbridge and much more importantly if Oxbridge is right for you. It will help to assure you that if you have what it takes to get in then your nationality and background makes no difference to your application. At the same time it will give you an insight into the demands and life as an academic student at Oxbridge and help you to answer the question ‘is this really for me?’ If after reading this book you feel that you have what it takes, make an application. So read on and good luck!

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The structure of this book This book has been split into a number of sections which follow the process of making an Oxbridge application.

Chapters 1-4 are designed to give you as much information as possible beforehand to help you decide if you have what it takes to make an application and what you need to do and know to prepare. We’ll start by looking at your motivations for wanting to make an Oxbridge application in the first place in Chapter 1 and cover some background information about Cambridge and Oxford. We will also help to dispel some of the myths surrounding these two famous universities. In particular we focus on the universities’ attitudes towards international students (favourable you’ll be pleased to know) and give you an indication of what life would actually be like as a Cambridge or Oxford student. Chapter 2 will then look at some of the preparation that you should be doing long before the application starts. This is to prepare you for having the correct mind-set when you start your application and to help you if you are lucky enough to be invited to interview. In Chapter 3 we will help you to decide which university, Cambridge or Oxford, and which college you should consider applying to. Although often grouped together with their very own contraction, Oxbridge, there are many differences between the two universities that should be considered when deciding which one is right for you. Finally in Chapter 4 we will look at the entry requirements of making an Oxbridge application as a final step in the process of helping you decide if you are ready to make an Oxbridge application.

Chapters 5 – 7 cover the actual application itself looking at the UCAS system in detail as well as any additional application forms that need to be submitted separately in Chapter 5.

Chapter 6 then looks at additional written material or entrance tests that should be completed as part of the application and finally Chapter 7 looks at how to put together a Personal Statement suitable for an Oxbridge application. This is a vitally important document that helps to sell you and your abilities to a college and give you the best chance of being invited to interview.

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If you are lucky enough to be invited to an interview then Chapter 8 will cover what you need to know, how best to prepare and also serves to dispel some of the myths and stories you may have heard about these interviews. Finally it’s time to relax in Chapter 9 as your part in the application process is at an end and we tell you what to expect in the aftermath, successful or otherwise.

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Symbols used in this book Throughout this book there are a number of symbols or icons used to highlight a key feature or important piece of information for you to think about. These are designed to break up the main text and give you an opportunity to think about the bigger picture in terms of your application. An explanation of these symbols is given below: Did you know?

These little factoids give you some interesting facts and figures about Cambridge and Oxford universities.

Case studies These case studies help to show you the perspective of actual Oxbridge students. This can help to demystify the process of making an Oxbridge application and, if successful, what life is actually like for students at these institutions.

Quotes These are quotes from university admissions staff, lecturers and other education professionals to give you an insight into the inner workings of the university process and teaching.

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Chapter 1 - What are Oxford and Cambridge really like?

The main purpose of this chapter is to give you a better idea of what life is really like as an Oxbridge applicant and student. You may have heard many stories and rumours about life at Cambridge or Oxford but the aim of this chapter is to dispel some of the myths surrounding Oxbridge students and give you a better idea of what life would be like if you are fortunate enough to make a successful application. In particular it is certainly not the case that you need to be ‘connected’ and know the right people. Oxbridge has no favouritism towards those who already have some knowledge of the Oxbridge system or whose family have been to the universities. Indeed I was the first member of my family to even go to university at all.

My parents didn’t complete their A Levels and my grandmother never had the opportunity to apply even though she later ended up working at the Cambridge University Library in the manuscripts department. In researching this book I have spoken with many admission tutors and can assure you that getting in to Cambridge or Oxford University is down to your academic potential and if you are passionate about your subject you’re almost certainly a strong candidate for consideration. Having determined if you have what it takes to be an Oxbridge student we then look at the more important question ‘Is Oxbridge right for you?’

We will examine how Cambridge and Oxford University differ from other universities and how life as an Oxbridge student might not be for everybody. In the end, only you can decide whether to make an application but the aim of this chapter is to make you better informed in coming to that decision.

Although there is no clear date for when it was founded there has been teaching at Oxford University since 1096. It became much more popular from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.1 The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209 and given a Royal Charter by King Henry III in 1231. It grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford because of a dispute with the townspeople.2

1 2

https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation/history?wssl=1 https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/history/early-records

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So what makes Cambridge and Oxford University so different?

Founded more than 800 years ago both Cambridge and Oxford have excellent international reputations for exceptional academic achievement. They regularly top the university rankings for quality of teaching, research and graduate prospects (although interestingly neither Cambridge nor Oxford take part in student satisfaction surveys). The table below shows the relative position of these universities in the top ten in 2019 according the Complete University Guide3, a position that has remained unchanged for more than six years.

Table 1- Top ten university rankings in 2019

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https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

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Regardless of their position in any league tables there are certainly both advantages and disadvantages to studying at Cambridge or Oxford University and we should consider some of the particular characteristics of these institutions to help you decide if they are right for you.

Cambridge and Oxford both operate a collegiate system. This means that although the universities have a central administrative function, the main student life and experience will be organised around the individual college. The relatively small number of students at each college, numbering in the hundreds as opposed to thousands, means that you generally receive much greater pastoral and academic attention than at larger institutions. Although the colleges do vary in size and structure, a typical college will consist of halls for dining, a library and study facilities, a chapel, a college bar, senior, middle and junior common rooms and rooms for its undergraduates as well lodgings for senior staff including the head of the college. Many of the colleges are based around the medieval buildings of their past origins but with modern buildings and facilities incorporated into the surroundings, often via interlinked courtyards or ‘quads’. As an Oxbridge student there is very much a sense of identity in belonging to a particular college as well as the university as a whole. The close knit nature of the college system encourages study outside of the usual academic timetable and you will have the opportunity to discuss your work with other students and academics in many different situations and locations in the college environment. It also helps you make friends quickly and maintain good working relationships with people you will see on a regular basis. The meals offered in the colleges are generally of a very high quality and it is unusual to find a college without its own wine cellar housing some very rare and expensive vintages.

In terms of where you will be staying during term time some colleges have rooms on site whilst others have buildings outside of the college grounds, although both cities are small enough that this does not present a significant difference either way. Cambridge University is composed of 31 separate colleges whereas Oxford has 38. You cannot apply to more than one college, but you can make an open application if you can’t decide on one which we will cover in more detail in Chapter 3 – Which University and college should I choose?

The collegiate system at Oxbridge means that teaching is largely delivered using a tutorial or supervision academic system. This means that whilst lectures are still used as a teaching tool 11

at Oxbridge much of the work will be done independently and reviewed and reinforced in regular, individual or small group teaching sessions with your tutor. These individual or small group sessions are called ‘supervisions’ at Cambridge but ‘tutorials’ at Oxford are essentially the same. This means that there is a much greater focus on directed self-study and this requires a lot of self-discipline and time management skills. If you are the kind of student who needs to be told when, where and what to study before you can get started, then the tutorial system is not going to be for you. For humanities subjects the tutorial system is the primary means of teaching although some lectures will still be compulsory. In the sciences there is a greater emphasis placed on lectures but it is lab-work that will form the main focus of your education which will be supported by tutorials and supervisions where your findings and written work are reviewed. Terms are shorter at Cambridge and Oxford (eight weeks of full time teaching usually with one private study week at each end) but the intensity of the workload more than makes up for it. You will have to study very hard outside of term time and be expected to produce a large volume of work over the terms.

Some students find this level of intense personal study difficult to come to terms with. This also means that wanting to have a social life and take part in extra-curricular activities whilst studying at university places extra demands on your time management skills.

Both Cambridge and Oxford University offer a wide range of courses and these tend to be focused on more ‘traditional’ academic subjects and are typically single-subject courses. The most famous exception to this is Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University but it is still a single course and its focus is generally towards those who are seeking a career in politics or the civil service. There is generally no facility to choose modules from a variety of courses and the courses themselves have considerable focus on the academic aspects of the subject, even those with a practical element. Cambridge and Oxford have some of the best teaching and learning facilities in the country. Each college will usually have at least one of its own libraries (often more) and students also have access to faculty libraries as well as the Cambridge University Library or Bodleian Library (Oxford).

These are both copyright libraries, sometimes referred to as legal deposit libraries. There are six of these in the UK and between them they hold a copy of every book, journal and magazine ever published in the UK. As a result Cambridge University Library holds more than 8 million items within its walls.

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The Oxbridge universities are also highly regarded in terms of graduate prospects after successful completion of a degree course. Indeed reports regularly published by the Sutton Trust, an educational charity aiming to promote social mobility, still shows that many top positions in the UK are dominated by Oxbridge graduates. Although educating less than 1% of the population in the field of law, nearly three-quarters of the top UK jobs went to Oxbridge graduates. More than half of the country’s leading journalists are Oxbridge alumni and around 63% of leading civil service jobs are held by Cambridge or Oxford University graduates.4 The many famous alumni are testament to the ability of an Oxbridge education to help progression in many areas of professional life after university. Such alumni range from British Prime Ministers such as Tony Blair (St Johns College, Oxford) and world renowned scientists like Stephen Hawking (University College, Oxford) and Isaac Newton (Trinity College, Cambridge) to famous actors like Tom Hiddleston (Pembroke College, Cambridge) and Emma Thompson (Newnham College, Cambridge). The notable aspect of the list is the vast range of professions from politicians to actors through philosophers, authors, singers and so many more. Many Nobel Prize winners have come from the Oxbridge institutions and leading sports stars have also benefitted from the life and opportunities at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. The trend continues in today’s modern world with University Challenge stars Bobby Seagull and Eric Monkman (Emmanuel and Wolfson Colleges respectively, Cambridge) gathering large social media followings and gaining their own television shows and book contracts.

International and diverse institutions There is no such thing as a typical Oxbridge student. There are students from all kinds of backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. There are students who have attended very famous UK public schools and there are students who come from state schools. There are students from wealthy families and those from poorer families. There are international students from all over the world and many of them too. Cambridge and Oxford University are truly international institutions. In 2017 43% of Oxford University students came from outside the UK.5 At Cambridge University 33% of its undergraduates come from over 60 different

4 5

https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Leading-People_Feb16.pdf https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/student-numbers?wssl=1

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countries around the world.6 Both universities are also keen to promote diversity and go to great lengths to make the universities welcoming to students from different backgrounds and cultures. Cambridge University’s ’60 Second Impressions’ and Oxford’s ‘Wall of Faces’ are intended to give people a sense of the diversity and student integration at both universities.7 Both universities also have a range of help and services available to international students if they are successful in making an application.

Although it is true that historically both Cambridge and Oxford University have come under criticism for their lack of diversity, both universities are committed to promoting equality among their student bodies and support and encourage all under-represented groups. They regularly publish reports on equality and diversity to aid in the transparency of their selection processes. The full reports can be found on the Cambridge and Oxford University websites but here are some selected statistics from the most recent equality and diversity reports for both universities.

Tiffany, Cambridge University (Computer Science) “The first term at Cambridge has been extremely busy and exciting at the same time. The best thing of all is that I made so many new friends, from literally all around the world just like at school [at Abbey]. I might have wanted the next term to start sooner to play a new Assassins game – but we have a mock exam in January!”

In 2015/2016 Cambridge University reported that 20% of all undergraduate students accepting a place to study at Cambridge in 2015 were from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) background. Some prospective students after receiving an Oxbridge offer, actually attend another university so the percentage of offers made to this group could be higher. In 6

https://www.internationalstudents.cam.ac.uk/applying/global-community/international-student-data https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/find-out-more/60seconds and http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/why-oxford/wall-of-faces 7

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2015/2016 the number of undergraduate students at Oxford from BME backgrounds was 25.3%, the number of taught postgraduates was 36.9% and the number of research graduates was 38.7%. Both universities also have provision for disabled students and in 2015/2016 at Cambridge one in twenty offers accepted were by a student with a disability and 2152 students accessed support for a disability during their studies that year. It is important to note on a practical level that many of the Oxbridge colleges are grade listed buildings. This means that they are restricted from making major structural changes such as installing lifts and elevators and so accessibility can be more restricted for disabled students.

If you do have a disability and are concerned then you should contact the college you are applying to so that you know what provision they have in place for you. Age should also not be a barrier to your application and at Cambridge 14% of their undergraduate students were over the age of 19 at time of admission and 9% of their postgraduate students were over the age of 35 when starting their studies. Although this book is very much aimed at international, private school students the fact that UK state sector admissions at Cambridge was at its highest for 30 years in 2015/2016 is again testament to the fact that the universities are trying to promote diversity and inclusion across all backgrounds.8 Oxford University is similarly making efforts to promote equality and diversity. In 2017 22% of all students enrolled onto an undergraduate course at Oxford University were from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) background. This figure rises to 36% on its postgraduate taught courses and 30% for postgraduate research. In the same year nearly one in ten undergraduate students had a disability although that figure falls slightly in postgraduate taught course and postgraduate research. Age is not seen as a restriction at Oxford University, so much so that they don’t even publish statistics on age and Oxford University offer places to even more students from state schools in the UK than Cambridge. The number of state school undergraduates rose from 56.8% to 58.2% between 2013 and 2017 although it should be pointed out that many of those students will come from one of the highly selective grammar schools located in and around Oxfordshire in the UK.9 Both universities also have specialist departments that help to support students in other areas of inclusion such as students who identify as LGBT+, women and gender equality as 8 9

https://www.studentwellbeing.admin.cam.ac.uk/equality-diversity-and-inclusion https://public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-StudentStatistics/YearlySnapshotSummary

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well as student parents and student carers. In addition to these university departments the student unions of both Cambridge and Oxford University have significant influence in policy making for students and are run by students for students to ensure that nobody feels disadvantaged for any reason during their studies.

A brief overview of life at Cambridge and Oxford University Just as there is no such thing as a typical Oxbridge student so there is no such thing as a typical Oxbridge student’s life at university. However, there are a number of important characteristics that make these universities different to many others in the UK. The first of these characteristics is the collegiate system as mentioned previously. The colleges are such a size that you will be able to find people that share your interests from a diverse group of individuals and maintain relationships with them. It is true that there will be many of the stereotypical, confident students who you know will be in the rowing team before long but there are just as many less confident students who start their time at an Oxbridge University wondering if they are supposed to be there at all. The one thing that all of these students have in common is a love of learning and a passion for their subject. They have a natural curiosity and a fundamental drive to want to learn more and making friends as an Oxbridge student is going to be easy if you have these characteristics too regardless of your background.

The other important characteristic is the amount of academic work that is expected of you.

It has been mentioned before in this book and it will be mentioned again as it is a very important thing to understand. You should expect to work very, very hard.

Stirling, Oxford University (Economics and Management)

“For my course I had around three tutorials a week. Each tutorial revolved around a ‘tute sheet’ which was a collection of around ten questions that had to be solved and then discussed. To solve these problems there was a lot of reading required and although the 16

lectures weren’t technically compulsory it was extremely helpful to attend those as well to guide your own studies. For Economics and Management I had about three hours of lectures every day first thing in the morning. My friend who studied Biochemistry had even more lectures than this as well as practical sessions in the lab where he had a very strict timetable and had to coordinate with his lab partner as well.

The amount of time I spent on each tutorial was about the amount of time I would spend writing a decent essay. I might have done that twice a term at school, here I have to do it three times a week! So, adding it all up I had about 15 hours of lectures a week with 3 hours of tutorials. Adding in prep time for those tutorials which was around 30-40 hours a week for me I was working around 60 hours a week. That’s more than a 9-5 job and I haven’t even mentioned the exams yet!”

There are so many extra-curricular activities at Cambridge and Oxford that you will have trouble fitting in everything you want to do whilst still staying on top of your studies.

Activities and societies are coordinated by the students’ unions which you would be automatically enrolled in as an undergraduate at either Oxford or Cambridge. Oxford University currently offers more than 80 sports clubs ranging from archery to contemporary dance via ultimate Frisbee and yachting and most sporting activities in between. Oxford also has more than 150 recognised societies covering areas as diverse as medicine, block chain technology and even a Harry Potter Society (yes, both Cambridge and Oxford have one of those). Cambridge is similarly well equipped with around 50 sports clubs extending well beyond the boat-race winning rowing team and a staggering 500 recognised groups and societies to choose from. In addition to this the students’ union (SU) of either university are very keen to support students wishing to set up their own groups and activities if there is student demand for it.

As well as sporting activities and societies there are also a number of Formal Hall events over the year which are meals held in college dining halls dressed in formal evening wear often including academic gowns. Don’t be surprised to also see a number of themed formals and have the opportunity to dress up as a zombie, Father Christmas or the aforementioned Harry Potter. These can be great ways to unwind after the rigours of serious study at 17

Cambridge or Oxford but also can help you to talk to other students you wouldn’t normally meet and discuss your work from a different perspective.

At the end of each academic year there is the May Ball (which rather unhelpfully takes place in June). This caps off the year with lots of dancing, games and activities and fireworks. The evening starts at around 7pm and finishes the following morning around 6am - it will certainly be a test of your stamina.

Dillon, Cambridge University (Natural Sciences) “The opportunities for extra-curricular activities at Cambridge and Oxford are legion! I have friends who are spending another 20 hours a week on top of their studies running a college ball or a university sports team, seeking office in a political association, playing in an orchestra or stating up a small business with the support of the Student Union. I’m a keen rower and I try to do 1 or 2 hours of practice in the morning before lectures start but I’m not even close to being on my college team yet. Maybe I’ll have a go at Ultimate Frisbee instead!”

Am I right for Oxbridge, or more importantly, is Oxbridge right for me?

Many students assume that because Cambridge and Oxford have such impressive, international reputations, they will not be suitable candidates. Even those who do apply usually only ask themselves ‘am I clever enough to get in?’ Firstly it must be made clear that the main criteria for acceptance to these universities is indeed on current academic achievement and future potential. If you are academically successful, have a passion for your subject, and for learning in general then you are suitable regardless of any other factor.

However, it is also important to realise that grades are not the only indicator of academic potential. These are only considered the starting point for an application. In fact most successful candidates will far exceed the entry requirements for their chosen course and that is an indication that grades and academic outcomes are just one factor that the 18

universities will take into account. To demonstrate this academic potential the universities must be convinced that your best work is yet to come. They don’t want you to get the best grades at A Level and then perform below your best as an undergraduate. You should also be able to demonstrate a deep curiosity and depth of thinking about your subject well beyond the scope of an A Level syllabus. You shouldn’t just be very good at your subject but you should have a clear and obvious passion for it. Thinking critically and creatively is another way of demonstrating academic potential and being able to connect together ideas from different subject areas is a valuable trait for any potential Oxbridge undergraduate. If you feel you have and are able to show these attributes in your application then you are suitable to make one.

The more important question is whether Oxbridge is right for you. Life at Cambridge or Oxford University certainly doesn’t suit everyone. As already mentioned the terms are very short compared to other UK universities and this makes for a very intense workload. If you are not prepared to work extremely hard both inside and outside of term then perhaps Oxbridge is not for you. This also means that whilst there are many opportunities to join societies and sports clubs at these universities you will always be expected to put your studies first. It is also important to note that these universities will be selecting from the academically most capable students in the country. You may be used to being at the top of the class but do not expect this to be the case at Cambridge or Oxford University. The following case study from a former Cambridge student is not intended to put you off making an Oxbridge application but to make you aware of how you might feel if you are successful in getting there.

Gary, Cambridge University (Law) “From my very first day I found Cambridge tough academically. Studying at Cambridge can be a psychological wake-up call if you don’t prepare yourself for it. I’d spent most of my educational life coasting and finding things easy. I’d generally do minimal revision and still finish top of my class. On arrival at Cambridge, I was used to being the biggest fish in

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the smallest pond. Suddenly, you’re in a new pond and it’s not filled with little fish anymore. Almost immediately I went from feeling comfortable to feeling stupid.”

The importance of being honest with yourself cannot be overstated. During the end of the academic year after I had received my offer from Cambridge University I realised that life there as a student just wouldn’t be for me. I achieved my best when I was competing at the top of the class and the praise of my teachers was very important to me. I was confident that I would be a good Cambridge student, they had offered me a place after all, but I knew I wouldn’t be the best, or even close. At the age of 18 I knew myself well enough to know that this would have made me miserable as an undergraduate and I opted to go to KCL where I graduated as a prize winner, top of my year with a first class degree. After my degree and a year of independent study at the University of California I came back to the thought of studying at Cambridge University and made a successful application to Clare College to study for an MPhil in Early Modern History. So although my journey as an Oxbridge student has not been a typical one, I know that it would have been the wrong choice for me to go to Cambridge University as an 18 year old undergraduate. Indeed, after initially hating the idea of going to Oxford University I can now recall many fond memories of research for my PhD in the Bodleian Library and many different Oxford college archives. I have no doubt that I would not have been as academically successful as I have been if I had not followed this slightly unusual route so it is very important that you are sure you are making the right decision.

Other important considerations to take into account before making an application is whether the universities actually have the course you are interested in. Making an Oxbridge application just for the sake of it when you are not passionate about the subject you are applying for is a mistake. Remember also that the courses are usually single subject and you have limited flexibility in tailoring the course with optional modules or units. Another thing to consider is the fact that you will be part of a smaller college, with a few hundred other students, in a relatively small city. Oxford is slightly larger than Cambridge but you will still be able to travel from one end to the other by bike in less than an hour. If you want to stay relatively anonymous as an undergraduate student or have a desire for big city life then you 20

are not going to get that at Cambridge or Oxford University. At Cambridge in particular it is very difficult to get away from the fact that you are in a university town although the same is true to a lesser extent at Oxford. I always advise students making any university applications to visit the universities they are seriously considering studying at. An undergraduate degree is a serious, long term undertaking and the feel of both the university and the town or city the student will be living in is of vital importance to their happiness and success. This general advice is still applicable to Oxford and Cambridge and in many ways even more so because of the collegiate system operated at both universities. Indeed my own experiences led me to prefer making an application to Cambridge rather than Oxford after my tutor suggested I visit the latter ‘just in case it’s not for you’. After visiting Oxford, although I had no real, quantifiable reasons for preferring Cambridge I had a very strong sense that I would feel more ‘at home’ and confident at Cambridge.

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Chapter 2 – The Importance of preparation

Preparation is important for any university application. However, it is even more so for an Oxbridge application not just due to the earlier deadlines (see The application timeline below) but also because of the potential extra work involved in terms of written work, perfecting the Personal Statement, and preparing for an interview. In this chapter we will look at some of the most important aspects of preparation before making an Oxbridge application. As such good preparation is crucial and this cannot start early enough. We will start by considering the most important part of any university application, choosing the right course. We will then look at any early years preparation that would be beneficial if you have the opportunity to prepare well in advance as well as the general mind-set you should approach your subject with in addition to your usual academic studies. Reading from a variety of sources and perhaps more importantly thinking about what you have read will be discussed and we will give some suggested reading for a variety of different subjects. A discussion of super-curricular vs extra-curricular activities will be considered and we will also look at what happens if you take a gap year or have significant levels of work experience.

Finally we will present a brief application timeline to help you organise your preparation and give you the best chance of making a successful application.

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Choosing the right course It may sound obvious but one of the most important parts of any university application is choosing the right subject or course. Admissions tutors will be looking for a genuine and deep passion for the subject you are hoping to study and so you must be able to show that passion in the application process and interview if you are fortunate enough to receive one.

It is also important that you are studying a subject you care about as you will doing it for at least the next three years of your life. Ideally you will have a clear idea of what you want to study at university at about that half way stage of Year 12, your lower sixth year. This will allow you to maximise your preparation before you start your Oxbridge application proper.

Make sure you research your course choices thoroughly and don’t just choose a subject because you think it will be good or that your friends want to do, choose a subject that you are truly excited about studying. It is good to think about possible future careers but bear in mind that many positions simply require candidates to be graduates and not necessarily in a particular field. Once more it is important to do your research, this is your future. Changing your mind after this point is not necessarily disastrous but you will be giving yourself considerably less time to prepare well and strengthen your application chances.

Both Cambridge and Oxford University give course guides and prospectuses for individual subjects which should be read carefully so that you are fully aware of what you will be expected to study in that course. This will help to inform your decision whether to apply for a particular course and can also be a helpful way of guiding your reading in preparation for the course and application. These guides will also help you to determine if you fulfil the necessary requirements for the course in terms of your subjects and the levels required. It is also possible to contact the faculty secretaries at the university. They will be able to provide more details about particular courses as well as recommend preparation in terms of reading and other resources you can undertake. This also shows a certain level of commitment on your part and you will certainly not harm your application by making it known beforehand that you have an interest in a particular course. Another way of finding out about a course is to speak with a current student or alumni of Oxbridge. You don’t have to know any of these students personally but you can usually find them willing to contribute to discussions online and give their opinions of their courses and life at Oxbridge in general. You will often find refreshingly honest opinions about the workload, particular subjects and the opportunities

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offered by the college system in a way that the university website and literature simply cannot. You can even ask current students about assignments or work they are currently doing and what their approach to study is like. Sites such as quora.com or the studentroom.co.uk are good places to start and you can type your own questions for people to answer or just follow other conversations or questions that have already been asked.

Early preparation Preparation for Oxbridge can and arguably should start well before your A Levels. In years 10 and 11 when you are taking your GCSE/IGCSEs or equivalent there is still plenty of opportunity to start thinking about an Oxbridge application. Although this is three or four years before you start your degree if you are truly passionate about a particular subject area you will usually start to realise it in your secondary education. Now is the ideal time to start thinking about that Oxbridge dream and start planning to give yourself the best chance of success. It should go without saying that achieving the highest grades is crucial. Successful Oxbridge candidates usually have a very high proportion of A and A* grades and higher grades will make your application more competitive. This means that you should not only focus on the subject that you wish to go on to study at university but make sure that all of your subjects are going to be at the highest level to give yourself the best chance of success.

Most students will complete their applications in the first term of Year 13 and with the new linear A Levels that means that their GCSE or IGCSEs (or equivalent grades at age 16) will usually be the only external examination results they have as evidence of their academic ability. Mock exams and references are good but the universities will be looking for objective evidence of academic success so the GCSE/IGCSE grades or equivalent will often be the first thing they look at. It is a mistake to think that universities will only make offers based upon your predicted grades at A Level. Don’t worry if you haven’t taken GCSE or IGCSE exams at this point as Cambridge and Oxford are fundamentally inclusive for the right quality of candidate and will look at any equivalent public examinations in your home country. More details can be found in Chapter 4 – Entry Requirements.

Your early preparation also takes place in Year 11, or at least before you start Year 12, when you are expected to choose your A Level subjects. This is two full years before you start your 24

university studies but you should by now have a clearer idea of what you want to do at university even if the details are not yet fully formed. It is important that you choose at least two facilitating subjects. Facilitating subjects are covered in more detail in Chapter 4 – Entry Requirements but here is a list of the subjects that are considered to be ‘facilitating’ by the Russell Group: 

Biology

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Chemistry

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English Literature

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Geography

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History

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Languages (Classical and Modern)

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Mathematics



Further Mathematics

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Physics

It is also important that you don’t choose subjects that you have struggled with at GCSE/IGCSE level. The importance of facilitating subjects is made clear in the Russell Group’s Informed Choices booklet which states that ‘although they may not be specified as required subjects, many successful applicants [to the Russell Group] do have advanced level qualifications in at least two of the facilitating subjects10’. In many cases successful applicants will have all facilitating subjects as their final A Level examinations.

It is also worth considering which subjects are complementary to each other. Oxbridge values candidates who are able to make links and connections between different subjects but it is a helpful starting point to choose subjects that already work well together and have a natural synergy. The skills learnt in Mathematics will clearly be good for subjects like Physics but there are also transferable skills in subjects like Classics and History or History and Geography (for essay based skills). A mix of unrelated subjects is not uncommon, and we are certainly not discouraging you from choosing what you want to do, but it can be an indication that you are unsure about your route to university. In this case you would have to 10

https://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/5272/informedchoices-print.pdf

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make sure that your passion for your subject can be suitably demonstrated elsewhere in your application.

This brings us to the choice of three or four subjects in the first year of A Level study, Year 12. Since A Levels were made linear recently the argument for studying four subjects in Year 12 reducing to three subjects in Year 13 has diminished somewhat. However, it is still the recommendation of this book for that to be the standard route for many students. It is no longer as useful to take a fourth subject as just an AS Level (the academic value of these qualifications has gone down in universities’ views considerably since the A Level reforms) but it does enable you to remove your weakest A Level subject at the end of Year 12 and focus the entirety of Year 13 on your three strongest subjects. Of course if you are capable enough then you can continue all four subjects to A Level but you have to be certain that you will perform at the highest level if you do so. An A*A*AA is better than A*A*A but AAAA is not. If you spread your workload too thin and risk losing those A* grades then you are damaging your application and you should focus your efforts on just three subjects.

The importance of reading and thinking I remember that from a very young age books and reading were crucial to my happiness and helped to instil a sense of curiosity about the world. This should be the case with you too and the importance of reading widely and in depth in your subject area cannot be overstated for an Oxbridge application. It is important to remember that the people who will be reviewing your application, reading your Personal Statement and potentially interviewing you will have spent many years in their fields. They will have conducted research, written papers and published books and journal articles and many will be regarded as the world experts in their area. It is therefore vitally important that you show the same level of commitment to the subject as anything less will be considered disrespectful to those who have spent their lives in their chosen field. There are reading lists available, some of which we will show you later in this chapter, but a good starting place could be to do some preliminary research online. You do have to be careful with some of the content you find on the Internet and published and peer reviewed books and journals should always be the preferred source for research. However there are plenty of good websites that will give you a lot of information about certain subjects (see How to use the 26

Internet intelligently below). Alternatively you could opt for the Very Short Introductions series of books by Oxford University Press. These give you a very good general overview of subjects ranging from Philosophy and Music to Cosmology and the European Union all in easy to read books of less than 200 pages. There are also many subject specific periodicals and journals that you can access online or in print. The main point here is to read widely and well beyond your A Level syllabus. Oxbridge are looking for intellectually curious students who have a great passion for their area of interest so the more you read the greater your knowledge will become. You could ask your subject teachers to guide you here or the aforementioned faculty secretary for your chosen subject will also be able to give you some guidance as to what to read. The other important point is that you think about what you are reading. A long list of books that you have read may look impressive but if it comes to interview and you cannot answer a single question about those books then it will be worth very little. Make notes as you read and think reflectively about the content of the books and other sources. You do not have to understand everything written in these books but making notes on some key points that have stimulated your interest will help you to understand the content and are something you can ‘revise’ from later when you start putting together your Personal Statement or if you are attending an interview. You could compare ideas between different authors for example, looking for points that you agree with and points that you disagree. Do not feel that just because these are published sources you have to agree with everything in them. One of the attributes of an Oxbridge candidate is not to challenge everything but to be able to critically analyse information and the material in books is no exception. Try to come up with your own opinions on topics and this will also help you to support your answers to questions that might arise in the interview. Visit your school or college library and see if they have subscriptions to magazines or journals in your chosen area. If they do not then ask the librarian if they can get one or consider taking out a subscription yourself. It is important to stay up to date with new developments and research in your field and this is especially important in areas that change frequently such as politics, economics, healthcare or technology. You should also regularly read a good quality newspaper such as the Independent, the Telegraph, the Times or the Guardian to be up to date with current events. These will give you alternative points of view and many of them have dedicated sections on specific topics. You shouldn’t just read sources of information that you already agree with but read information that challenges you and makes you think 27

more critically about important topics. Just reading sources that you know you already agree with, the so called ‘echo chamber’ effect, won’t help you to develop your critical thinking skills. Nor will it help you to develop evidence-based debating skills. Read material that will challenge you and make you think. Again this kind of critical thinking is a highly sought after skill in potential Oxbridge students and is one of the aspects that is looked for in the interview if you are lucky enough to get that far. In an interview it is important to be able to formulate arguments that take into account evidence from ‘both sides’ of a topic.

Using the Internet intelligently There is no doubt that we live in amazing times with the technology around us today.

Communication and information retrieval has never been easier in the age of the Internet and its related technologies. Whole academic libraries have been scanned and can be accessed in digital format 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Gigantic online encyclopaedias with many hundreds of terabytes worth of data can be looked up on our phones and in these days of social media and the Internet we have access to more information than ever before. There is also a great variety of media available from infographics to podcasts to videos which makes information retrieval a multi-sensory experience online. However the use of the Internet has both advantages and disadvantages. It can be tempting to reach for your phone or boot up your laptop whenever you are trying to conduct some research but you have to be careful as there are a number of drawbacks to using the Internet for research. Firstly the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming. A google search for the term ‘Economics’ returns 1,820,000,000 search results. Searching for ‘Economics of the UK’ refines the search to 449,000,000 results and searching for ‘Economic performance of the UK in 2017’ reduces this to a mere 195,000,000. Clearly it is not humanly possible to review all of that information and so the temptation is to look at the top search results. This brings us to the second disadvantage. There are no standards or unified processes to sort or review information according to reliability. Most information on the Internet does not undergo any kind of review process. Top search results are simply shown as a result of the search engine algorithms which could be down to better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on their web pages or because they have paid for better search rankings. In fact many

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academic websites have terrible SEO and don’t appear anywhere near the top of these search lists. Anyone can publish information on the World Wide Web from experts to idiots to children and politicians with their own agendas. Having access to the technology is the only criterion for being able to publish information online. Another related issue is theft or fraud of information. A lot of research or information published online is incorrectly credited. Information ‘theft’ is abundant online because it is so easy and so difficult to monitor and police. Many people will represent other people ideas and research as their own and this will often go unnoticed by the original author. Can you imagine citing a source of information or reference from some other author in your Oxbridge interview only to find out that it had been cited from one of the books published by the Professor who happens to be your interviewer? They would not be impressed. As such it is vital to always check the information that you find online has a reliable and genuine source. This is one of the main reasons for using books and other published sources of information that have been reviewed and edited before being released. Finally it is very important to try to avoid what is referred to as the ‘echo chamber’ effect. As it is often too easy to only read sources of information that you follow or like this means that you are only seeking out information that supports views and ideas that you already have. This becomes a form of confirmation bias which is when the user only views ‘evidence’ that reinforces their own beliefs. Once again this diminishes your critical thinking skills as you are not challenged in your beliefs and thus will not develop them further.

Using the Internet for research can be invaluable. Although not usable as an academic source in itself I always recommend that students use Wikipedia as a starting point for finding out about a subject or area of interest. The main article itself will give a very good overview of valuable information but perhaps more importantly the references will often point out some genuinely reliable primary sources such as books and journals that you can then seek out and read. However, it must be remembered that Cambridge and Oxford are very traditional universities. The Professors and other academics at the universities will have published books and articles themselves and might expect you to know some of them if they interview you. Although the Internet certainly has its place as a research tool you need to use it wisely and always defer to published books and journals as your main source of information.

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The Oxbridge mind-set We have already talked about the importance of critical thinking as a potential Oxbridge candidate but it is worth mentioning some other general attributes that are valued and usually common in Oxbridge candidates. An Oxbridge student may have a particular approach to a subject that might be different to other students and there is a particular way of thinking that tends distinguish Oxbridge students apart from others. An Oxbridge student will often have different and original ways of thinking about subjects not just seeing standard answers but thinking more deeply about their subject. They can assimilate new information quickly and are able to critically analyse it. They can also find links and connections between different subjects and ideas that are often not immediately apparent to others. They are also usually intellectually humble, not arrogant and they understand the limitations of their own knowledge which gives them a desire to want to learn more. The good news is that you don’t have to be born like this, although it certainly helps, and you can ‘train’ yourself to be a better potential Oxbridge student by engaging in a few simple exercises. One of the most important ways that you can develop this type of mind set is to train yourself to speak your thoughts out loud and have a conversation with yourself on ideas and topics. Rather than internalising your thoughts this will place the thoughts outside of your own mind and encourage you to analyse them as if somebody else had said them.

This idea of ‘debating’ with yourself is a valuable tool for critical analysis as we can often convince ourselves of something in our own heads but if somebody else says it we are more likely to try and challenge it. Try to find an unfamiliar problem or idea and try to discuss with yourself how you would approach it. Practising this skill is very valuable in developing your critical faculties and is also good practice for the interview. In the interview they will often expect you to discuss and if necessary correct your own ideas during the interview process itself and so getting into the habit of being able to do this is very important. Another way of developing an Oxbridge mind set is to open yourself up to new experiences and new ways of learning. We will look in more detail at the idea of ‘super-curricular’ activities below but one way of doing this could be to visit museums or attend lectures in the areas that you are interested in. Both Cambridge and Oxford University hold public lectures that students can attend as do many of the top London universities (it doesn’t just have to be Cambridge and Oxford). These events, often with world renowned speakers, will present you with new ideas and ways of thinking outside of your school syllabus. Other events such as 30

Cambridge’s Festival of Ideas or events put on by museums such as the Science Museum in London can be stimulating experiences and help to develop your way of thinking about your subject.

Super-curricular vs extra-curricular activities Some of my students in the past have sometimes been confused as to which activities, outside of the classroom, they should demonstrate in their Personal Statements. Extracurricular activities, in general, refers to any activity conducted outside of the classroom setting and is usually associated with activities not necessarily related to their academic study. Performing particularly well in a sports team or running a school newspaper are good examples. However, as admirable as these things are, Oxbridge applications should place a much greater emphasis on super-curricular activities. These are activities, outside of the classroom, that complement your studies and are directly relevant to your chosen subject.

This is vitally important because it demonstrates a passion for your subject beyond what you have been taught at school and will strengthen your application considerably. Being the Captain of the school football team is an excellent accomplishment but it doesn’t tell the universities that you are going to be driven to work hard in your subject area for three years of an undergraduate degree.

Below we have listed some good examples of super-curricular activities for a variety of subjects that will help to strengthen your application for Cambridge or Oxford University.

These examples are to help you think of the kinds of activities that are valued by the Oxbridge universities and are not just a list that you need to tick off before you start your application. Remember that you are trying to set yourself apart from other candidates in your application so don’t just do the same thing that everybody else is doing.

Subject Art and Architecture

Examples of super-curricular activities 

Visit art galleries – this is an obvious one for any prospective students studying the arts but try to visit a diverse range of galleries and view a diverse range of works. You should make the effort to view art that you 31

wouldn’t normally see or perhaps don’t even like and try to understand the purpose behind the art and the artist’s intention in creating the work. Read about the history of the art as well as the background of the artist to give you some context to the production of the work.

This can also help to inform your own work and you can use ideas gained from your visits to help with the next point. 

Diversify your portfolio – your portfolio for your A Level has to satisfy certain criteria but you can still build your own more extensive portfolio. You can use your visits to art galleries or famous buildings to make your own interpretations of artworks, techniques and styles. The key thing here is to push yourself out of your comfort zone and experiment with techniques and ideas that you wouldn’t normally try.



Talk to other artists – whether it is your peers or other artists outside of the classroom try to talk to other artists and find out what inspires them, their motivations and methods of working. This can help to broaden your understanding of the artistic process and help you to see art from somebody else’s perspective.

Many artists will on hand to talk about their work at local showings so look out for these events in magazines and websites such as thelocalartscene.com.

Classics and History

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Museum visits – the importance of museums has already been discussed but they are excellent places to visit to gain an insight into both general and very specific periods of time. Both Cambridge and Oxford have a range of museums to visit but the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) and the Ashmolean Museum

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(Oxford) stand out as two of the biggest and best.

London of course has a vast range of museums and you can use the information and insights you gain at these museums to stimulate your further research. 

Site visits – it is also important to visit significant sites of historical interest as well as more general museums.

These can range from stately homes, National Trust and English Heritage sites and can again be used to stimulate further research into specific periods and events in history. You could also visit the Houses of Parliament if your interest in history covers the UK political system.

This is also a good place to visit for any politics courses.



Visiting national archives – these are specialist ‘libraries’ that house historical information from a vast range of periods. For example The National Archives in Richmond, London is the official archive of the UK government for England and Wales and houses historical documents dating back more than a 1000 years. Other libraries around the country have their own archives so there should be plenty of original source material that you can view relating to the period or events in history you are most interested in.

English

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Reading – this is an obvious one and we have already talked about the importance of reading outside of the school syllabus.



Writing – perhaps just as importantly, or a close second, is to practise your writing. You could take part in a short story or novel writing competition if you are ambitious enough (Nanowrimo for example is a competition where its participants attempt to write a whole novel in the month of November). Perhaps you could write some

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factual articles based on research for your school or college magazine and if there isn’t one then perhaps you could write one yourself. 

Visit the theatre – being able to analyse how the written word is presented in ‘live’ formats is very valuable and visiting the theatre and discussing a play’s performance afterwards can help you analyse how the written form has been interpreted for presentation to an audience.

You may even disagree with the interpretation but it will certainly help you to think about the written word in a different way.

Languages

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Reading and writing – developing your reading and writing skills in the language you are studying is an obvious choice here but try to do it outside of the school curriculum. You could, for example, read foreign language newspapers or classic novels that are beyond the scope of your course. You may not be able to understand everything but you can use your analytical skills to try to translate certain words and passages that you are not familiar with perhaps by looking at the etymological roots of words. This is true of modern languages as well as classical languages.

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Visit the country where the language is spoken – one of the most effective ways of learning a language is to immerse yourself in it by visiting the country where it is the native tongue. Trying to communicate with native speakers on a daily basis will help to develop not just your communication skills but also your confidence and independence. It can also help you to understand a language by immersing yourself in the culture of the

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native country and trying to understand more deeply the historical roots of the language and its development. 

Communicate with native speakers – you don’t have to visit the country of origin to communicate with native speakers. You could join an online community or social media group who communicate exclusively in that language or even play online games with others who speak the language. You have to be careful that you are learning the language properly and not just picking up the language’s ‘slang’ but even that can be valuable in helping you to understand how the language is used and has developed.

Maths

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Enter mathematics competitions – although this is an obvious one you do have to be a little bit careful here.

The UK Mathematics Trust runs yearly competitions and almost all students performing at a high level in the subject will enter for them. There will be many Oxbridge mathematics applicants who will have the words gold, silver and bronze UKMT on their Personal Statements so make sure this is not all you do for the subject.

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Join mathematical societies such as the Alan Turing Institute or Mensa – these can be a great way of thinking differently about mathematics and its applications in the modern world. You can also talk to like-minded people and be inspired to think about mathematics in a different way to your school syllabus.



Visit Bletchley Park – another fairly obvious one but again a good way of inspiring you to think about mathematics outside of the confines of a textbook. This is also a good activity for any would be historians or computer scientists as you can see the development of

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the computer and cryptography in the context of its use during the Second World War. 

Take online courses in mathematics – there are many online courses that will help to stretch your mind in mathematics and develop your skills. Brilliant.org offers a range of short courses and puzzles in a variety of areas of mathematics from logic to geometry and can really help you to understand the scope of mathematics as a subject. There are similar courses available for free on sites such as coursera.org, udemy.com and the udacity.com. Just make sure that you are learning something useful from the courses and they do not become just an interesting distraction to more valuable work.

Music

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Compose and perform – writing and performing your own music is rewarding in itself but can also help you to understand music in a very different way to a textbook explanation. Experiment with a variety of styles and instruments if you can obtain them or experiment with production and compositional techniques using computer software. Find common techniques used in music of composers that you enjoy and try to emulate them and experiment with their style. Perhaps you can watch a random video online with the sound muted and try to come up with your own soundtrack. Then compare your work with the original.



Take graded exams – demonstrating your skills in a musical instrument is clearly one of the main ways of showing your passion for the instrument and graded exams are a great way of doing that. The higher the grade the better but you should also try to develop your

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keyboard skills to a good level as this is generally as a good starting point for understanding how to compose and perform music for many different instruments.

Again you do need to be careful not to rely too much on these exams as many other candidates will also have graded exams in their Oxbridge application. Remember that you need to try and stand. 

Listen to music – this may seem obvious but listening to a wide variety of musical styles and genres, even those that you don’t like, helps to develop a better understanding of music in general. Go to concerts and performances, talk to other musicians to gain an understanding of their inspirations and styles. Listen to music from a variety of different eras and compare and contrast the similarities and differences between them.

All of this experience should help to develop your musical ear and critical analysis of music in general.

Sciences

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Visit museums and galleries – there are plenty of science museums in both Cambridge and Oxford to visit for all three of the core sciences Chemistry, Biology and Physics. In London too there are many excellent museums and also galleries and exhibits that you can visit. For example the Royal College of Surgeons is home to the Hunterian Museum which presents exhibits spanning four centuries of surgery, medicine and natural history. There are many unusual exhibits that will stimulate your interest and present some ethical questions that you had perhaps not considered before.

Looking at the history of science and its development in these museums is a valuable way of thinking about science both now and what it might be like in the future.

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The Royal Institution also holds many public lectures in all areas of science and can be an excellent way to gain a deeper insight into certain areas of research. 

Subscribe to scientific journals – there are many highly regarded scientific journals that you can subscribe to in your particular area of interest and these subscriptions usually include web, mobile and text media so you can always access the latest information, research and developments in your chosen field. Although not exhaustive Wikipedia has a fairly full list of current publishing scientific journals not including generalist science based magazines such as New Scientist and Scientific American.

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Become a member of scientific societies – joining a society or group associated with your science subject shows a level of commitment and dedication considered very valuable as an Oxbridge candidate. This allows you to keep up to date with events and the latest research and meet and talk with like-minded individuals who share your passion for the subject which is exactly what you would be doing if you joined an Oxbridge institution.

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Do your own science – you don’t have to have a lot of expensive equipment or a science laboratory to perform simple but important scientific experiments at home.

YouTube is full of simple but interesting experiments that can be done safely that demonstrate some quite fundamental scientific principles. Try to approach these as a scientist writing down your observations, collecting data and proposing hypotheses before learning the principles behind the outcomes. Learning by doing is

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often what the study of science is all about so get creative and don’t think that science experiments have to be limited to the school lab.

The important thing to remember with super-curricular activities is that they complement your academic studies. They give you an insight into your subject area that other candidates may not have. It is vital to try to understand the ‘big picture’ of your subject and keep up to date with the latest research and developments so that you can use that to demonstrate your passion for the subject well beyond the school syllabus.

Work experience and gap years The importance of work experience, especially in more vocational subjects, must not be ignored. This is usually done in Year 12 when you have a more definite idea of the field you wish to progress in but can be completed at any time as long as you can talk about it in your application and Personal Statement (before October 15 in Year 13). Be organised and try to arrange work experience as early as possible as you may not be able to get valuable opportunities at short notice. There may be limited opportunity for this if you are in full time study but for a number of subjects there are valuable work experience placements that can be completed that will strengthen your application and make you better prepared for your degree. Indeed for some courses work experience is considered essential. This is true for example in the areas of medicine and law. Although you will not be allowed to be fully involved in the area of work, shadowing a senior professional in your area of interest can be an invaluable experience. If you can demonstrate a true understanding of the nature of the work and not just the superficial impression that most outsiders have then you can truly claim to have some knowledge that other candidates may not. This includes considering both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ parts of the job role. A doctor’s life may seem glamorous to some people but the realities are quite different and certainly when you start as a junior doctor your tasks can be very mundane and unpleasant while the workload is still very intense. It is not only this realisation but a desire to continue with an application in the area anyway that will convince the universities that you are serious about having a future in that field and this will enhance your application. It also helps to be able to visualise yourself in 39

that environment and can help to serve as motivation when your undergraduate studies are particularly challenging.

Try to think about the core skills that a professional in that field needs and think of definite examples of how you can exhibit the same skills. This can then form evidence in your Personal Statement proving that you have a good idea of what a future career in a particular field will hold, good and bad, and that you have already started developing the necessary skills to succeed. Again it is worth noting that you will up against other potential Oxbridge candidates that are doing exactly the same things as you, so try to gain a variety of work experience from more than one place. It is also important not to discount work that does not specifically relate to your area of interest (although that would be the ideal). Simply having the responsibility of organising yourself and your time in order to do work is a valuable asset and gives you transferable skills that are useful in many situations. You should start thinking about your planning for work experience as early as possible. Do some research in the industry you are interested in and find some companies that you might be interested in doing some work experience with. Don’t be afraid of rejection as many of these companies just simply won’t accept work experience students so persevere and be patient. Find someone in the company to contact and try to prepare a covering letter and if necessary a CV that you can send them. Follow up after a few days as a gentle reminder and perhaps set up a LinkedIn profile and make some connections. The important thing is to be persistent and enthusiastic but not to harass people in person or online as this will do your chances of gaining a work experience placement more harm than good (and could even negatively affect your application). Remember that Oxbridge candidates are accepted purely on academic grounds and that is the most important thing but if you can gain valuable work experience in a relevant area then it can give you an advantage over other candidates.

Tian, Cambridge University (Medicine) “I had done a bit of work experience when I was about 14 years old, spending a week in Outpatients at my local hospital as well visiting some other departments but I’d heard

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that Cambridge really want students who have done more than other, ordinary medicine hopefuls and I really wanted to stand out so I contacted several medical companies at the Cambridge Science Park and after a few rejections (be prepared for this) managed to get a placement at Takeda Cambridge. Takeda are a drug discovery company specialising in identifying drug targets derived from the human genome. I spoke to some of the technicians there about new genetic manipulation techniques such as CRISPR and although a lot of the work was well above my comprehension it was a fascinating experience to me and very thought provoking about the role of the pharma companies in medicine. I was even involved in some of the experiments that they conducted. When it came to my interview at Cambridge the interviewers seemed very impressed with my initiative to find work experience in this area and I guess it must have worked as I was offered a place.�

If you are taking a gap year then that does not need to be an impediment to an Oxbridge application. Indeed I have had students who, after completing their A Levels, were just not ready for an undergraduate degree and after a gap year have made much stronger applications that were successful in gaining a place at Cambridge or Oxford University.

However, there are some significant disadvantages to try to avoid. Firstly you should determine if it is better to make a deferred entry (to apply in Year 13 for a place after your gap year) or to apply the year after your peers when you are out of full time study. Some Cambridge and Oxford colleges prefer not to make an offer on a deferred entry so you should always contact the college you are interested in joining to discuss your options well in advance. You should know where you stand and the college will be honest with you in terms of their preferences. History of Art or Fine Art courses at Oxford for example don’t allow deferred entry and most Science faculty heads say that taking a gap year can be very disadvantageous as you will lose valuable scientific and mathematical skills in your time out.

The key thing as always is to do your research beforehand.

If you do decide to take a gap year then there are plenty of options available to you. The main thing is to make sure that you do something worthwhile and ideally related to your area of interest or at least gaining you skills that will make you a valuable undergraduate to 41

the universities. If your main aim in a gap year is to take it easy after the hard work of your A Level study then perhaps Oxbridge is not for you. Finance and engineering are two areas where it can even be considered beneficial to gain some experience in the field and then come back and apply it to your academic studies. Many companies offer gap year programmes and they can be great ways to dip a toe into the industry that you hope one day to have a career in. This can actually be invaluable if you are certain of your future direction and I have had students in the past who have secured permanent positions at very large companies after making a good impression on a gap year and then returning once their studies are complete. The Engineering Development Trust (EDT) run a Year in Industry programme aimed mostly at students in the fields of engineering, science, IT and finance and can be a great place to start getting ideas about what might be possible in your gap year.

“He's been on a gap year,” Keeler notes. “If he's been sitting on a beach for a year, I'll put him in the bin ...” He turns a page of the folder and reads the candidate's statement: “He's been volunteering with St John’s Ambulance. And also training to be a special constable – that's something I've never seen before.

He's clearly doing something worthwhile. He's currently volunteering at a care home.” The admissions tutor smiles.

“That's a tick for me.”

From a Guardian article on Cambridge admissions and how they really work.11

11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/10/how-cambridge-admissions-really-work

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Reading Lists Here we have presented a list of books and other media that might be a good starting point for your reading. The emphasis here is that this is a starting point. You should conduct your own research into your subject and find resources that stimulate your curiosity about the field. Remember that much of the work done by Oxbridge students is based around independent study and so doing your own research is a vitally important skill to be able to develop and demonstrate in your reading. Individual faculties at Cambridge and Oxford University will have their own recommended reading lists and so you should look at their websites to help you as well.

Subject Archaeology and anthropology

Recommended reading 

Gosden, C., Anthropology and Archaeology: A Changing Relationship, Routledge, 1999.



Keesing, R. and M. Strathern, Cultural Anthropology, 2007.



Lewin, R., Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction, Blackwell, 2005.



Renfrew, C. and P. Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, Thames and Hudson, 2008.

Architecture



Davies, C., Thinking about Architecture: An Introduction to Architectural Theory, Lawrence King Publishing Ltd., 2011.

Art History



Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture



E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, Phaidon Press, 2007.



Umberto Eco, History of Beauty and On Ugliness, Rizzoli International Publications, 2008.

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It is also recommend that you watch Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation documentary available from the BBC and on YouTube.

Biochemistry and Biological



Dawkins, R., The Selfish Gene, OUP, 1976.

Sciences (Oxford)



Jones, S., Y: The Descent of Man, Abacus, 2003.



Southwood, R., The Story of Life, OUP, 2003.



Sykes, P., Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry, Prentice Hall, 1986.



Wood, B., Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2005.

Chemistry



Cotton, F. A. and G. Wilkinson, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Wiley, 1999.



Morrison, R. T., and R. N. Boyd, Organic Chemistry, Prentice Hall, 1992.

It is also recommended that you subscribe to journals such as Science and Nature and also to read Chemistry World magazine. More resources can be found from the Royal Society of Chemistry website at www.rsc.org.

Chemical Engineering



(Cambridge)

Felder, R. M., and R. W. Rousseau, Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, Wiley, 2003.



Freshwater, D., People, Pipes and Processes, IChemE, 1998.

Classics and Ancient History



Beard, M. and J. Henderson, Classics: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 1995.



Holland, T., Rubicon, Abacus, 2011.



Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey, Penguin Classics, 2003.



Parker, R., On Greek Religion, Cornell University Press, 2013.

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

Semonides, Females of the Species, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, 1975.

There are also many interesting BBC documentaries covering classics and ancient history such as Treasures of Ancient Rome and Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses that can be very useful.

Economics



Dasgupta, P., Economics: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2007.



Harford, T., The Undercover Economist, Abacus, 2007.



Levitt, S. and S. Dubner, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Penguin, 2007.



Sandel, M., What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Marketing, Penguin, 2013.

Although economics literature is often separated into microeconomics and macroeconomics the emphasis at Oxbridge is very much on the relationship between the two so any reading that will help you to connect ideas and theories across micro and macro will be useful. Both universities also value being able to apply economic theory to real world events so it is useful to keep up to date with the news and look for examples of economic theory and models in practice.

English



Carey, J., What Good are the Arts?, Faber and Faber, 2012.



Culler, J., Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2011.

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

Guerin, W. L., A Handbook of Approaches to Literature, OUP, 2010.



Nuttall, A. D., A New Mimesis, Methuen, 1983.

Your reading here should go well beyond the school syllabus and you should be looking to draw links to literature from many other areas such as history and politics. The importance here is not which books or how many you’ve read but what you have learned from them and how they made you feel and think about the stories.

It is also recommended that you read The English Review magazine.

History



Burke, P., History and Social Theory, Polity Press, 2005.



Ginzburg, C., The Cheese and the Worms, John Hopkins University Press, 2013.



Greenblat, S., The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began, Vintage Digital, 2011.

Once again the BBC has some very good historical documentaries to watch which can be found on their website or on YouTube. The Last Days of Anne Boleyn is a particularly good watch and it is important to realise how the same historical events can be interpreted in different ways.

Law



Bingham, T., The Rule of Law, Penguin, 2011.



Kennedy, H., Eve Was Framed, Vintage, 1993.



McBride, N., Letters to a Law Student, Pearson, 2017.

Both the Times and Guardian newspapers have excellent law supplements and it is highly recommended that you read those and keep up with modern law discussion.

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Mathematics



Gower, T., Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2002.



Petzold, C., The Annotated Turing, Wiley Publishing, 2008.



Russell, B., Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, George Allen and Unwin, 1919.

There are so many excellent resources online for mathematicians that it would impossible to list them all here. Worth mentioning however are the Open University videos on mathematics and the video series

by Mathologer both of which can be found on YouTube.

Medicine



Asimov, I., New Guide to Science, Penguin, 1993.



Goldacre, B., Bad Pharma, Fourth Estate, 2012.



Watson, J., DNA: The Secret of Life, Arrow, 2004.

Any of the above mentioned books for Chemistry and Biology would also be useful reading and it is vitally important to keep up to date with modern medical developments. The use of new technologies and techniques such as CRISPR for example give rise to a whole range of debates on the ethics of genetic engineering. Read the news and subscribe to magazines like the British Medical Journal (BMJ) which is one of the world’s oldest and most respected medical journals.

Modern Languages

There are so many books that can help with the study of modern languages that we cannot list them all here. The important thing, just as it is with English, is to read outside the school syllabus and learn from what you have read. Watching foreign language films is another good way of preparing for the study of modern languages.

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Music



Bohlman, P., World Music: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2002.



Cook, N., A Guide to Musical Analysis, OUP, 1994.



Ross, A., The Rest is Noise, Fourth Estate, 2008.

You should also become familiar with scores of classical music for example the symphonies and quartets by composers such as Beethoven and Mozart.

Natural Sciences (Cambridge)

Any of the books listed for Biology and Chemistry would be recommended for Natural Sciences. As a multidisciplinary subject it is also worth reading introductory texts on mathematics along with computer science, geology and materials science.

Philosophy



Blackburn, S., Think, OUP, 2001.



Russell, B., The Problems of Philosophy, Barnes and Noble, 2004.



Warburton, N. Philosophy: The Classics, Routledge, 2006.

In addition to these the Very Short Introduction series covers many of the big names in philosophy from Descartes to Nietzsche. It is also highly recommended that you listen to the podcast Philosophy Bites by Nigel Warburton and David Edmonds.

Physics (also Engineering)



Feynman, R. P., Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces, Penguin, 1998.



Gordon, J. E. Structures, or Why Things Don’t Fall Down, DaCapo Press, 2003.



Hawking, S., A Brief History of Time, Bantam Press, 1988.

It is useful to keep up to date with modern developments and research in physics. The results from the large hadron collider (LHC) make for interesting 48

reading as to the many theories as to what dark matter and dark energy are. It is important to remember that our entire knowledge of physics covers only 4.9% of the known universe so there is still a lot left to learn.

Politics



Curtis, M., The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy Since 1945, Zed, 1995.



McCormick, J., European Union Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.



Woolf, J., An Introduction to Political Philosophy, OUP, 2006.

Psychology



Greenfield, S., The Human Brain, W&N, 2015.



Ronson, J., The Psychopath Test, Picador, 2012.



Sacks, O., The Man that Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Picador, 2015.

The Very Short Introduction series cover many aspects of psychology and the British Psychological Society publishes a monthly magazine called The Psychologist which is well worth reading. There are also many good resources online including an introduction to psychology series of lectures by Yale University which can be found on their website or on YouTube.

The application timeline As part of your preparation it is important that you are aware of some of the key dates in the application process. Missing deadlines will almost certainly damage your Oxbridge application and so to help you with your planning we have provided an application timeline in summary format below. This shows the key dates along with the main points that you should be considering at various stages of your academic studies. Please be aware that apart from fixed dates such as the final application deadline of October 15 these are guidelines. If you can start or complete any parts of the preparation earlier then you will give yourself an even better chance of making a successful application.

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What you should be doing in Year 11 (final GCSE year).

All year round

In the summer after your exams

Work hard to make sure you get the best possible grades, You should be aiming for all A and A* grades.

Finalise your A Level choices. Think about what you need for your areas of interest and choose at least two facilitating subjects.

What you should be doing in Year 12 (first year of A Levels).

January

Decide upon your degree course.

From January

Follow the advice on reading about your subject.

Organise work experience if relevant.

June

Take AS exams or internal exams at the end of Year 12.

Again, A and A* grades should be targeted.

July

Start to draft your Personal Statement.

Visit Cambridge and Oxford and decide where to apply.

August

Start to complete your UCAS application.

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What you should be doing in Year 13 (final year of A Levels).

September

October

Finish Personal Statement and UCAS application.

Register for admissions tests.

Send UCAS application.

Send Supplementary Application Questionnaire (Cambridge).

November

December

Prepare for interviews if invited.

Submit written work if necessary.

Sit pre-interview tests if necessary.

January

Attend interviews.

Sit tests at interview if necessary.

Receive final decision from Oxbridge.

What you should be doing in Year 13 continued‌ March

Receive decision from all other universities by now.

May

Respond to universities on the UCAS system making firm and insurance choices.

June

Take final A Level exams aiming for A* grades.

August

Get your A Level results.

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Chapter 3 – Which university and college should I choose?

In this chapter we will consider some of the differences between the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Although it is true that they are more similar than different compared to any other UK university there are some differences that will make an impact on your application. This is particularly true as you cannot apply to both Cambridge and Oxford in the same year (unless you are an organ scholar). Firstly we will consider some of the differences in terms of the courses offered at each university. This after all should be the first decision that you make before deciding on a university. Then we will look at some differences in the application and selection process as well as the cities themselves to give you an indication of what student life is likely to be like at each. Once a university has been decided upon we will turn our attention to the selection of colleges to which to make your application and also review the Norrington and Tompkins tables which offer some statistical guidance on the choice of college for your studies.

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Oxford or Cambridge – what’s the difference?

The most important decision that you need to make when considering any university application is the choice of course. This should then inform your choice of university, not the other way around. We have already discussed the importance of doing research into the course, its structure and content to make sure that you are making the right decision before applying. Both universities have excellent reputations in both the arts and sciences although it could be argued that Cambridge is slightly stronger in the sciences and Oxford in the arts and humanities. It is certainly true that there are some famous specialisms that are clear, for example Cambridge is much better known for mathematics than Oxford and Oxford is better known for PPE. There are also subtle differences within subjects, for example Cambridge is generally more highly regarded in 17th Century English history and Oxford for 16th Century English history.

Both universities offer many of the same subjects although it is important to note that the course content may be different so again it is vital to check the details to make sure that the course you are applying for is the right one for you. The most important difference in terms of courses is that some courses are offered at one of universities but not the other. For example, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC) and Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS) are only offered at Cambridge. Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) is only offered at Oxford. Another important distinction in the sciences is that Cambridge offers Natural Sciences as a course instead of the single subjects of Physics, Chemistry or Biology. A full list of the courses on offer can be found at their respective websites; www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses for Cambridge University and www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing for Oxford University. For ease of reference the following table summarises the courses that are available at Oxford and Cambridge exclusively as well as those available at both universities. Note that in the case of some courses there may be a significant overlap in terms of content but the course will not be exactly the same, for example Archaeology and Anthropology at Oxford will contain some similar content to Archaeology at Cambridge but they will not be exactly the same. As always we recommend that you check the full course details before applying.

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Oxford

Archaeology and Anthropology

Biochemistry Biological Sciences Biomedical Sciences Chemistry Classical Archaeology and Ancient History Classics Classics and English Classics and Modern Languages Classics and Oriental Studies Computer Science Computer Science and Philosophy Earth Sciences (Geology) Economics and Management Engineering Science English and Modern Languages English Language and Literature European and Middle Eastern Languages Fine Art Geography History History (Ancient and Modern) History and Economics History and English History and Modern Languages History and Politics History of Art Human Sciences Law (Jurisprudence) Materials Science Mathematics Mathematics and Computer Science Mathematics and Philosophy

Cambridge

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Archaeology Architecture Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Chemical Engineering Classics

Computer Science

Economics Education Engineering English

Geography History

History and Modern Languages History and Politics History of Art Human, Social, and Political Sciences Land Economy Law Linguistics Mathematics

Mathematics with Physics Mathematics and Statistics Medicine

Medicine 54

Modern Languages Modern Languages and Linguistics Music Oriental Studies Philosophy and Modern Languages Philosophy and Theology Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) Physics Physics and Philosophy Psychology (Experimental) Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) Religion and Oriental Studies Theology and Religion

Modern and Medieval Languages Music Natural Sciences

Philosophy

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion Veterinary Medicine

Table 2 - Summary of courses available at Cambridge and Oxford University.

There are also slight differences in the application and selection processes for Cambridge and Oxford. Oxford University traditionally places greater emphasis on assessment before interview with papers such as the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA). This is a requirement for a number of courses including Economics and Management, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and Psychology as well some others (a current list is provided in Chapter 6 – Entrance Tests and Written Work). At Oxford students may also be asked to submit some examples of written work to support their application. Oxford also interviews around 2030% fewer applicants than Cambridge but tends to give more than one interview to the best candidates to improve their chances of success. The style of interview that candidates can expect to receive can differ at Oxford also. For example a Mathematics student can expect to receive a series of increasingly difficult mathematics tasks whereas a Politics or Law student should expect more of a debating scenario.

At Cambridge University students applying outside of the EU need to complete the Cambridge Online Preliminary Application (COPA) which is a questionnaire that collects information about prospective candidates that is not part of the UCAS application. Students are also expected to submit a Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ) shortly after the UCAS application has been submitted. There used to be very few additional tests 55

required for Cambridge the most notable exceptions being STEP for Mathematics and some essay based courses. However, since the new A Level reforms this has changed and Cambridge have introduced admissions tests for almost all subjects. There is also a much greater chance of getting an interview at Cambridge. Generally more than 80% of applicants are interviewed. When at the interview the style of interview tends to be very similar even for quite different subjects. There will often be an emphasis on discussion, debate and being able to analyse information from different perspectives regardless of the course being applied to.

In terms of the cities we have already mentioned that Cambridge is slightly smaller than Oxford although both cities are relatively small compared to many other cities with universities in the UK. In Cambridge it is often difficult to get away from the fact that you are living in a university town and there are reminders of Cambridge University’s influence throughout the city. In Oxford it is a bit easier to think of yourself in a city with a university as just one part of it, although the university still plays an important part in city life as a whole. Once more it is recommended that if the course you are interested in is offered at both Cambridge and Oxford University then you should visit each to get a ‘feel’ for the university and city that you will be living and studying in.

Which college should I choose?

Once you have decided on Cambridge or Oxford University and the subject that you wish to study you now have to decide which college to apply to. Your application is for the university, not the college, and so it is not possible to apply to more than one college at the same university. The degree course that you are studying will be the same for the whole university regardless of the college that you happen to be studying in. However, there are some differences in the colleges that you might want to take into account when completing your application. The college will be your home while you are studying and it will provide the facilities, academic and pastoral support and social events for most of the academic year. Each college will also have its resources although you will have access to university wide resources such as the copyright libraries as well. It is the colleges themselves that are responsible for admitting undergraduate students which is why your preference needs to be stated on your UCAS application unless you make an Open Application (see below).

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There are 75 colleges to choose from across the two universities. In some cases there is a fairly clear link with certain subjects, for example Trinity College in Cambridge is renowned for Mathematics (and this is a reason not to apply for Maths there) but it is the same mathematics course cross the whole university so there is no variation in course content or the quality of teaching in different colleges. However some colleges have different characteristics to consider if you are at this final stage of your application. Some are located closer to university facilities than others, some might have a good reputation for a particular sport or activity, some are women only and some have a majority of mature students. As always the best advice is to do your research and go and visit the colleges you are interested in if you can arrange it and try to think about where you would be happiest working.

Meghan, Cambridge University (Law) “Before I visited Cambridge I had only seen pictures of the colleges in postcard settings with great gothic cathedrals and spires reaching up into the sky. I had this other-worldly, almost fantastical image built up in my head that wouldn’t look out of place in a Game of Thrones episode. In the end I visited three colleges, Churchill, Gonville and Caius and Murray Edwards (called New Hall when I applied). They couldn’t have been more different in terms of their architecture and their atmosphere and it really opened my eyes that there was much more to Cambridge University than the pictures I had seen in books. It really personalised each college for me and I would highly recommend visiting any of the colleges you are interested in as it really does change your perspective in terms of where you will spending most of your time at university.”

Both Cambridge and Oxford University try very hard to give the best chance of success to the best candidates regardless of which college they have applied to and so both have what is called a ‘pooling’ process. This means that candidates who are strong but not accepted by their preferred colleges are placed into a ‘pool’ of other candidates so that other colleges in the university can consider their applications. There are all kinds of reasons as to why a 57

candidate might be pooled in this way and around 25% of all applications go through this pooling process each year. That means that around one in four successful Oxbridge applicants are made an offer from a college that wasn’t their first choice.

Finally in considering which college to apply to you can refer to the Tompkins and Norrington Tables published by Cambridge and Oxford University respectively. They show the relative rankings of the colleges based upon student outcomes. Although Cambridge and Oxford calculate them in slightly different ways each college receives a score based on the fraction of undergraduate students earning each of the degree classifications from a first class degree to a third. Both tables were developed internally by the universities in response to criticisms of externally produced tables which they claim are inaccurate. The tables for 2018 are reproduced below. It should be noted that although these rankings show how ‘successful’ each college is they do vary from year to year and all of these colleges are running the same courses in Cambridge or Oxford University. Whilst the statistics are presented here for your information they should really only play a very minor part in selecting a college. Both universities also produce admissions statistics which can give you a sense of the chances of a successful interview for an ‘average Oxbridge candidate’ (although one can argue that there is no such thing). Use this information with caution (it changes every year) but it would be sensible to avoid the colleges where it is statistically less likely of you being accepted for your chosen course.

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Table 3 - Tompkins Table (Cambridge University)12

12

https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/15936#tompkins

59

Table 4 - Norrington Table (Oxford University)13

13

https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/undergraduate-degree-classifications?wssl=1

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Open applications If you cannot decide which college to apply to, or do not have a preference, then it is possible to submit an open application, meaning that the admissions board will allocate you a college. This will usually be a college that has relatively few applications for their course in that year. There is still only one application allowed for the university so it does not give you the option of submitting more than one application for Cambridge or Oxford and once you have submitted your application to UCAS, whether it is open or specific, then you cannot change that choice. Open applications are usually allocated automatically and without consideration of any other factors (although there is an exception with mature students applying to Cambridge who are allocated to one of four mature colleges). Both Cambridge and Oxford University state that there is no particular advantage to making an open application but suggest that it may be a sensible option for students who do not have a strong preference as to which college they attend.

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Chapter 4 – Entry requirements In this chapter we will look at the entry requirements for an Oxbridge application. As we have already discussed the highest academic grades are expected at both universities and we will start off with a brief discussion of GCSE/IGCSEs and their equivalent before moving on to the important topic of A Levels. We will start this discussion by looking at how to choose your A Level subjects including the idea of facilitating subjects that are favoured by Cambridge and Oxford as well as many other top Russell Group universities. We will also look at the alternatives to A Levels that may be accepted as part of an Oxbridge application.

In general the following all need to be of the highest standard: 1. GCSE/IGCSE grades or equivalent. In most cases successful candidates have a mixture of A and A* grades across at least 7 or 8 subjects.

2. A Level grades (or more likely predicted grades). This should be in subjects relevant to your course and include at least two facilitating subjects with the most successful applications having at least three.

3. The quality of your application. This means no spelling or grammatical errors.

4. Your academic reference. This will be written by your school. It is important to realise that although your teachers will help you as much as possible, they will not deceive the universities in terms of your performance at school so you must be doing very well in your classes and pleasing your teachers with your performance. It is extremely important to have highly experienced staff overseeing your reference and application. At Abbey I review every Oxbridge application personally before it is sent.

The reference must be of the correct style and mirror that application as a whole for a student to have the best chance of success.

5. Scores in entrance tests such as the BMAT, ELAT or STEP (we will look at this in more detail in Chapter 6 – Entrance Tests and Written Work).

6. Personal Statement (we will cover this in Chapter 7 – The Oxbridge Personal Statement).

7. Interview performance (we will give you advice on interview performance in Chapter 8 – The Interview).

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In addition to these general requirements you should check the university and college websites in case there are any other specific requirements for the course to which you are applying.

GCSE/IGCSEs or equivalent Although an offer will be made to you on the basis of your A Level grades it is important not to underestimate the effect that your GCSE/IGCSE grades can have on your application. This is especially true if you have similar grades to another candidate applying for the same course at the same college. The GCSE/IGCSE grades will be one piece of evidence that the admissions staff use to determine who should be invited for interview and who should not.

Generally speaking the average successful Oxbridge candidate has at least 7 A* grades at this level. There are no specific subject requirements at GCSE/IGCSE level for an Oxbridge application (your choices at A Level are far more important) but the core subjects of English and Mathematics are usually expected.

Please note that since the GCSE reforms in the UK these qualifications are now awarded the grades from 1-9 with 9 being the highest. IGCSEs will still use the letter grading system.

There is no exact mapping between the two but instead there are three anchor points that allow standards to be benchmarked across the two systems. The following table shows the guidance that has been published to make for ease of comparison between the two systems.

Table 5 - Comparison of letter and number grades

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This means that generally speaking a successful Oxbridge candidate will have at least 7 GCSEs graded at the highest level, 8 or 9.

There are many equivalent qualifications to the GCSE/IGCSE qualifications in the UK that are accepted by Cambridge and Oxford University. As with the GCSE and IGCSE grades these are less important than A Levels but you are still expected to have achieved at the highest level in these qualifications. For example in China the Senior High School examination (Chuzhong Huikao) is generally considered to be roughly equivalent to between GCSE and the first year of A Level in the UK. Nine subjects are taken and graded A-D and it would be expected for Oxbridge applicants to gain mostly A grades in these exams if they have been completed. If you are intending to join a school or college in the UK to take A Levels (which is the recommend route to an Oxbridge application) then you will need to check the specific requirements of the school or college as some will require the Senior High School qualifications to have been completed and some will not.

As already mentioned Cambridge and Oxford are fundamentally inclusive or the right quality of candidate. If you do not have GCSEs or IGCSEs they will look at any equivalent public examinations in your home country. If your home education system does not public exam at 16 this is not a disadvantage in and of itself. However, if you have not already taken your A Levels you will be applying without any independent proof of your ability and should mitigate against this by referencing well known competitions, awards, prizes etc. to bolster your application. An experienced referee will be able to help you with this as I do with Abbey students.

A Levels or equivalent Probably the most important decision you take in Year 11, or equivalent, is your choice of A Level subjects. This is where you start to focus your subject choices in preparation for your university application (regardless of where you are applying to). The Russell Group in the UK represents 24 of the leading universities in the country including Cambridge and Oxford University. Russell Group universities distinguish between facilitating and non-facilitating subjects and strongly advise you to take at least two relevant facilitating A levels. A detailed guide on choosing your subjects can be found in the publication Informed Choices which can

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be found at https://russellgroup.ac.uk/media/5686/informed-choices-2018-1-6th-editionfinal.pdf but below we have summarised the subjects that the Russell Group consider to be facilitating.

List of facilitating subjects • Biology

• Chemistry

• English literature

• Geography

• History

• Physics

• Modern and classical languages

• Maths and further maths

The Informed Choices guide also advises you on the best subject combinations even if you are unsure what you want to go on to do at university, although it could be argued that if that is the case then an Oxbridge application is not advisable. Similarly some students will opt for two arts based subjects and two science based subjects to study at A Level to keep a range of options available, but it must be said that this would be a weaker application than one with all facilitating subjects if aimed at the sciences.

In addition to at least two facilitating subjects you should always check your course and college to see if there are demands for specific subjects or combinations of subjects at A Level. This is important as although all of the colleges prefer facilitating subjects there can be favoured subjects and additional A Levels that are seen as preferable or not preferable if they are not facilitating. For example, Trinity College consider History, German or a classical language, Philosophy, Biology and Chemistry to be generally suitable for an Arts or Science course but then would view Film Studies, Business Studies, Psychology and Sociology as less suitable with subjects such as Accounting, ICT and Photography suitable only as fourth A Level subjects. In addition there are some subjects that are offered at A Level such a Critical Thinking and General Studies that are not really viewed as suitable A Levels for any part of your core studies. It is also important to remember that some courses do not require A Levels in those subjects, for example Law. Once again the best advice is always to check before you make your final choice of A Level subjects. You can do this at the Cambridge and Oxford University websites at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses for Cambridge courses and www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/admissionrequirements/admission-requirements-table for Oxford courses.

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Cambridge and Oxford University required A Level grades Once you have decided on your A Level subjects you need to know what grades to achieve.

The table below shows the information published on the Oxford University website regarding A Level grades required for their undergraduate courses.

Course

Grades required

Chemistry

A* A* A

Engineering Science

(two A* grades and one A grade)

Mathematics Mathematics and Philosophy Mathematics and Statistics

Biochemistry

A* A A

Biological Sciences

(one A* grade and two A grades)

Biomedical Sciences Computer Science Computer Science and Philosophy Earth Sciences (Geology) Economics and Management Geography Materials Science Mathematics and Computer Science Medicine Physics Physics and Philosophy Psychology (Experimental) Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL)

Archaeology and Anthropology

AAA

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Classical Archaeology and Ancient History

(three A grades)

Classics Classics and English Classics and Modern Languages Classics and Oriental Studies English Language and Literature English and Modern Languages European and Middle Eastern Languages Fine Art History History (Ancient and Modern) History and Economics History and English History and Modern Languages History and Politics History of Art Human Sciences Law (Jurisprudence) Modern Languages Modern Languages and Linguistics Music Oriental Studies Philosophy and Modern Languages Philosophy and Theology Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) Religion and Oriental Studies Theology and Religion

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The table below shows the information published on the Cambridge University website regarding A Level grades required for their undergraduate courses.

Course

Grades required

Chemical Engineering

A* A* A

Computer Science

(two A* grades and one A grade)

Economics Engineering (some colleges also require STEP) Mathematics (STEP also required) Mathematics with Physics (STEP also required) Medicine Natural Sciences

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

A* A A

Archaeology

(one A* grade and two A grades)

Architecture Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Classics Education English Geography History History and Modern Languages History and Politics History of Art Human, Social, and Political Sciences Land Economy Law

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Linguistics Modern and Medieval Languages Music Philosophy Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion Veterinary Medicine

Generally Cambridge University will not make any offers at AAA (three A grades) unless the A* grade is not available in the country where the qualification is being taken. As always this information was correct at time of publishing but we ask all students to make sure they visit the university website to get the most up to date information when they apply.

It must be borne in mind that these are minimum requirements. Generally speaking most Oxbridge applicants will achieve these grade requirements and the universities use these grades as only one part of deciding whether to make an offer or not. It should also be noted that at both universities the success rate for A*A*B is significantly lower (less than 2% averaged over the two universities) and so all subjects taken must be at the highest level to stand a realistic chance of success.

It is worth mentioning that since the A Level reforms in the UK different schools and colleges have taken different approaches to the number of subjects studied at A Level and AS Level examinations. Both Cambridge and Oxford University have assured prospective applicants that they will not be disadvantaged by any of these different approaches as long as their main criteria are met. At Abbey College Cambridge we recommend taking four subjects in your first year of A Level study and reducing this to three (or continuing with four if you are strong enough) in the second year. We do not recommend taking the new AS Level exam at the end of the first year (with reformed qualifications you have to declare your AS grades in your application) and there is no advantage to taking five A Level subjects.

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International and equivalent qualifications The A Level is considered the gold standard of UK education and is the preferred route for students applying to any UK university. However, Cambridge and Oxford do accept some international qualifications seen as equivalent to A Levels. The full range of equivalent qualifications is beyond the scope of this book but here is a brief overview of some equivalent qualifications and levels that could be considered as suitable for an Oxbridge application.

Both Cambridge and Oxford Universities will accept the Cambridge Pre-U qualification but do not prefer it to A Levels. In fact some of the reasons for the development of the Pre-U in the first place have now been addressed with the reformed A Levels and these are still the main standard for Oxbridge applications. However, both Cambridge and Oxford have stated that they will accept the Pre-U and potential applicants should be achieving D2 and D3 level Distinctions in their studies. Oxford have stated that they consider the D2 level roughly equivalent to an A* but for both universities decisions will be made on each application separately and so taking the Pre-U is not an advantage over the A Level.

Cambridge and Oxford Universities also accept the International Baccalaureate diploma instead of A Levels. Cambridge make offers with scores of 40 or 41 out of 45 whereas Oxford is slightly lower at 38-40. Higher Level subjects are seen as equivalent to a full A Level and a 7, 7, 6 would be required in these for both Cambridge and Oxford. The Standard Level subjects are only seen as equivalent to exams you would take in the lower sixth year like AS Level exams and so are less important to your application.

If you have been studying the Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers then Cambridge will usually make offers to candidates who have received AAA in their Advanced Highers. They are also expected to have achieved four A grades in their Highers. At Oxford the typical offer is for AAAAB or AAAAA in the Highers with at least two Advanced Highers. Typical offers are made for AAB in the Advanced Highers. The Highers are seen as roughly equivalent to the lower sixth AS Level exams in England and the Advanced Highers equivalent to the full A Level. Requirements should be checked if you are studying in the Scottish education system especially in the light of recent education reforms in the country.

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It is worth mentioning that although it is not really an equivalent qualification there is the option for highly capable students to take the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in addition to their A Level studies. Technically the EPQ is worth half the UCAS tariff points as a full A Level but neither Cambridge nor Oxford University will use the EPQ as the basis of their offers. The EPQ focuses on developing skills such as independent study and research which can be very valuable at university and also for employers. An Oxbridge applicant can give themselves an advantage by completing the EPQ or a similar research-led project (at Abbey we run a similar programme called the PDD for this purpose). This is especially true when the applicant has completed a project in the area that they are hoping to study at university. Cambridge University has even said on their website that the content of an applicant’s project could be used in discussion at interview or for written work if relevant.

Both Cambridge and Oxford University have detailed guidance on other international qualifications that may be acceptable for their applications at www.undergradute.study.cam.ac.uk/international-students/eu-an-internationalqualifications for Cambridge University and www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/for-internationalstudents/international-qualifications for Oxford University. It is always worthwhile checking the guidance directly from the Cambridge and Oxford websites to make sure you have the most up to date information possible. For example some advisors have stated that for Chinese students the Chinese University Entrance Examination (Gaokao) is considered to be roughly equivalent to the second year of A Level but this would not be sufficient for a competitive application to Cambridge or Oxford University.

English level requirements The precise level of English required will depend very much on the subject being applied for.

In essay based subjects the actual requirement is much higher than that for Mathematics for example. However, any student making an Oxbridge application should have an exceptional level of English demonstrated in one of several ways. The main standard for the required level of English is via the IELTS exam. This is also a requirement for most visas for international students and so is the recommended route to gaining a level of English proficient enough to make an application. You will need an overall score of 7.5 for Cambridge University and 7.0 for Oxford University with scores of at least 7.0 across all four 71

bands (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Alternatively the English Language GCSE at grade B or above could be acceptable but some of the Cambridge colleges have slightly higher requirements so you should check with the individual college you are hoping to apply to. In general the IGCSE English First or Second Language is not accepted. Cambridge will also accept a B grade or score of 185 in the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English whereas Oxford require an A grade. Oxford also accept A or B grades or score of 185 in the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English whereas Cambridge will accept a C grade in some circumstances. There are some other exceptions to these general guidelines and once more it is important to check the exact requirements with the college you are hoping to apply to before making your application.

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Chapter 5 – The application process

In this short chapter we will look at the process for preparing and sending your Oxbridge application. We will briefly discuss the UCAS application system which needs to be completed for all university applications in the UK. Then we will discuss your academic references and additional tests you may have to prepare for. Then we will consider the additional applications forms such as the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ) for Cambridge University. Finally we look briefly written work you may need to submit to support your application. Further details on additional tests, written work and your Personal Statement can be found in Chapter 6 – Entrance tests and written work and Chapter 7 – The Oxbridge Personal Statement.

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The UCAS application system The University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is the application system used for all applications to universities in the UK, including Cambridge and Oxford. It is completed online and the deadline for the application to be completed for Oxbridge is at 6pm on 15 October each year. Once you have registered on the UCAS website you will have to enter a buzzword provided for you by your school and then have a number of screens in which to complete information on yourself, your qualifications, university choices and your Personal Statement. It is important to remember that even if you are intending to make an Oxbridge application you should choose five university courses to apply for. Remember that only one in five Oxbridge applications are successful so must be pragmatic and make sure you have some good university choices apart from Cambridge or Oxford. The order of your choices is not taken into consideration on the UCAS application. When completing the details for Cambridge or Oxford remember that you must specify a campus code in the courses section. This will be the individual college you are applying to or ‘Open’ if you are making an open application.

The Personal Statement is arguably the most important part of your application in which you have the chance to talk about your passion for your subject, your achievements, suitability to the course you are applying to and commitment to higher education. You will have space for 47 lines or a maximum of 4000 characters in the UCAS system and you should aim to use as much of that as possible. More detail on how to perfect your Personal Statement for Oxbridge will be given in Chapter 7 – The Oxbridge Personal Statement but you should be writing several drafts of your Personal Statement before settling on a final version. Once you have completed the UCAS application you submit it to your referee for them to complete their reference. It must then be sent by your school to UCAS before the deadline. The application is then sent to the universities and colleges you have applied to who decide whether or not to make an offer of a place. Universities will either give students an unconditional offer or, more commonly, a conditional offer based upon the grade criteria being met. There is a lot of information to complete in the UCAS application so it is important to start it as early as possible. All of the information must be up to date and accurate as mistakes in your application could damage your chances of success and at the very least make a bad impression. Although you are responsible for completing your own 74

application this process will be managed by your Personal Tutor and the Directors of Study at Abbey College who you should ask for help if you are uncertain about anything.

Academic references To give your school or college plenty of time to prepare a reference you will need to tell them of your intention to make an Oxbridge application as soon as possible. Your Personal Tutor will write your academic reference but will talk to your subject teachers to get information on your performance and general attitude to your studies in class. To make a successful Oxbridge application your reference should be exceptional and so it is important to keep your teachers and Personal Tutor happy and convince them through hard work and excellent marks that you are capable of being an Oxbridge student. Your academic reference can be put into your application at any time (your Personal Tutor will have a screen similar to the one you use for your Personal Statement) and once everything is complete you will forward your application to your Personal Tutor who will pass it to the senior member of staff responsible for sending it to the universities.

Written work and external tests You should check the deadlines and dates for any special tests or written work that you are required to complete as part of your Oxbridge application. More details on these will be discussed in Chapter 6 – Entrance tests but to give you a brief overview Oxford admissions tests usually take place in the last week of October or first week of November each year.

Currently there are entrance tests at Oxford University for the following courses: 

BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT)



Classics Admissions Test (CAT)



English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)



History Aptitude Test (HAT)



Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT)



Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)



Oriental Languages Aptitude Test (OLAT)



Physics Aptitude Test (PAT)



Philosophy Test



Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) – for a variety of courses (see Chapter 6 for details)

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Oxford also require written work to be submitted for a number of subjects. This enables the admissions tutors to decide whether or not to interview you and they will be looking for your ability to research and organise your findings effectively as well as form opinions and logical arguments. The admissions tutors aren’t looking for perfect work but they need to know that you have these skills as well as the potential to improve. The work will usually be something you have done as part of your A Level course, around 2000 words long, and is often required to have been marked by your teacher. If you require your teacher to mark work ready for submission then make sure you inform them and give them plenty of notice.

This work is often used as a starting point for discussion at interview. Course requirements can change but the table below shows the current list of subjects at Oxford that require written work to be submitted. Please note that PPE does not require any written work to be submitted and relies instead on the TSA entrance test. More details on the exact nature of the written work to be submitted can be found on each of the individual course pages that can be found at www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-tooxford/guide/written-work Archaeology and

Classical Archaeology and

Classics (including with

Anthropology

Ancient History

English, Modern Languages and Oriental Studies)

English and Modern

English Language and

European and Middle

Languages

Literature

Eastern Studies

Fine Art (portfolio)

History (Ancient and

History of Art

Modern including with English, Economics, Modern Languages and Politics) Modern Languages

Music

Oriental Studies

Theology and Religion

Theology and Oriental

(including with Linguistics) Philosophy and Modern Languages (also Philosophy

Studies

and Theology) Table 6 - Current courses that require written work (Oxford)

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At Cambridge University the subjects that require a test pre-interview will take place on the same day as the Oxford tests. Most applicants will be required to take a subject-specific written admission assessment either before or at interview. These are designed to supplement the information in your application and provide evidence of your skills in comprehension and thinking as well as your knowledge of your subject. The following subjects at Cambridge currently require pre-interview or at-interview assessments.

Pre-interview assessment

At-interview assessment

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

Archaeology

Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Architecture

Economics

Classics (3-year or 4-year)

Engineering (including Chemical Engineering via Engineering)

Computer Science

English

Education History and Modern Languages

Geography

History of Art

History History and Modern Languages History and Politics Human, Social, and Political Sciences

Law Linguistics Modern and Medieval Languages

Land Economy

Music (short tasks to be given at time of interview)

Mathematics (STEP required)

Philosophy

Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of

Natural Sciences

Religion

Table 7 - Courses requiring pre-interview or at-interview assessments (Cambridge)

In terms of written work at Cambridge University each college has its own policy on the requirements of written work so you should check with the college you are applying to.

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However, you are much more likely to be asked to submit written work if you are applying to study an arts or social sciences subject such as HSPS. Once you have submitted your application the individual college will contact you and let you know if there are any requirements for you to submit written work. More details of written work required can be found at each course page from the following Cambridge University website www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/admission-assessments/submitted-work

Additional application forms Once you have submitted your application to UCAS you will usually get a reply very quickly from Cambridge or Oxford acknowledging receipt of the application. You will be contacted by the college you have applied to or, in the case of an open application, the college that has been allocated to you. This will highlight any extra requirements or information that are needed as part of your application. Currently Oxford University does not require any additional application forms for its undergraduate admissions. Cambridge University however will contact you usually within 48 hours after you have submitted your UCAS application asking you to complete the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ) which must be submitted by the stated deadline date. The deadline is usually 6pm on 22 October, one week after the deadline for the UCAS application, but if there are any changes to this you will be notified by your college. The purpose of the SAQ is so Cambridge University has complete information on all of its applicants which it sees as important in helping to assess potential candidates. The information collected is not usually part of the UCAS application such as topics you might have covered as part of your A Level course, and this can help interviewers select appropriate questions to open an interview.

The SAQ is divided into eight sections and each section is made up of one or more webpages in the online application (it is possible to get a paper version of the SAQ but we recommend completing it online for convenience). The eight sections are as follows: 

Section 1 Application Type – this section asks you about your application for example if you are taking a gap year or if you are applying for a particular scholarship or award.

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

Section 2 Photograph – you should have a passport sized photo of yourself in digital format to be uploaded into the form.



Section 3 Personal Details – this will cover your own details such as name, date of birth, term time address and so on.



Section 4 BMAT Number – if relevant you will need to provide your BMAT reference number. This will be given to you if you have registered to take the BMAT.



Section 5 Education – this section will ask for additional details about your school or college such as class sizes and topics covered.



Section 6 Qualifications – here you will need to give details of your AS and A Level modules or their equivalents and your marks.



Section 7 Additional Information – this is where you can add an additional personal statement to support your application, discuss your future career plans and demonstrate how you have kept up your interest in the subject you are applying for.

This is a good opportunity to really demonstrate your passion for the subject, your desire to study at Cambridge and also to state why you have applied to your particular course and college. Remember that the Personal Statement on your UCAS application is for all of the universities you have applied for so no one university should be mentioned by name in your Personal Statement. In the SAQ you are free to talk about your desire to study at Cambridge and highlight specific details of the course that you have applied for. Take advantage of this opportunity and make the most of the space provided but do not repeat anything in your Personal Statement as the Cambridge admissions tutors will already have seen this and will see it as laziness on your part. It is also worth mentioning that you can potentially prompt some predictable questions to be asked at interview by discussing your academic interests in this section. This can help you to prepare more thoroughly if you are invited to an interview.



Section 8 Submit Application – this is a chance for you to review all of the information given and submit your application.

With the online application your work will be saved as you progress onto each page, or every time you click on ‘Save’, so you don’t have to complete the SAQ in one go and you can log in as many times as you need to in order finish it. The first time you access the SAQ you 79

will be sent your log in details by email and be required to set your own password for future access to the application. To help you there will be some guidance in the blue ‘Help Text’ panel on each page of the SAQ. Not all of the questions will be relevant to your application and may only relate to particular courses. Other questions will be compulsory (indicated with an asterisk, for example *2.1) and you will not be able to submit your SAQ until these are completed. You can navigate the SAQ by using the navigation bar at the top of the page and you do not need to complete the sections in any particular order though it is logical to complete section 1 first. At any time you will be able to see all of your answers by clicking on the ‘Review My Answers’ button and it is highly recommended that you check all of the information carefully with your UCAS adviser and Personal Tutor before submitting the application. You will need a few pieces of information to hand to complete the SAQ. These will include: 

your UCAS Personal ID number



the temporary SAQ password sent to you by email



a passport style digital photograph of yourself



your BMAT registration number (if applicable)



details of the units you're currently studying and/or have completed



your passport details

It is estimated to take around an hour to complete but as long as you submit it by the deadline it is worth taking your time to make sure that all of the information is accurate and correct. The SAQ may seem daunting but additional help and advice can be found on the Cambridge University website at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/saq and you can also contact the admissions office by email or phone and they will be happy to help prospective students complete the form.

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Chapter 6 – Entrance tests In addition to the basic UCAS application (and SAQ in the case of Cambridge) most subjects will require you to send in additional examples of your written work and/or complete an entrance test. We have already discussed written work in Chapter 5 – The application process and you should check the university and college websites for more details as to what is required. In this chapter we will look at the entrance tests that you might face prior to the interview or during the interview week which Cambridge and Oxford University use to decide on the strongest candidates. These are referred to as written assessments at Cambridge University and admissions tests at Oxford University but they are essentially the same thing. Due to the exceptionally high quality of candidates applying to the universities Cambridge and Oxford rely upon these additional tests and assessments to decide upon the best candidates to bring forward in the application process. This has become even more important since the reform in A Levels in the UK which means that the majority of students will not sit AS exams at the end of their first year of A Level study. This means there is no objective measure of a student’s academic ability when they make an Oxbridge application other than GCSE/IGCSEs which is a poor indicator of the level that Cambridge and Oxford are interested in. The information in this chapter will help you to prepare for any tests you might need to take and get an understanding of the types of questions you are likely to be confronted with. Although we cannot cover every single test for all subjects we will look at examples of some of the most common ones, including example questions to help you to prepare, give you links to additional resources and help you to understand what the universities are looking for in these tests.

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Cambridge University – pre-interview assessments Table 7 in Chapter 5 – The application process gives a list of the subjects that require either pre-interview written assessments or at-interview written assessments. Below we have presented a bit more information on the format of the tests required for subjects and courses before the interview stage at Cambridge University. Many of these tests have two sections but where they don’t more information has been provided on the format of the test in the table. This information was correct at the time of writing but as usual we urge you to check to see if any of the details have changed when you make your own application.

Course name/title

Pre-interview assessment required

Section 1

Section 2

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Admissions Assessment (ASNCAA)

Reading Comprehension 60 minutes

Critical response to text(s)

Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Asian and Middle Reading Eastern Studies Comprehension Admissions 60 minutes Assessment (AMESAA)

Critical response to text(s)

Economics

Economics Admissions Assessment (ECAA)

Problem solving and Maths for Economics

Essay on topic of economic interest

Engineering (including Chemical Engineering)

Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA)

Maths/Physics

English

English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)

This is a 90 minute test testing candidates’ reading

80 minutes

80 minutes

60 minutes

60 minutes

40 minutes Multiple-choice covering Maths and Physics questions 40 minutes

skills, ability to form and articulate responses to unfamiliar literary material. One essay is to be written comparing two passages from a choice of six.

These passages may be from poetry, prose (fiction 82

and non-fiction) or drama. Candidates should focus on elements such as language, imagery, allusion, syntax, form and structure.

Geography

Geography Admissions Assessment (GAA)

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) and Reading Comprehension

Interpretation of graphical data 40 minutes

80 minutes History (including History and Politics)

History Admissions Assessment (HAA)

Reading Comprehension

History and Modern Languages

History Admissions Assessment (HAA) and MML at-interview assessment

Reading Comprehension

60 minutes

60 minutes

Critical response to text(s) 60 minutes Critical response to text(s) 60 minutes

Human, Social, Human, Social, and Political and Political Sciences Sciences Admissions Assessment (HSPSAA)

Reading Comprehension

Land Economy

The Thinking Skills Assessment covers problem

Thinking Skills Assessment

60 minutes

Essay 60 minutes

solving skills including numerical and spatial reasoning and critical thinking skills including understanding argument and reasoning using everyday language.

It consists of 50 multiple choice questions over 90 minutes.

Mathematics

STEP

STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper) Mathematics is

(colleges will also a mathematics test used by Cambridge University assess aptitude, and the University of Warwick testing candidates on knowledge base 83

and potential through short tasks at interview)

questions similar in style to undergraduate mathematics. The test consists of up to three 3-hour paper based exams: STEP 1, STEP 2 and STEP 3 and candidates are usually required to sit one or two of the exams. There is no formula book provided for STEP exams. Questions may test a candidate’s ability to apply mathematical knowledge in novel and unfamiliar ways and will often require knowledge of several different specification topics. Solutions will frequently require insight, ingenuity, persistence and the ability to work through substantial sequences of algebraic manipulation.

STEP 1 is based on A Level Mathematics. The paper has 11 questions across two sections: the first contains 8 pure questions, and the second contains 3 questions, at least one of which will be on mechanics, at least one of which will be on probability/statistics, and a third either on mechanics or probability/statistics.

STEP 2 is based on A Level Mathematics and AS Level Further Mathematics. The paper has 12 questions across three sections: the first contains 8 pure questions, the second contains 2 mechanics questions, and the third contains 2 probability/statistics questions.

STEP 3 is based on A Level Mathematics and A Level Further Mathematics. The paper has 12 questions across three sections: the first contains 8 pure

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questions, the second contains 2 mechanics questions, and the third contains 2 probability/statistics questions.

Medicine

BioMedical

BMAT is a 2-hour, pen-and-paper test divided into

Admissions Test

three sections.

(BMAT) Section 1: Aptitude and Skills This tests generic skills in problem solving, understanding arguments, and data analysis and inference.

35 multiple choice questions 60 minutes Section 2: Scientific Knowledge and Applications This tests the ability to apply scientific knowledge typically covered in school Science and Mathematics by the age of 16 in the UK. 27 multiple choice questions 30 minutes Section 3: Writing Task This tests the ability to select, develop and organise ideas, and to communicate them in writing, concisely and effectively.

One writing task from a choice of three questions 30 minutes Natural Sciences (including Chemical Engineering)

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)

Maths/Science MCQs1 80 minutes

Structured sets of Physics/Chemistry/Biology (open response) 40 minutes

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Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Admissions Assessment (PBSAA)

Part A (compulsory) Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)

An essay discussing a quotation.

Candidates discuss one quotation from a choice of four.

40 minutes

Plus either Part B Mathematics and Biology or Part C Reading Comprehension 80 minutes Veterinary Medicine

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)

Maths/Science Multiple Choice Questions 80 minutes

Structured sets of Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Biology (open response) 40 minutes

Table 8 - Pre-interview assessment and formats (Cambridge)

When and where?

All pre-interview assessments have to be taken at an authorised centre though in many cases this will be your school or college. The assessments are arranged by the Admissions Testing Service and details of authorised centres close to you can be found on their website at www.admissionstesting.org/find-a-centre if your school or college do not provide this service. At Abbey all our candidates sit the exam at school so they are in a familiar environment.

The exact dates for these assessments will change from year to year so it is best to check the Admissions Testing Service website for details when you make your application.

However they usually cover the same period over September and October each year. To give you an example the table below shows the dates as they were for 2018.

Date

Activity

1 September 2018

Registration opens – authorised centres can start making entries from this point.

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30 September 2018

Last date for modified question papers – this is if you have special access arrangements e.g. visual impairment

15 October 2018 (6pm)

Registration closes – this is the last date for registration and is the same as the UCAS Oxbridge deadline. Please note that the registration deadline for the BMAT is often earlier. In 2018 it was 11:59pm on 1 October.

31 October 2018

Assessments take place – this is the same day as the Oxford admissions tests and the exact time of the test will be given to you by your authorised centre.

Table 9 - Dates for the 2018 pre-interview assessment cycle (Cambridge)

At the time of writing there is a trial of an additional BMAT exam session on 1 September.

This is a huge advantage as candidates know their BMAT result before the UCAS deadline.

Registration for this opens on 25 June. I strongly advise all medicine applicants who require BMAT to use this option.

Registration and costs All pre-interview assessments require registration and this is usually done by your authorised centre. You cannot register yourself for a pre-interview assessment. In order to register you for your pre-interview assessment, you must provide the following pieces of information to your assessment centre: 

your UCAS Personal ID



your name, as it appears on your UCAS application



gender



date of birth



details of any access requirements/arrangements



the university/institution you're applying to



the course (including the UCAS course code) you're applying for

Please note that if you are not registered by the relevant deadline then you will be unable to take the pre-interview assessment and your Oxbridge application will be invalid. The

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deadline for registration for the BMAT (if you are applying to Medicine) is usually slightly earlier so you must check both on the BMAT website and with the authorised centre well in advance. You may only take the BMAT once in each admissions cycle. There is also an entry fee for students taking the BMAT. Once again details should be checked on the BMAT website at www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/bmat/bmat-october/dates-and-costs.

In October 2018 the fee was ÂŁ46. There are no entry fees for any other pre-interview assessment but if you are taking the assessment at an authorised centre that is not your school or college then they may charge you an administration fee so it is best to check with them beforehand. More information on the pre-interview assessments if you need it can be found on the Cambridge University website at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/admissions-assessments/pre-interview

Cambridge University - at interview assessments Cambridge University also have a number of at-interview assessments. These assessments vary depending upon the course you are applying to but we have summarised the format of each of these assessments in the table below.

Subject/course

In-interview assessment

Archaeology

Essay/text response element (60 minutes)

Architecture

Writing skills (30 minutes) Graphic and spatial ability (30 minutes)

Classics (3-year)

Translation exercise (60 minutes)

Classics (4-year)

Language aptitude interview (20 minutes)

Computer Science1

Maths-based problems (120 minutes)

Education

Critical response to text or other stimulus (60 minutes)

History and Modern Languages

Discursive response in Foreign Language (40 minutes) Discursive response in English (20 minutes)

History of Art

Structured comparison of images (60 minutes)

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Law

Cambridge Law Test (Essay version; 60 minutes)

Linguistics

Structured analysis of language data (20 minutes) Analysis of quantitative data (20 minutes) Short essay (20 minutes)

Mathematics

There is no formal in-interview assessment but as well as STEP before interview colleges will assess aptitude, knowledge and potential through short tasks in the interview.

Modern and Medieval Languages

Discursive response in Foreign Language (40 minutes) Discursive response in English (20 minutes)

Music

There is no formal in-interview assessment but colleges will assess aptitude, knowledge and potential through short tasks at the interview.

Philosophy

Multiple choice logic problems (20 minutes) Essay (40 minutes)

Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of

Brief lecture followed by written response

Religion

(60 minutes) Table 10 - At-interview assessments (Cambridge)

When, where, registration and cost?

If you are invited to interview then the college you are applying to will provide details of the written assessment in the letter inviting you to interview. Most interviews take place in the first three weeks of December. In most cases you will take the written assessment on the same day as your interview. There is no need to register for the in-interview assessment and there is no additional cost to pay. It is all done as part of the interview process though you should contact the college as soon as possible if you have any particular access requirements that are not mentioned on your UCAS application but might affect your 89

written assessments. More details can be found on the Cambridge University website at www.undergraduauate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/admissions-assessments/at-interview

Oxford University – admissions tests Like Cambridge, Oxford University also have a number of assessments, called Admission Tests by the university that need to be completed as part of the application process. The list in Chapter 5 – The application process shows the tests that should be taken and the table below summarise the format of these tests. As with Cambridge this information was correct at the time of writing but as usual we urge you to check to see if any of the details have changed when you make your own application.

Course name/title

Admissions test

Format

Biomedical

BioMedical

BMAT is a 2-hour, pen-and-paper test divided into three

Sciences

Admissions

sections. This is the same test that Cambridge University

Medicine

Test (BMAT)

uses and more details can be found in Table 8 above.

Chemistry

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)

The TSA is a paper-based test, divided into two sections:

Economics and Management Human Sciences Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)

Section 1 - 50 multiple choice questions which aim to assess: problem-solving skills, including numerical and spatial reasoning; critical thinking skills, including the ability to understand an argument; and the ability to reason using everyday language.

90-minutes

Psychology Section 2 - 30-minute writing task which aims to evaluate a candidate’s ability to organise ideas in a clear and concise manner and communicate them effectively in writing. Questions are not subject specific and candidates are asked to complete one question from a choice of four.

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Candidates applying for Economics and Management, Human Sciences, PPE, Psychology and Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics will be required to complete both sections of the TSA. However, if you are applying for Chemistry or History and Economics you will only need to take section 1.

Classics

Classics Admissions Test (CAT)

This is a paper-based test divided into three sections Section 1 - the Latin Translation Test – a short passage in prose or verse of Latin must be translated into English.

These are suitable for A Level standard. You will not be allowed dictionaries, grammar books or notes in the test.

Section 2 - the Greek Translation Test – a short passage in prose or verse of Greek must be translated into English.

These are suitable for A Level standard. You will not be allowed dictionaries, grammar books or notes in the test.

Section 3 - the Classics Language Aptitude Test (CLAT). This assesses your ability to analyse how languages work in a way that doesn’t depend upon your knowledge of a particular language. It assesses your ability to learn a new language quickly.

Each section last 1 hour. The sections that candidates have to take depend upon whether you are applying for Classics I or Classics II. Candidates who are studying A Level Latin or Greek (Classics I) must take the test in the language you are studying. Candidates who are studying neither Latin nor Greek at A Level (Classics II) must take the CLAT.

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Classics and English

Classics Admissions Test (CAT) English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)

For details on the CAT see above.

The ELAT is a paper-based, closed book (no notes or other materials allowed) test lasting 90 minutes. The ELAT is designed to test a candidate’s close reading skills, and their ability to shape and articulate an informed response to unfamiliar literary material. You will be asked to write one essay comparing two passages, from a choice of six, focusing on elements such as language, imagery, syntax, form and structure. The passages will be a mixture of different forms and will date from different periods but linked by a common theme.

You will not require any prior knowledge of the passages and the aim of the test is to see how you respond to unfamiliar writing of different kinds, demonstrate close reading skills paying attention to the effects of structure, language and style and how you construct a focused and well-structured essay based on comparing and contrasting the two passages.

Classics and Modern Languages

Classics Admissions Test (CAT) Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)

For details on the CAT see above.

The MLAT is a paper-based test which consists of 11 sections.

There are eight sections for each of the following languages: Czech, French, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Each of these last 30 minutes.

The other three sections are: The Linguistics Test – 30 minutes The Language Aptitude Test – 30 minutes The Philosophy Test – 60 minutes

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Candidates need to take a maximum of two sections, Which two sections you need to take depends upon the course you have applied for and details can be found at the following website: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applyingto-oxford/tests/tests-students-applying-study-modernlanguages-or-linguistics Classics and Oriental Studies

Classics Admissions Test (CAT) Oriental Languages Admissions Test (OLAT)

For details on the CAT see above.

The OLAT is a 30 minute paper-based test that you will need to take if you are applying to study Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Arabic or Jewish Studies as part of your course.

The test is designed to assess your ability to analyse how languages work in a way that doesn’t depend upon your knowledge of a particular language. It assesses your ability to learn a new language quickly.

Computer Science Computer Science and Philosophy

Mathematics The Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT) is a subjectAdmissions specific admissions test, lasting 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Test (MAT) The MAT is designed to be accessible to all students,

Mathematics

including those without Further Mathematics A-level or

Mathematics and Computer Science

equivalent. It aims to test the depth of mathematical

Mathematics and Philosophy

depends on the course you are applying for. There are 7

Mathematics and Statistics

understanding of a student rather than a breadth of knowledge. Which questions you answer in the test questions in total and the details of precisely which questions you should attempt are given in the instructions on the front page of the test so make sure you read them

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carefully as you will not gain any marks for answering a question you are not supposed to. For example Computer Science candidates should attempt only questions 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 and so on.

Question 1 is multiple choice and contains ten parts, each worth four marks.

Questions 2-7 are longer questions each worth 15 marks and you will need to show your working for these questions. You will need to attempt four questions from 27 which will depend on the degree you are applying for.

There will be no calculators, formula sheets or dictionaries allowed during the test.

Engineering Science Materials Science Physics Physics and Philosophy

Physics Aptitude Test (PAT)

The Physics Aptitude Test (PAT) is a subject-specific admissions test, lasting for 2 hours and is designed for candidates who have studied the first year of A-level (or equivalent) Maths and Physics, and covers similar material to that of the GCSE and A-level syllabus though there may be a few topics that you haven’t yet covered in school by the time you take the test. Go through the PAT syllabus, which can be found by following the links from the course pages, carefully and discuss any topics you do know recognise with your teachers.

Although it can vary from year to year there are usually around 20-25 questions covering both mathematics and physics and including a number of multiple choice questions as well as longer answer questions. Calculators

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are allowed but there will be no formula sheets, tables or books allowed in the test.

English and Modern Languages

English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)

See above for details on the ELAT and MLAT.

Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT) English Language and Literature

English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)

See details above on the ELAT.

European and Middle Eastern Languages

Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)

See above for details on the MLAT and OLAT.

Oriental Languages Admissions Test (OLAT) Fine Art

Fine Art practical

There is no formal, written test for Fine Art. However, if you are invited to interview there will be a practical test where you are asked to complete two pieces in a variety of media from a number of possible subjects. Arrangements for the test will be made for you by the Ruskin School of Art.

History (Ancient and Modern)

History Aptitude Test (HAT)

The History Aptitude Test will consist of one question,

History and English History and Politics

based on an extract from a primary source, to be answered within one hour. Candidates will be asked to offer thoughtful interpretations of the source without knowing anything about its context. The HAT is a test of skills, not historical knowledge and should be challenging regardless of what the candidate has studied at school.

The HAT tests the ability to read carefully and critically; the adoption of an analytical approach; the ability to answer a question relevantly; ability to handle concepts 95

and select evidence to support points; originality and independence and precision and clarity of writing.

History and Economics

History Aptitude Test (HAT)

For details on the HAT and TSA see above.

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) History and Modern Languages

History Aptitude Test (HAT)

For details on the HAT and MLAT see above.

Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT) Law

National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT)

The National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) is a 2-hour 15-minute test divided into two sections.

Section 1 – is 95 minutes and is a computer-based, multiple-choice exam consisting of 42 questions. The questions are based on 12 passages, with 3 or 4 multiplechoice questions on each. You’ll be asked to read passages of text and answer questions that test your comprehension of them. Your answers to the multiplechoice section of the test are checked by computer, and a mark out of 42 is created. This is known as your LNAT score.

Section 2 - you will be given 40 minutes to write an essay from a list of three subjects. This section is marked by the tutors at the college to which you apply, and this mark is taken into account as part of the selection process. The essay is your opportunity to show your ability to construct a compelling argument and reach a conclusion.

The LNAT isn’t designed to test your knowledge of Law but helps the admissions tutors to assess your aptitude for studying law.

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Modern Languages Modern Languages and Linguistics

Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)

See above for details on the MLAT.

Music Performance Test

There is no formal test for Music. However, if you are

Philosophy and Modern Languages Music

invited to interview then you will be asked to give a performance of a prepared piece on your principal instrument or voice. In addition, if you cannot demonstrate, keyboard fluency to Grade V you may be asked to take a standardised keyboard sight reading test at interview. Some tutors may also ask you to study a short piece of music or text about music in preparation for your interview.

Oriental Studies Religion and Oriental Studies

Oriental Languages Admissions Test (OLAT)

Philosophy Philosophy and Theology Test

For details on the OLAT see above.

The Philosophy Test is a paper-based test, lasting 60 minutes and designed to test a candidate's philosophical reasoning skills. There is no expectation that you will have undertaken any formal study of philosophy, and it is not a test of philosophical knowledge. You will normally be asked to undertake a comprehension exercise and write a short essay or answer a structured question. Tutors are looking for the use of precise and careful reasoning to answer the question asked, and particularly answers which anticipate and are able to answer objections to the

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reasoning given. You should avoid stating an opinion without evidence or argument to support it.

Psychology, philosophy and linguistics

Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)

See above for details on the MLAT and TSA.

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) Table 11 – Admissions tests and formats (Oxford)

When, where, registration and costs?

The Oxford University admissions tests are organised by the Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing service who also organise the pre-interview assessments for Cambridge University. As such the details regarding the location, dates, registration process and costs are exactly as they are for the Cambridge assessments above. The LNAT for Oxford sometimes has slightly different dates for registration so once more please check the details well in advance of when you are making your application. The LNAT also has a registration fee (in 2018 this was £50 but prices can change) that must be paid in advance of taking the test. All tests must be taken at an authorised centre who register you for the test and there is no fee for these tests except for the BMAT and LNAT. Once again further details can be found on their website at www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/oxford-tests. Oxford University don’t hold any specific testing at the interview stage except for those tasks mentioned in the table above for Fine Art and Music candidates. You may, however, be expected to solve or complete some problems or questions as part of the interview process, especially in the sciences.

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Example test questions To help you to prepare as much as possible we have provided a number of example test questions and answers where appropriate from some of the most common entrance tests that students at Abbey College take.

BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) Used for Medicine (Cambridge and Oxford), Biomedical Sciences, Medicine (Oxford).

Section 1 – Aptitude and Skills

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100

Answers: 1 – C, 5 – D, 17 – D. Section 2 – Scientific Knowledge and Applications

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102

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Answers: 2 – E, 6 – D, 24 – C. Section 3 – Writing Task

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Additional resources and websites: https://www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/bmat/preparing-for-bmat/ Table 12 - Sample BMAT questions taken from the 2017 paper

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Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA - Oxford) Used for Chemistry (Section 1 only), Economics and Management, Experimental Psychology, History and Economics (Section 1 only), Human Sciences, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics.

Section 1 – Thinking Skills Assessment

106

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Answers: 1 – E, 13 – D, 26 – C. Section 2 – Writing Task

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Additional resources and websites: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/tests/tsa Table 13 - Sample TSA questions taken from the 2017 paper

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Physics Aptitude Test (PAT) Used for Engineering, Materials Science, Physics and Physics and Philosophy (Oxford).

110

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Oxford University generally does not provide solutions to its PAT past papers. Candidates should realise that all suitable methods for solving the questions are allowed and there is not necessarily one specific way of answering them.

Additional resources and websites: www.isaacphysics.org – this website contains many maths and physics problems to work through. The A Level book questions would be the most appropriate level. www.bpho.org.uk – the website of the British Physics Olympiad contains past papers and solutions of problem solving questions in physics. The AS and A2 Challenge Questions are most suitable. www.i-want-to-study-engineering.org – this contains lots of useful information not just for engineers but for subject related to physics in general. On the first page you can follow the links to questions suitable for ‘engineering university admissions interviews’. www.brilliant.org – an excellent website with a variety of maths and physics problems presented in multiple choice format. There are also many ‘lessons’ covering a variety of science based topics.

Table 14 - Sample PAT questions taken from the 2017 paper

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Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA – Cambridge) Used for Land Economy Section 1 – Thinking Skills Assessment

113

114

Answers and explanations: 2

6

115

16

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Additional resources and websites: The Cambridge TSA is often called TSA S1 for TSA Section 1. Cambridge states that it is exactly the same format as the first section of the Oxford TSA and so the practice papers available for the Oxford TSA Section 1 questions are suitable for the Cambridge TSA. These can be found at www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/thinking-skillsassessment/tsa-oxford/preparing-for-tsa-oxford Table 15 - Sample TSA questions taken from the specimen paper

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Economics Admissions Assessment (ECAA) Used for Economics (Cambridge) Section 1 Part A – Problem Solving

118

119

Section 1 Part B – Advanced Mathematics

120

Section 2

121

122

Answers and explanations to Section 1:

123

124

Additional resources and websites: Past papers can be found at www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/economics#entry-requirements In Section 2 you are sometimes given a question much more similar to the questions you get in second year A Level Economics papers. Being able to construct a coherent and logical essay which evaluates both sides of an argument and come up with a wellreasoned, evidence based conclusion is the best preparation for this style of questions regardless of the topic being discussed.

Table 16 - Sample ECAA questions taken from the 2017 paper

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Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP) Used for Mathematics, Mathematics and Physics and Engineering in some colleges (Cambridge) Section A – Pure Mathematics

Section B – Mechanics

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Section C – Probability and Statistics

Answers and mark scheme: Question 1 i)

ii)

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Question 5

128

Question 10

Question 13 i)

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ii)

iii)

Additional resources and websites: All of the STEP past papers can be found on the website at www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/step/preparing-for-step A STEP Database of all past questions, searchable by topic, is also available at www.stepdatabase.org Two other website worth visiting to practise your mathematical skills and STEP practice are Underground Mathematics at www.undergroundmathematics.org and the free STEP Support Programme at www.maths.org/step Table 17 - Sample STEP questions taken from the 2011 paper

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National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) Used for Law (Oxford) Section A: Multiple Choice

131

132

Section B: Essay

Answers and discussion to Section 1

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1 – D, 2 – A, 3 - A Additional resources and websites: More information and resources can be found at www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/tests/lnat On this page there are sample answers to some essay questions, hints and tips, a preparation guide and an online simulation. A sample test can also be found here www.lnat.ac.uk/lnat-sample-test Oxford University also advise that students preparing for the LNAT could read books and articles on critical thinking such as Nigel Warburton’s Thinking from A to Z and Roy van den Brink-Budgen’s Critical Thinking for Students.

Table 18 - Sample questions from LNAT Sample test 1

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Chapter 7 – The Oxbridge Personal Statement

With most Oxbridge applicants presenting excellent grades and academic references the Personal Statement may be the only chance you have, before any potential interview, to really stand out from the crowd. This chapter is dedicated to giving you advice on how to make your Personal Statement the best it can be for an Oxbridge application. We will give you a template Personal Statement that you can use as a starting point for constructing your own and we will go through some example Personal Statements as well as an analysis of what the students have done well. The important thing to remember here is that although we can advise you and give you examples to refer to, it must be your Personal Statement.

You will be expected to know your Personal Statement inside and out if you are invited to interview so it has to be a document reflecting your genuine passion for your chosen subject area.

‘Regarding the Personal Statement, students should write about why they have chosen their subject and what they have found out about their subject outside school, such as research, public lectures, wider reading and work experience if applicable.’

Admissions Department, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

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General advice on writing your Personal Statement Generally your Personal Statement needs to show your academic and intellectual potential in the area you have chosen to study. In particular it should be used to show: 

A genuine fascination with your subject.



Reasons why you are interested in the subject and why you want to study it further.



Evidence of reading around and beyond the school syllabus.



Evidence of super-curricular activities you may have done to learn more about your subject.



Relevant work experience, if applicable, and what you have learned from it.



If you have had a Gap Year then you must show that you have done something relevant and worthwhile in that time.



Mostly academic content, Cambridge and Oxford University aren’t really interested in your other interests.

You should start to prepare your Personal Statement in plenty of time to make sure that you are happy with the final document before it is uploaded into your UCAS application on 15 October. Generally my students will write 6 or 7 significant (and sometimes many more) drafts before they settle on something that accurately reflects them and how they feel about their subject. Start early and continue to improve and refine until you feel that you have given the best impression of yourself that you can in the space allowed. Having more time will also mean that you can double-check the Personal Statement for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors also as those will certainly not make a good impression for a document you are sending to potential universities. It will also help you to limit yourself to the 4000 character count that you are restricted to on the UCAS system.

Students will do this in different ways but generally I advise my students to write a decent Personal Statement first and then go through and cut it down to 4000 characters by shortening sentences, tidying up the grammar and perhaps even cutting some things out altogether if they are not relevant to the course you want to study. You should also make sure that it is 4000 characters according to the UCAS system and not other software such as Word or Pages as they may count characters in slightly different ways.

It is often a good idea to ask some people to look at your Personal Statement and give you some feedback. For example your Personal Tutor can help you as well as your subject 136

teacher in the field that you are interested in. This can give you some invaluable advice and ideas to help. Just be wary of asking too many people for advice however as they are all going to have slightly different ideas as to what makes a good Personal Statement which could end up more confusing than helpful. Remember, at the end of the day it has to be your Personal Statement and not a collection of other people’s ideas.

Try to talk in depth about topics and activities rather than just a superficial coverage of things you have done. You should be discussing your super-curricular activities in detail saying what you have learned from them and how it has enhanced your knowledge and interest in your subject. If you attended a public lecture on your subject don’t just describe the lecture but talk about why you attended the lecture and how it made you think about your subject. Perhaps it introduced you to new ways of looking at your subject and changed your perspective on a topic and you learned something new about it as a result. This applies to books, journals and articles as well. Oxbridge admission staff aren’t going to be impressed by simply a long list of books that you have read. What is more important is what you have learned from your reading. It would be much better to talk about one or two books and the ideas that you gained from them than just reel off a big list.

Try to avoid obvious statements in your Personal Statement and focus on what makes you different. Inevitably there will be some similarities between students’ Personal Statements, but your Personal Statement is the opportunity to make yourself stand out. When you’ve written something in your Personal Statement ask yourself ‘is this really about me or could anyone have written it?’ If the answer is the latter then go back and think how you could rewrite it or say something different. Also, don’t feel the need to use overly complex language. There is a misconception that Oxbridge Personal Statements need to be full of elaborate language and esoteric terminology. That is not the case and if the admissions tutors think you are trying to impress them just by using big words then they will not think too highly of you.

Finally, remember that you may be asked about or tested on anything in your Personal Statement if you get to the interview stage. At the very least your Personal Statement should be the starting point for some discussion at the interview so make sure that it is an accurate reflection of you and your activities to further your knowledge in your chosen

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subject. Don’t make any claims that you can’t then back up if asked about and don’t copy anyone else’s work, your Personal Statement has to be yours.

A Personal Statement template Often the most difficult part of writing the Personal Statement is getting started. For that reason we have provided you with a Personal Statement template that you can write into just to get the process started. There is no real right or wrong way to write a Personal Statement and it is very important to note that this is just a starting point for you to think about how you want to develop the final document. We do not recommend using an ‘offthe-shelf’ template or formulaic process for putting together your Personal Statement as your final version. These Personal Statements are easy to spot by admissions tutors and can feel very generic. The whole point of the Personal Statement is to make yourself stand out and not just be a different version of somebody else. Your final Personal Statement should be personal and be an accurate reflection of you and how you feel about your subject.

The template in this chapter is provided purely to help you to start to write something if you are struggling to get going. If you are happy with starting to write your own Personal Statement then it might be better for you to skip this section altogether. This exercise is about helping you to get started so you have something to work with.

This Personal Statement template consists of five paragraphs and we have given a description of what should go into those five paragraphs to guide your writing.

Opening paragraph The first paragraph of your Personal Statement should give an introduction as to how your interest in your chosen subject started and why you want to continue to study it at university.

The key thing here is to explain clearly your personal reasons for wanting to study the subject you have chosen. Statements such as ‘I have always found (subject) really interesting…’ or ‘since a very young age I’ve been fascinated by…’ are generic, boring statements used by hundreds of other students. Make yourself stand out. Perhaps a personal experience made you realise there was more to a subject than you originally thought or you discovered connections between subjects that you didn’t think existed.

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These introductions often contain some kind of ‘aha’ or light bulb moment that really ignited your passion for the subject and gave you a desire to learn more.

Second paragraph In the second paragraph you should develop your discussion following from the first paragraph to explain what reading and research you have done to further your knowledge and interest in your chosen subject. This will include reading beyond your school syllabus and, as mentioned earlier, what you have learnt from that reading. What ideas have you developed as a result of this reading?

It is often a good idea here to look at the specific course outlines for the course you are applying to and relate those to elements of your reading. You can focus on particular aspects of the course, not just the subject in general, that you are interested in. Not only does this tell the admissions tutor that you have some prior, if minimal, knowledge of parts of the course but also that you have done your research and are genuinely interested in elements of the course and are doing something to further your knowledge.

It is also important to realise that Oxbridge are looking for independent and critical thinkers. Don’t just blindly accept everything that you’ve read but really think about it.

Perhaps you disagree with some points that an author has made? Being able to challenge ideas logically is a valuable skill for an Oxbridge student.

Third paragraph In this paragraph you can broaden your activities towards a greater understanding and shaping of your academic interests by discussing your super-curricular activities. These are the things you have done outside of school that build on your knowledge and passion for the subject. This could range from public lectures and museum visits to taking part in competitions and performing your own experiments. There are many online courses and even nanodegrees that you can take in your own time that will help to demonstrate your commitment to your subject. The two key elements that these need to show are a genuine enthusiasm for your subject and independent thinking and research. Books like this one can make suggestions to get you started but it is really up to you to find suitable activities that will help to develop your understanding of your chosen subject. If all students are taking part in the same activities then there is not really anything for an

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admissions tutor to choose between them so try to be original and independent in your thinking.

Fourth paragraph This is really an optional paragraph but in many cases, if you have done a significant amount of super-curricular activities, may not be necessary. If you do mention extracurricular activities in your Personal Statement then this would be the place to do it.

Make sure that if you do talk about other activities, not related to your subject, then keep it to a minimum and make sure you focus on the skills and experience you have gained as a result. Ideally these skills will demonstrate that you have what it takes to be a good student at university in general irrespective of the subject chosen. Time management skills and prioritising workloads can be gained from all kinds of activities and both will be crucial if you are to succeed in your studies so evidence of those would be considered valuable. You can also use this paragraph to talk about any work experience or activities you have done on a Gap Year. You will be expected to work extremely hard when you are at university and so the admissions tutors will want to see that you have been doing something worthwhile and keeping your mental and academic skills in good condition during your year away from study.

Concluding paragraph Some successful Personal Statements don’t really have a concluding paragraph as such, they just end at an appropriate point. However, some ideas to consider here are perhaps wanting to learn enough from your course to develop your thoughts or ideas in a more focused way after university. This could perhaps mean future research or even a career in a field related to the subject that you have studied. Although the final sentence of reasoning why you would be a good student for the course is not necessarily bad it has been rather overused in recent years and it may do to be a bit more original. Similarly the sentiment behind the thought ‘I have learnt a lot already, but realise there is much more to learn’ generally comes across well at Oxbridge but does risk sounding like a bit of a cliché. You could perhaps end on some interesting and original thought that you think the admissions tutors might want to discuss further with you at interview.

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Example Personal Statements In this section we look at some example Personal Statements from students who have successfully applied to Oxbridge. You don’t have to just read Personal Statements relevant to your own subject to gain good ideas from them. It is a useful exercise to see how diverse and unique these Personal Statements are.

Tiffany Choi – Computer Science (Cambridge) Having grown up in a tiny mountain village in Korea which did not even have the internet, it was pure luck that I first encountered C programming and informatics at Jeollabuk-do Education Institute for the Gifted. As soon as I started I was deeply inspired by the new language that expressed logics and maths and I began to pore over the new textbook day and night. After mastering a year's worth of C Language grammar and algorithms in a month, I was qualified for the national final of KOI, Korea Olympiad in Informatics which I had never even dreamed of.

Preparing for the national final was a real challenge. I sometimes produced errors I had never seen, or lost my way in the middle of five pages of a no-way algorithm. While mastering one type of algorithm per week by myself, I kept asking my tutor questions outside of class to the point where he was curious when I did not ask him a new question for a couple of days. Finally, I achieved a silver medal in KOI national final, and that was only four months after I typed in my very first "Hello World" programme.

In 2014, I instigated the development of a new robotic club. The most impressive activity of all was the Drawing bot, drawing line segments and plane figures with an arm. I volunteered to measure the angles of numerous points on a coordinate, and I recorded the angles of the two motors for 413 co-ordinates over 7 hours without rest. Even now I feel dizzy every time I look at the coordinates and memo pads I used but it reminds me of how excited I was to see the maths working in a visible way. Later on, we expanded the project even more, and studied a method to overcome the physical limits of the motors with a program involving quite sophisticated trigonometry calculations.

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My scientific interests predominantly have been for applying mathematics to computers, but I also have undertaken research in pure maths and other areas as well. In February 2017 I participated in the national final of the UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge. The topic given for the poster round was 'Cellular Automaton'. We proved the formulae for elementary cellular automata and suggested a mathematical way to obtain the state of a particular cell in the next generation. We also discovered why the Conway's Life Game is so mathematically beautiful through hours of calculating binomial distributions. In June 2017, I built a mechanical clock that works without any electronic power with five friends of mine. In a completely different area, I won first prize at the Korean National Symposium for students for my original research on the monoecism of liverwort, which was published as a scientific paper.

I am a huge fan of board games. I dip into Mensa games, chess, Korean traditional board games, and I also tried making my own board games of several different types. In the Summer of 2015 my board game club stayed in my home together for a week to practice and develop the best strategy for an ancient board game of Korea, and won the first prize at the national championship. Other than that, I have also been working as a private tutor in Korea for four years, teaching maths and science to middle school students.

Recently, I completed a Nanodegree course at Udacity that introduces various branches of programming, and I tried making some simple websites and a small RPG game.

However, my dream is to become an AI Engineer. I feel most passionate and confident when I am solving problems with Greedy, BFS, DFS, and dynamic algorithms and cannot wait to explore this further.

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Eliza Wu – Natural Sciences (Cambridge) Phenomena such as the formation of the mirage and ejection of energy from supermassive black holes always arouse my curiosity and the answers will eventually come from the realm of physics. That is one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much: it offers explanations from the most basic to the most complex.

It was a great honor for me to have the chance of visiting the Material and Metallurgy Department of Cambridge University last year, where I was shown equipment such as XRD, TEM and SEM. During the visit, I saw the ‘wrinkles’ on a liquid crystal elastomer powered by a high voltage supply and was amazed to observe how materials bend under the presence of light at certain wavelengths. Aside from the work ethic of the scientists there, I was mostly impressed by the spontaneous overflow of their enthusiasm when they talked about the projects they do, which inspired me to be a scientist like them in the future.

I also attended lectures during the Science Festival held by the University of Cambridge such as the one on dark matter. I enjoyed the logical and rigorous process of the lecturer trying to prove what dark matter really is by comparing its properties with other matter such as neutron stars, neutrinos and WIMPs. Although there is still no final answer to the question, I was quite inspired by the topic and continued reading the book the Particle at the End of the Universe by Professor Sean Carroll, where I learned about the framework of fundamental particles and four interactions between them. I was also intrigued by the experimental methods that scientists use to analyse results in this book.

For instance, when identifying particles in the LHC, scientists have to deduce what particles emerged from a collision, and what that means for the process that made it happen.

I keep myself up to date with new research and ideas in science through watching online open courses and reading journals like New Scientist. By reading books such as Six Not So Easy Pieces, I got to know concepts like symmetries in both geometrical and physical senses. The book the Universe in Your Hand took me on a mind journey from our planet through the forest of galaxies to the end of the visible universe.

With the hope of sharing research about topics that interest me, I set up a seminar

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group in my school where I looked at topics like dual rainbow, quasar, etc. In this process, I gradually fell in love with the process of self-motivated research as it allows me to explore far beyond textbooks, and the joy of finding overlaps in different topics is an extra charm that inspires me further.

The genuine passion for physics and excelsior attitudes towards work underlie my outstanding performance in school. Not only do I enjoy the challenge of problem solving, but I also take great delight in arriving upon the final correct answer. It is fascinating to tackle questions that dig deeper as they develop. With an accomplishment of getting 600 out of 600 in AS maths exams and scoring the highest marks in AEA Exam in school, my aptitude in maths has always supported me in studying physics.

Music is an indispensable part in my life. Enchanted by the elegant transitions between ‘ piano’ and ‘forte’, I gain great satisfaction through playing these classical piano pieces, feeling the subtle changes in the emotions that the composer had. Other than that, I enjoy sudoku and badminton, both of which contribute to better promptness of my brain.

Badminton, which is also a great way of exercising, teaches me how to cooperate with partners and empowers me to focus better on academic achievements.

My passion for physics was enhanced as I listened to those renowned professors slowly unravelling the essence of the universe in front of me or presenting me with the most cutting-edge nanotechnology on solar cells. These unique experiences prepared me to embrace university life and reaffirm my determination to study physics in a prominent UK university.

Hoang Minh Nguyen – Economics (Cambridge) Seeing street vendors sell their wares for barely subsistence income, between gleaming high-rise buildings in the heart of Hanoi, might appear as a fascinating contrast to tourists.

This though was the catalyst for my study of Economics. Since 1896, Doi Moi's economic reforms have worked wonders to improve Vietnam's living standards. However, recently the reduction in poverty levels has stagnated, giving rise to the question as to whether economic policies in Vietnam are being effectively implemented. It was against this 144

backdrop of a developing nation and having a desire to learn how to further my country's economic development that I came to the UK to study Economics.

In an attempt to understand the obstacles Vietnam's economy is currently facing, I conducted some research on government policies to tackle poverty - e.g. the Government Rural Areas Renovation Program. I concluded that the scheme's myopic subsidies provide no incentive to low-income groups to invest and innovate. Moreover, citizens' mistrust of state institutions stemming from policy bias has exacerbated the ineffectiveness of these policies. This idea is shared by both Hartford and Collier in the "bad governance trap" indicating that politicians place excessive emphasis on the role of the state in economic growth. Reading mining industry reports has made me realise that Vietnam, with its precious minerals and resources but lack of technology and human capital, is reliant on Chinese technology to extract these raw materials.

If Vietnam is to join the ranks of developed countries, it is vital that the government encourages value-added economic activity to occur within the country and reduces our dependency on foreign know-how.

To further pursue my interest in Development Economics, I led a group of students to research the economic consequences of a unified Korea which reassured me of the role of government in a country's economic development. Upon reading Ha Joon Chang's "23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism", I realised that sensible state intervention has been instrumental to South Korea's success. For example, foreign investment restrictions and subsidies for fledgling domestic producers provided them with a favourable environment to grow in size, enabling them to compete internationally. The project has honed my team-working skills and allowed me to delegate tasks effectively. In addition, whilst participating in Vietnam International Bank's "Blood for life" charity event, I was surprised to discover that an adaptation of the Gini coefficient, which is a common measurement of the distribution of income/wealth, is used by lenders to assess credit scores. This motivated me to attend Mathematics in Economics enrichment class where I was introduced to the use of differentiation to find the profit maximisation level of output and integration for consumer/producer surplus calculations. In possession of several awards, my problem-solving skills help me better understand these concepts which are fundamental for future quantitative-heavy theory, for example game theory.

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Outside academia, I am working towards achieving a DofE Gold Award. As part of the award, I volunteer at fund-raising events for EACH, where I support children with lifethreatening conditions. During the 150km expedition, the severe weather conditions demanded resilience and wise decision-making to effectively perform as a team. I am also a member of the school badminton team where I enjoy playing competitively and maintain a balanced lifestyle.

People have heard of the Chinese economic miracle but the development of Vietnam is not yet considered in the same light. With the knowledge of Economics I gain at university, I hope to address the issue as a future policy maker.

Jacky Yang – Medicine, Cambridge My desire to become a doctor originates from my father's diagnosis with pulmonary metastasis. I still remember doctors planning out courses of treatments and reassuring us during our bleakest time. Ever since, I have been learning more about the work of doctors by enhancing my knowledge and awareness of the challenges they face.

Shadowing a consultant, I sat in on one of the regular meetings in which doctors learned the latest medical advances and changes in the NHS. One discussion centred on the impact of a soft opt out system for organ donation. Considering this ethical dilemma I concluded that the patient's autonomy outweighs the potential increase in donor rate. I applied my learning and won a school debate on organ donation. In theatre, I observed doctors demonstrate teamwork and leadership to tackle the sudden rise of a patient's heart rate during a rectal EUA. Shadowing a GP showed me how emotional support plays a key role in palliative care. During a home visit to a 90-year-old lady diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, I witnessed how the GP identified the patient's concerns and reassured her with detailed explanations of her care plans.

Volunteering at a care home on a weekly basis gave me insight into the realities of the caring professions. Dementia made helping the residents with their daily needs a challenge. My communication skills were developed by using slow calm language, and using gestures with residents with hearing impairment. Identifying residents' moods 146

through their facial expression was an important skill I developed. I understood their emotional states and could better cater for their diverse needs. The experience gave me the confidence to proactively provide help to others in need, so I volunteered at Hope Agency in Cambodia. Organising events such as Fun Friday and a football match for orphans taught me the flexibility to work in a demanding environment and reinforced my will to look after the vulnerable in society.

Reading medical journals such as Medscape shows me how breakthroughs in theoretical science improve patients' quality of life. For example, tissue biopsies are used to detect the level of ctDNA in the bloodstream to allow early treatment of recurring tumours and increase cancer survival rate. To better understand the concept, I attended a lecture during the Cambridge Science Festival on cancer screening. Speaking to the lecturer, I was surprised to find out the imperfection of the test was due to tumour heterogeneity, lowering the resolution of diagnosing primary cancer. The experience left me with a fascination of the complicated nature of medical science and a refreshed desire to dedicate myself to tackle these challenges.

Basketball and swimming allow me to relax and recharge from the intensive courses of study. I represented my school in state competitions in both sports. Working with the coach and teammates builds my teamwork skills and my ability to withstand pressure. My desire to test my problem solving skills ranked me number one in London in UKMT last year. Working as an event coordinator in the student council and participating in DofE Gold scheme further develops me as a team worker. Working with people from different cultural backgrounds means my conversational skills are developed by evaluating my own ideas and listening to others in meetings. I was selected as student prefect based on my consistent contribution to my school.

I have seen how good doctors make a significant contribution to improve patients' quality of life but it also places doctors in great physical and emotional exhaustion. I believe my interpersonal skills, along with my enthusiasm for science give me the capability to face the challenges ahead and succeed in this ambition.

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Edward Mak – Biology (Oxford) To me, the dynamic interdependence displayed between the twenty various species in the Khao-Kheow Zoo 'African Savannah Zone' encapsulates how everything in biology has its unique purpose within its respective system. Aged 6 at the time, my bombarding of queries to my mother as to why animals behave and interact the way they do still underpin the fascination I have for Biology. More recently as a Lab Assistant at the University of Hong Kong, I speculated that a mouse's MC3T3 embryo cell could survive in the same medium as the A20 lymphoma cell. However, only by altering the concentrations of essential nutrients, growth factors, gases, pH, osmotic pressure and temperature were the MC3T3 cells able to culture. This experiment helped underlined to me that different cell types needed different conditions even if they derived from the same source. I further researched plasmid vector constructions; and I then explained the usage of the transformation of competent cells to my peers, emphasising how artificially selecting cells with desired genes could be beneficial in global issues in agriculture and biomedicine.

Similarly, I was fascinated by a lecture on how Fab fragments modification in antibodies were used to combat different types of diseases. Subsequently, I read about monoclonal antibodies and was intrigued by how oncologists could use checkpoint inhibitors, anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA-4 to interrupt immune checkpoint blockades between CTLs and cancer cells. My Hong Kong lab work with gene modification led me to read up on CRISPR and its editing of precise sequences in mutated cancer genomes. While CRISPR represents a scientific advancement in re-converting cancer cells back into healthy human cells, it could be corporately abused by becoming accessible only to the prosperous. This led me to write about the ethics and circumstances under which CRISPR usage should be permitted, concluding that it should only be used in fighting a myriad of genetic diseases as well as other diseases such as cancer and AIDS. In turn, I was struck by Dawkins "The Selfish Gene" which, using the example of baby swallows ejecting their unhatched siblings' eggs from the nest; he conveys that selfishness is an evolutionary advantage.

Such reading beyond my formal studies helped me achieve Bronze and Silver Awards in the Senior and Intermediate Biology Olympiads, respectively. As part of my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, I undertook to discover, via systematic sampling, that the

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biodiversity and the density of human civilisation had a negative correlation. I hypothesised that this was due to the increased amount of non-biodegradable plastic waste found approaching the city; this caused more organisms to asphyxiate, thus dramatically decreasing both the species richness and evenness. Building on this, I created an informative website and an online campaign during my National Citizen Service programme; this raised funds and awareness about bee conservation in the local area and their significance to our ecosystem.

As football captain, I displayed leadership and thinking skills when suggesting a formation change during the HKSSF final giving us a tactical advantage over the opposition; this arguably allowed us to win. As an intern clerk, I developed IT and analytical skills, better equipping me for the abundance of statistical interpretation in the biological field. In my gap year, I plan to observe the African plains, attend lectures on genetics and to shadow at pharmacy and pharmaceutical facilities which will inform my ultimate choice of which facets of biology I may develop as an undergraduate. The prospect of learning much more about a subject that covers a vast range of biological matters, from the most microscopic of levels to multiple colossal ecosystems is one I find exhilarating. Therefore, I look forward to the start of my university career in this fascinating field with genuine anticipation.

Emily Ma – Natural Sciences (Cambridge) In a recent lecture by Professor Valerie Gibson, I learned that protons in the LHC reach over 99 percent the speed of light before colliding, and I realized the huge technical challenges that had been overcome in getting this to work. This is a clear case of how Physics is one of the most important drivers of the development of technology. Without the urge to explain and test physics theories, many great projects would never be introduced. I find it amazing how a theoretical prediction of the Higgs boson from decades ago can be proven with the advance in technology.

Reading about the uncertainty principle in Feynman's book, I realized how this is related to quantum fluctuation and the CMB. After researching these areas further, I found that the Planck project is used to measure that fluctuation. It is stunning that its precision is to 149

a few millionths of a degree of temperature. Once again, I have realized how Physics and the development of technology have advanced each other in turn.

I became interested in astronomy after watching a BBC documentary called "Wonders of the Solar System" in the school astronomy club. I was amazed by nature's ingenuity and finished watching all the documentaries that same day because I could not resist such an elegant universe.

Further research related to the life cycle of stars showed me that a super red giant may undergo a supernova explosion, which could cause gravitational waves that I believe someday we will be able to detect, just as we have detected those from colliding black holes. An article written by Professor Terry D. Oswalt explained how the life cycle was discovered by observing and comparing H-R diagrams for different groups of stars.

Reading this illustrated for me another important aspect of being a scientist: patience and commitment. These very massive stars may implode and form a black hole from which nothing should escape. However, physicists never stop questioning, and the theory related to Hawking radiation has suggested that black holes will evaporate under certain conditions.

Excited by the first discovery of gravitational waves, I attended a lecture on LIGO and the LISA Pathfinder. Dr. Christian Trenkel explained how gravitational waves are detected using a laser interferometer; and how a signal is obtained when the waves are no longer in antiphase, due to stretching and squashing of the arms of the interferometer. I had this theory confirmed in a conceptually similar experiment that I carried out, in my school lab, by changing path difference between sound waves from different sources using a CRO and signal generator.

As a person full of curiosity about Physics and the universe, being a research scientist has always been my goal. At university, I hope to gain more theoretical knowledge and experimental experience to prepare me for my future career. Being a determined student, I never stop questioning and am capable of working independently. I have been to several public lectures so I can get used to studying at university quickly. I enjoy undertaking challenging questions, so I took part in the Physics Challenge and obtained a Gold Grade. Moreover, I obtained a Silver for Chemistry Olympiad and a Gold for Cambridge Chemistry Challenge.

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I believe that humanity has not yet reached the limit of its scientific discoveries; as someone who admires scientists and who dreams of becoming one, I would like to take part in the next generation of such discoveries. As I actively learn more about my areas of scientific interest, I become more aware that I have much to learn. Indeed, my decision to read Physics-related degree is both my first step and my commitment towards fulfilling this dream.

Juan Fernandez Pottecher – Natural Sciences (Cambridge) Organic chemistry is significantly explained by molecular orbital theory, a theory that models bond formation and, as a consequence, explains reactivity. But a complete understanding of such theory can only be obtained by comprehending quantum mechanics and, moreover, classical mechanics. In this way chemistry needs physics, and I am devoted to studying more than one science at university because modern research is not bound by the limits of one subject.

My motivation to study Physics and Chemistry started with Peter Wother's book, "Why Chemical Reactions Happen". It gave me a different perspective on science as I recognized the power in making assumptions when reading about thermodynamics. These assumptions allow us to draw conclusions that could not be reached with conventional mathematical methods. An example is how Gibbs Energy is derived by making a tiny statement such as "the temperature inside the system is the same as on the outside".

Furthermore, reading about how electromagnetism could be used to model ionic bonding, prompted me to question the effect an electric field would have on an ionic solution, so I set up an experiment in which the distribution of a coloured species of cations in an electric field was measured by red absorption with a laser.

Unfortunately, the equipment at my disposal proved impossible to calibrate accurately enough and no effect could be seen with the naked eye. Not to be discouraged by this, I continued my research of electromagnetism and found the answer by watching physics lectures posted online by Yale University. Modelling the solution as a conductor, the ions rearrange so that the electric field is zero inside and all the charges are on the interface of the solution with its surroundings. From this experiment, I learned to write more realistic plans as I refined my approach to estimating times and anticipating issues.

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Grossman's "The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms" drove my interest in organic chemistry and in reaction mechanisms in particular. Having achieved the Roentgenium award in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, I was invited to spend a weekend at the University of Cambridge, where I learnt more about organic chemistry and atomic orbital theory. I found the complex titrations and the measurement of the critical micelle concentration particularly interesting because they were new to me.

During the camp we were also given Wother and Keeler's, "Structure and Reactivity". The chapter on molecular symmetry was especially striking to me as I observed that Group Theory was being used. Here I could see yet another link between mathematics and chemistry. Self-learning how to program taught me how to read and select information effectively, this allowed me to write programs like a random Sudoku generator.

Furthermore, programming extended my interest in mathematics, leading me to achieve a Gold, Merit and Distinction in the UKMT Senior Challenge, Senior Kangaroo and AEA. As well as studying, playing the piano is very important to me, and I have a growing interest in cycling, having recently spent a week travelling and camping in the Lake District. At school, two friends and I run a club in which presentations are given on Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in the hope of sharing our expertise, and I have given talks such as an introduction to special relativity. Speaking about complex subjects like this is daunting, but in doing so I have found myself able to explain concepts with increasing clarity.

Besides the achievements listed above, I have received a Gold Award in the Chemistry Olympiad and a Silver in the AS Physics Challenge. Having been fascinated by discovery and investigation for a long time, these awards confirm my determination to study science at university and have a career in scientific research.

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We finish this chapter with a case study from another successful Oxbridge candidate and their particular approach to writing their Personal Statement.

Asha, Cambridge University (Mathematics with Physics) ‘When it came to writing my Personal Statement I was initially quite lost. I don’t like writing about myself and certainly not ‘showing off’ which I thought I had to do for Oxbridge. Once my tutors explained what the Personal Statement was I felt a bit better but still didn’t know where to start. Then one day in my Physics class I made a comment which the teacher said was outside of the syllabus but was a good idea. They suggested that I had a separate notebook to write down the interesting ideas I had about the subject that weren’t in the school syllabus and could then develop them outside of class. I did this and effectively kept a ‘thought journal’ of interesting ideas that I wanted to investigate further in my own time. I ended up doing this for my other subjects as well to explore the links between them. Once I had a few pages of notes I began to explore what I could do to develop my ideas. I took a few, free online courses to develop my ideas and improve my knowledge and planned some trips to Science Museums for further research. Trying to do this when I was tired from my school studies was mentally exhausting but I found it really helped when it came to writing the Personal Statement as all of the material was already there, it just had to be put into the right format.’

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Chapter 8 – The Interview

One of the aspects of an Oxbridge application that scares students the most is the thought of the interview. In this chapter we will very clearly explain the interview process and what the universities are looking for if they ask you for interview. The good news is that you have already overcome many obstacles if you have got to this point and the interview really gives you an invaluable opportunity to show the best of yourself, the passion you have for your subject and make you stand out from other candidates. As well as interview advice we will look at some example questions and what approach you should take in answering them. We will also see some case studies from previous students and their experience of the interview process to help you understand what to expect on the day itself.

Becky, Oxford University (Classics)

‘I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was invited to interview at the University of Oxford. I had gone through the entire process from completing my Personal Statement, sending off my UCAS application and even taking the CAT admissions test but none of it really seemed real. The day I got the letter invited me to interview however that changed and I started to panic once I thought I might actually stand a chance of getting in. With the help of my Personal Tutor we did a lot of work on what would happen during the interview and during the visit to Oxford in general as well as a mock interview which really helped. On the day I arrived in plenty of time so I wasn’t stressed or rushed and I can honestly say the interview went much better than I expected. In fact, I would even say that much of the experience was enjoyable as I was in the company of people who were world leading experts in my subject and I was having a conversation with them about it! I’m now in the second year of my degree and the interview seems like a distant memory but I know for a fact that if I hadn’t prepared properly for the interview then it would not have gone so well and I probably would not be here today.’

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General interview advice Cambridge and Oxford University are two of the few universities in the UK that still interview all of their prospective undergraduate students. This is due in part to the fact that they are still very much traditional universities with traditional values and beliefs but also because of the large number of applicants they get who have fulfilled, or are predicted to fulfil, the academic criteria required. As mentioned in the previous chapter the Personal Statement can help a student to stand out and of course there are the results from the admissions tests that can also sort the stronger students from the weaker ones. Still, with so many well qualified candidates applying, it can be the interview that is the deciding factor as to whether an application is successful or not. As such there is understandably a lot of anxiousness among students towards what could be a ‘make or break’ part of the Oxbridge application process. The good news is that with some practical advice and support the interview is something you can actively prepare for, and more importantly something that you can actually see as a positive opportunity to boost your chances of success and use to your advantage.

If you are applying to Cambridge or Oxford University then, if your application has got this far, you will have an interview, perhaps even two or three depending on your course. You will be alone usually with two or three people who will explore your interests, your knowledge and often some aspects of your Personal Statement. The interview is not a test designed to catch you out. It is an opportunity for the admissions tutors and academic staff to meet with you and get to know you better and see if you would be suitable for their course. It is designed to see how well you think on your feet about your ideas and views.

You should be able to defend views that you have, or have mentioned in your Personal Statement, but also be open to constructive challenges to those views. You should be able to present strong evidence to support your position but should also be open to the possibility of changing your mind if presented with compelling enough evidence to do so.

You can think of part of the interview as a friendly debate. There are fairly strict rules in place now in terms what can and cannot be asked at these interviews. It is certainly true that you could still be asked some unusual questions (see below for some examples) but these are meant to be thought provoking rather than difficult. The aim of these questions is to see how you approach a new problem, how you analyse it and try to solve it using logical

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reasoning. Often these questions will have no correct answer and the purpose of them is just to try to get the most out of you and to see how you think. This is the main thing the interviewers are looking for is an insight into how your mind works, to see if you would make a good Oxbridge student able to work independently and under pressure. Even without the unusual questions you should certainly be asked about things that you do not know about your subject area and you should get things wrong. If this happens then don’t think you have made a bad impression at the interview as it could be quite the opposite.

The interview and questions will obviously be given in English and the level of English of international students is expected to be good enough to cope with the interview but admissions tutors do understand that the final requirements for English may not be achieved until later in the academic year.

‘With specific regard to international students, they need Band 7.5 in IELTS overall, with 7 in every component. By the time of the interview, applicants would need to be operating at Band 6 at least, in order to be able to cope with the interview. International students should work especially hard on improving their English.’

Admissions Department, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Practical advice can be just as important when it comes to interview preparation. The student with time to spare on the day of their interview will be able to think much more clearly, and make use of their other preparations, than the student who is rushing and stressed. The following is a list of practical preparations that will help you be in the best frame of mind for the interview.

1. Know where you are going for your interview. This sounds obvious but because of the pooling system you may have an interview at a college that you did not apply for 156

so check the details carefully. You don’t want to be rushing across Cambridge or Oxford on the day of your interview because you realise at the last minute that you’ve turned up at the wrong college.

2. Give yourself plenty of time. One of the most important things on the day of the interview is not to have to rush. If you are travelling a long way to Cambridge or Oxford then perhaps consider staying over the night before the interview.

Sometimes the college you are applying to will give you the opportunity to do this.

This is especially true if there is more than one interview or you have to complete some kind of assessment as well as it can be a very long day. Make a list of your appointments and times and turn up in plenty of time, at least 20 minutes before you need to. This will give you the chance to calm yourself and collect your thoughts before the interview takes place.

3. Plan your day. As well as making a list of your appointments you can also have a map of Cambridge or Oxford with the location of the college you will be going to.

Remember these universities are collections of colleges that are spread all over the city so make sure you know where you are going beforehand. In addition to this some of the colleges themselves, with their old buildings, cloisters and quadrangles, can be difficult to navigate around so try to obtain a map of the college and the exact room that the interview will be taking place. If you have left yourself plenty of time as suggested above then you will be able to locate your room or ask for directions if it is not clear. Have the phone number of the Admissions Office handy as well as the Porter’s Lodge which you will normally have to go to when you first arrive at the college. It is worth bringing some kind of entertainment, your phone and charger or a book as you may be waiting around in between appointments for a long time. You may even be interviewed by several colleges over several days in the case of Oxford so make sure you have enough money for food and travel if you need it.

4. Make an effort in your presentation. Both Cambridge and Oxford say that it doesn’t matter what you wear for your interview. However, first impressions count for a lot and you should make the effort to look smart and presentable. You don’t have to wear a suit but you should definitely not be wearing jeans and trainers. Body language is important too at the actual interview. When you first meet the

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interviewer then smile and shake their hand and be confident. Sit up straight and look the interviewers in the eyes when you are talking to them.

5. Prepare for the interview properly. Think about what the interviewer is trying to gain from this. They want to know that you have a real passion for your subject, you have good existing knowledge of the subject and course you have applied for, and that you have academic potential and are intellectually ambitious to achieve more.

You will therefore be asked why you want to apply for the course and what you have done already to prepare yourself for it. You must know your subject outside of the school syllabus and it is also worth reading through the course outlines before the interview so you know some of the detailed elements of the course that you are interested in. Also you should make sure that you know your Personal Statement well as it is almost certain to be commented on and discussed in the interview. Take a copy with you so you can read it and remind yourself before the interview.

Remember your SAQ Personal Statement too if you are a Cambridge candidate.

6. Relax and try to enjoy yourself. If you have prepared well then you should be able to view the interview as a positive experience. Not many people get the chance to come to these universities for interview so you have already achieved a lot just to get this far. You are going to be talking to subject experts, often world renowned ones, so if you truly do have a passion for your subject then that prospect should excite you.

Are the interview questions really as bad as I have heard?

The Internet abounds with stories about impossibly difficult and bizarre interview questions such as: How would you poison someone without the Police finding out?

If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?

Is it morally wrong to attempt to climb a mountain?

Does a girl scout have a political agenda?

What would you do if I were a magpie?

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So are these stories true? Do Oxford and Cambridge interviewers really ask potential students such odd questions? Well, yes, sometimes they do. In fact all of the examples listed above are real questions from Oxbridge interviews (in order; Law (Cambridge), Music (Oxford), Theology (Oxford), Law (Oxford), Natural Sciences (Cambridge)). So why are such questions asked at a university interview? Well, firstly these questions are often asked in particular context which the stories on the Internet never bother to mention. There may have been a whole conversation or discussion in the interview leading up to the question which then makes that particular question seem much more reasonable. It is also important to realise that these questions are not designed to test what you already know but how you think and approach a new problem. They give you the opportunity to show your critical thinking skills and real ability and potential in unfamiliar circumstances with new ideas.

Indeed many of the questions will have no definitive answer. What is important is how you approach the problem of solving or answering the question and not the solution itself. Let’s take an example from the list above and break it down.

Does a girl scout have a political agenda? (Law, Oxford) One might be forgiven for answering quite quickly ‘no, of course not, a girl scout is a young child and so she wouldn’t have a political agenda’ but clearly that’s far too obvious for an Oxbridge interview. It might be a good approach to think your initial reaction in your head only and spend a few seconds thinking about the question in a bit more detail before you answer.

Let’s start by defining a political agenda. An agenda is a set of underlying intentions, motives or beliefs held by a person or group that they try to get across to others either openly or covertly. Something is political if it is related to the government or in the public affairs of a country or society. So a political agenda is an agenda that is somehow concerned with, or tries to influence, either government or public affairs in society.

Now let’s move on to the Girl Scout. The Girl Scouts is an organisation that prepares girls to empower themselves and promotes compassion, leadership and active citizenship through various activities often involving members of the community. As such the organisation has a set of views and beliefs that they look to promote or enact through their activities. That means that the Girl Scouts organisation has an agenda. This agenda is concerned with, and 159

tries to influence, public affairs in the community or society at large. Therefore the Girl Scouts organisation could be said to have a political agenda. The Girl Scout herself is a member of that organisation and tries to promote its views through her actions. In that sense one could argue that a Girl Scout does have a political agenda.

You could argue that an agenda implies a sense of intention and the Girl Scout herself is too young to be aware of the intention behind the actions she performs on behalf of her organisation. So a better question might be to ask does the Girl Scouts organisation have a political agenda and that perhaps has a clearer answer. At this point however, if you have talked through your reasoning above, then the interviewer is satisfied that have approached the question in a logical manner. It would be beneficial to talk this through with the interviewer so that they are aware of your thought processes. That’s what they want to see after all. These kinds of questions don’t have a set answer so you need to demonstrate how you approach the problem and talking out loud is a good way of showing how you are doing this.

Below we have some presented some other questions that you might want to look through and think about. Perhaps you could try to work out which subject they are being asked for?

Try to think about how you would work through the solutions logically and what steps in the process you would take. Again it might help to ‘think out loud’ and talk through your thought processes with a friend or teacher or just to yourself. Practising this will mean that you are much less likely to be surprised by a question on the day of the interview and are better equipped to demonstrate the skills that the interviewer is looking for in asking them in the first place.

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Here is a list of three compounds, A, B and C. Which one is most soluble? (A, B and C will be specific simple compounds which the candidates should recognise.)

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Ladybirds are red. So are strawberries. Why?

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Instead of politicians, why don’t we let the managers of IKEA run the country?

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If you could design a building anywhere in the world, and if money, space and time were unlimited, what would you design?

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Do bankers deserve the pay they receive? And should government do something to limit how much they get?

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How many ways are there of getting from one vertex of a cube to the opposite vertex without going over the same edge twice?

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Imagine we had no records about the past at all, except everything to do with sport – how much of the past could we find out about?

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Here's a cactus. Tell me about it.

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If you could save either the rainforests or the coral reefs, which would you choose?

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Place a 30cm ruler on top of one finger from each hand so that you have one finger at each end of the ruler, and the ruler is resting on your fingertips. What happens when you bring your fingers together?

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Is violence always political? Does 'political' mean something different in different contexts?

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What does it mean for someone to ‘take' another's car?

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If the punishment for parking on double yellow lines were death, and therefore nobody did it, would that be a just and effective law?

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How hot does the air have to be in a hot air balloon if I wanted to use it to lift an elephant?

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What is language?

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Why is income per head between 50 and 100 times larger in the United States than in countries such as Burundi and Malawi?

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I'm having trouble with the meaning of three words: Lie, Deceive, Mislead. They seem to mean something a bit similar, but not exactly the same. Help me to sort them out from each other.

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A ball, initially at rest, is pushed upwards by a constant force for a certain amount of time. Sketch the velocity of the ball as a function of time, from start to when it hits the ground.

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An experiment appears to suggest Welsh speakers are worse at remembering phone numbers than English speakers. Why?

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Is someone who risks their own life (and those of others) in extreme sports or endurance activities a hero or a fool?

Oxford University have a very useful list of questions by subject on their website at http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/guide/interviews and it is well worth having a look at some of the questions related to your subject area to give you a better idea of how to prepare for the interview.

Don’t forget the obvious It is just as important to realise that as well as some less obvious questions designed to see how you approach a problem you will also be asked many ‘normal’ questions which require just as much thought and preparation. Don’t just prepare for the bizarre and forget the obvious. It’s amazing how many students seem unprepared for the simple question ‘why do you want to study this subject?’ This should be the first thing the student knows better than anything else before worrying about being able to determine the mass of well-known landforms with kitchen implements. Here is a list of standard interview questions that you should be prepared to answer. 

Why do you want to study [your subject] at university?

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Why do you want to come to this university?

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Why did you choose Cambridge University rather than Oxford (and vice versa)?

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Why did you apply to this college?

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Why did you make an open application (if applicable)?

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What are you planning to do in your gap year (if applicable)?

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What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are?

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Are there any extra-curricular activities you are interested in at this college?

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What are your future plans after university?

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Why did you choose the subjects you are currently studying at A Level?

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Why should we offer you a place?

At the end of the interview you are often given the chance to ask questions to the interviewers yourself. Don’t feel that you have to but if something has come up during the course of the interview then feel free to ask for clarification. Perhaps there was a topic or idea you didn’t quite fully get and want to do some background reading. Perhaps you could ask what research post-graduate students tend to go on to or what career paths they follow after university. Again, this is a good way of showing your enthusiasm for your subject. You should limit this to one or two questions though and make sure you don’t ask anything that you would otherwise just be able to read from the university websites as this shows a lack of research and thought.

The importance of interview practice One of the best forms of help or advice that my school gave me was a mock Oxbridge interview. This was by far the worst interview I have ever given in my life but it was vitally important in ensuring that I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes for the real thing. I entered the interview, with the two interviewers being teachers I very much liked and admired, full of confidence and self-assuredness that I was going to impress and left feeling completely inadequate and humiliated. I made too many mistakes, panicked and tried to support arguments and views that I did not truly believe because I thought that was what they wanted to hear. I was trying too hard to show that I would be what I thought was a good Cambridge student rather than trying to be myself and it backfired terribly. If mistakes are pointed out to you then acknowledge them and reflect upon those mistakes. It is much better to change your mind upon reasoned reflection and evidence then it is to arrogantly try to support an argument that you know is flawed. Although I felt terrible after that mock interview it meant that I could become better prepared for the real thing, which seemed relatively comfortable in comparison. I am absolutely convinced that if I had not had the experience of that mock interview then I would not have successfully received an offer from Cambridge University. At Abbey College Cambridge we offer several mock interviews to all of our Oxbridge candidates for all subjects giving advice on effective ways to deal with the demands of the interview process.

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You can also view some very useful mock interviews that Cambridge University have put together to help prospective students prepare and know what to expect in their interview here www.emma.cam.ac.uk/admissions/video/interviews/ Oxford University also have some very good advice for students preparing for interview on their website at www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-tooxford/guide/interviews

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Chapter 9 - What happens next?

In this final chapter we look at what happens after you have had your interview at Cambridge or Oxford University. In some cases you will have multiple interviews, be interviewed by a college other than the one you applied to or be placed in a ‘pool’ which we will discuss firstly in this chapter. The important thing here is not to worry or panic. Any of these scenarios could happen and none of them mean that your application has been unsuccessful. Once your interviews are over you can try to relax and get back to your normal school life. Reflecting on your interview at this point tends not to be helpful or predictive in any way. We have had many students who have felt that the interview went badly but have subsequently been offered a place and vice versa. There is no point trying to predict what will happen at this point. After considering the pooling process we will then look at the time frames involved between interview and receiving ‘the letter’ from Cambridge or Oxford and consider what happens next if you are unsuccessful in your application or if you have been given a conditional offer of a place. Either way you will have done well to get through the process to this point and there is a lot of value to be gained from this even if you have been unsuccessful this time round.

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The pooling process Once your interview at Cambridge and Oxford is over you can breathe a sigh of relief, for now at least, as the most difficult part is arguably over. What actually happens next depends a bit on which university and which course you’ve applied for. In some cases you will have multiple interviews, for example you will generally have two interviews for courses such as Theology at Cambridge and Medicine at Oxford. We have already mentioned the pooling process briefly in Chapter 3 – Which University and College Should I Choose? and whilst the technicalities of what happens at Cambridge and Oxford are slightly different it doesn’t really affect the success of your application.

If you are pooled before the interview then as we have already mentioned you may have had your interview at a different college to the one you applied to. This is to give strong applicants a chance to still make a successful application if they happen to have applied to a college or course that is over-subscribed. This isn’t a reflection of your performance and is usually done automatically in the main admissions office. If you’ve had an interview at your chosen college you may still be pooled and at Oxford University this means that you are likely to receive a second interview by another college at the same time, or close to, your first interview. However, just because you are interviewed by a second college at Oxford this does not mean that you have not been successful at your first choice so you can still receive an offer from them. The interviews at Oxford tend to last for two or three days and the pooling process happens at the same time meaning that decisions are made quite quickly.

At Cambridge University most students will only be interviewed at one college and the colleges have a bit longer to make their decisions so you may be pooled later. You may be told that you have been placed in the ‘winter pool’ at Cambridge which means that although your original choice of college will not be offering you a place you are still considered a strong candidate and other colleges may want you. In this instance you may be asked to attend another interview in early January though this is increasingly unusual. Once more try not to read too much into this if it does happen, it means that your application still has a chance of being successful.

After all the interviews and the relief that the application process is over there is the agonising wait for the letter saying whether you have been offered a place or not. It’s easy to say but try to put it out of your mind as at this point, the decision is out of your hands. I 166

have heard some students saying that they felt the interview didn’t go well and that they wanted to contact the tutors directly to try to change their minds. Don’t. If you are successful in contacting these tutors it will only take up their valuable time in a process that has already been decided and is more likely to work against you. Similarly when you actually receive the letter don’t think, as I did due to a rumour going around our school, that a thick letter indicates an acceptance whereas a thin letter indicates a rejection (most colleges now email in the first instance in any case). My acceptance letter was incredibly brief but it was definitely an acceptance. Worrying about these matters that are out of your hands will only make the waiting even more torturous. The key thing is to try and relax and not overanalyse the situation. Time frames vary from college to college and from year to year so if you haven’t heard within a few weeks then it is not a real indication one way or another. The simple fact is that you have already done a lot of things right to get to this point. There are many positives to be taken from an Oxbridge application and experience of the process regardless of whether you get in or not. Ironically, being able to handle rejection from one of these great institutions is a characteristic befitting an Oxbridge candidate.

The Oxford University website states that candidates should know by the second week of January at the latest if they have been successful or not with Cambridge University taking slightly longer, because of their winter pooling process and potential extra interviews, but no later than the end of January.

If you are unsuccessful I always advise my students before making an Oxbridge application that they need to be prepared for a rejection. As mentioned in our introduction, given the number of students who make Oxbridge applications each year, statistically rejection is the most likely outcome.

So prepare yourself mentally beforehand and always have a back-up plan. Still, if you have been unsuccessful then you will receive notification between December and mid-to-late January. Although you will no doubt be disappointed you should still congratulate yourself for getting to this stage. Not many people have had the opportunity to put forward an application to the Oxbridge universities so you should still be proud of your achievements and understand that there is still a lot to be gained from the process.

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If you have been rejected but your grades and performance in other admissions criteria have been good then you may want to get some feedback. You can contact the admissions tutor at the college that you applied by letter or by email via the admissions coordinator of the programme you were hoping to study. Time frames and the levels of detail that they provide can vary but if you really want to have some feedback then this is a route you can take. If it seems to be simply a case of ‘bad luck’ and your grades and other criteria are good enough then you might want to consider reapplying the following year if your heart is set on an Oxbridge place. Neither Cambridge nor Oxford disadvantage students who apply a second time round. It could be that if a certain level of experience or maturity was missing from your application the first time round this could be enhanced and make it into your application the second time. Be very sure if this is what you want to do however as it means another year of doing something that must be considered worthwhile before you can go to university and there is no more guarantee of success the second time round as there was the first. Also remember that an undergraduate degree is not the only route to Oxbridge as my own educational journey is evidence of.

More details of the feedback process can be found at the Cambridge University website here: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/decisions/feedback or at the Oxford University website here www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-tooxford/decisions/feedback It may be the case that you were given a conditional offer but then failed to get the grades required. If that is the case then your conditional offer will be withdrawn and although you can contact the admissions tutors at this point it is very unlikely that the college will change their mind. If there were genuine extenuating circumstances as to why you did not fulfil your potential in the exams, for example for medical reasons, then you should make sure that the admissions tutor is aware of this before results day via a letter from your school. It is possible for the college to change their minds on withdrawing their offer but you should be aware that this is only likely if a request for extenuating circumstances has been successfully made to the exam boards and there would need to be some strong evidence, such as a UK doctor’s certificate, to support your request. Again if you do not meet the required grades it is not impossible to retake the exams the following year and reapply.

Once more you should check with the college you have applied to as some colleges at both 168

Cambridge and Oxford University have, in the past, not favoured candidates who have had to retake exams to meet the criteria. In other instances, I have helped students in precisely these circumstances secure a place. Don’t forget that Cambridge and Oxford are only two universities and there are some excellent universities across the UK that regularly come above Oxbridge in league tables for certain subjects and research. Although you will be disappointed if you are not successful in an Oxbridge application if you are a good student then you will still have a very bright future ahead of you at a top UK university.

“Every year we interview more candidates who would be successful studying an Oxford or Cambridge course than we can accommodate.

We do our best to select fairly, but we know that, despite our best efforts, the selection process is fallible. We turn down candidates whose subsequent performance at other universities and career achievements demonstrate that they are more talented and interesting people than a good few of the candidates we accept.

Hence we hope you will not view the outcome as your failure; it may well be ours.”

Susan Stobbs, Admissions Tutor.

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About Abbey College Cambridge

Abbey College Cambridge is recognised as one of the very best schools in the UK for international students. At Abbey, ambitious students from more than 40 countries come together to live and learn at the heart of the world’s most prestigious University City.

On campus, class sizes are small and teaching personal. Exceptional teachers employ the best methods and use the latest technology to immerse students in each subject, delivering knowledge and passion. Every year, Abbey Cambridge students achieve some of the top academic results in the country.

The college’s unique Pre-Degree Diploma programme supports each student’s university application, helping them to gain deeper knowledge and skills in the subject they plan to study at university. The college also provides specialist preparation in areas like application to Oxbridge, Medicine and Law. In recent years more than 60 Abbey Cambridge students have progressed on to study at Oxbridge colleges, and more than 200 have moved on to a top 5 UK university. Every year 90% of Abbey Cambridge students secure a place at their first choice university.