Oxbridge Applicants 2019

[evenstrangerthings]

The 2018 Oxbridge Applicants Thread was started at the end of August last year, but with many students now sitting internal school exams rather than public AS exams, many will have Year 12 results in hand and some will be starting to prepare for applications to Oxford or Cambridge University.

Let's support each other in supporting our kids through this process, which may involve extra exams, multi-day interviews and extra application statements.

Do feel free to join the thread, even if your DC is on the fence about making an Oxbridge application. It would also be great to hear from those who have been through the Oxbridge process before!

Interview dates by subject can be found here:
www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/guide/interviews

But not sure when interview invitations go out?

The invites for my DC have varied from three weeks ahead of the due date to four days ahead of the due date (two DC have had four days notice). Most have been ten days ahead though. But as I say, they can throw fast balls on the date - that calendar isn't in stone.

He has his heart set now. Studying Politics, Philosophy, History and English to A level. Will probably drop English if he drops anything.

Relatively few successful applicants to Cambridge offer just one facilitating subject. I'm not entirely clear how important this is for HSPS. It's worth checking to be certain. I'm sure others here will have more information on this.

If you get As at A level after A at GCSE, then great.

If you get A*s at A level after a mixed bag at GCSE then fantastic - tremendous progress and/or focus.

To a certain extent, Oxford aren’t hugely bothered by how well you do at A level. Of course you have to meet the entry requirements with confidence. You do not though, stand a massively improved chance by getting AAA* vs AAA for an arts subject, if you aren’t up to scratch at interview. Yes this does depend on subject.

Context is very important these days. AAA might be better from a comp, then AAA from st Pauls etc

TheFrendo with the caveat that if you're applying before A levels then Oxbridge looks at achieved grades. It also knows that some schools are over generous in their predictions (I'm absolutely not saying that's the case here because obviously I couldn't have a clue).

I also struggle with the logic that it's better to do better at A level after middling GCSEs than it is to achieve highly at both stages. There's no doubt that middling GCSEs can hold you back for Oxbridge.

Agreed plebblep. The published criteria/ feedback from certain colleges actually says this in terms: stage one for culling - does the applicant's predicted or achieved grades meet the minimum requirement? stage two - aptitude test scores? stage three - GCSE grades in particular number of A* achieved? (etc etc)

Can I therefore ask is DD's straight A's and one A (star) at GCSE and two A (star) and one A prediction for A2's is realistically enough? Last few posts have made me feel no so?

There's some contextual data to factor in and she did the UNIQ summer school, based on the GCSE grades, if the latter makes any difference?

Got to be in it to win it I guess.

I know we get bold failures, hence brackets.

I also struggle with the logic that it's better to do better at A level after middling GCSEs than it is to achieve highly at both stages.

I am not suggesting doing poorly at GCSE as a plan. Simply, that non-stellar GCSEs followed by top A levels demonstrates tremendous progress.

She got into UNIQ which by definition means she's a strong applicant on paper Justanothermile, but she was told that when she was at UNIQ surely?

From a high achieving indie or grammar that would be significantly weaker, obviously.

No Frendo but you are suggesting that it's fantastic as opposed to great! In fact it seriously compromises your chances at Oxford (and now Cambridge as well).

We are in Scotland and my son is applying for Jurisprudence at Oxford.

Maybe he's at an advantage, but maybe not; having done both National 5s [GCSE equivalent) and Highers he's got two sets of exam results to compare - all As (NB not A* in Scottish qualifications)

He's now doing Advanced Highers where the standard offer is AAB as they are considered harder than A level. He is predicted AAA. However, very few people are familiar with Scottish qualifications so he may be disadvantaged. His state school isn't familiar with Oxbridge application requirements and I think his application may be contextualised because of this.

Good luck to all!

Yes, she was told so, and had a lovely email sent to school. It is however tricky sometimes to keep that in mind as many have extremely stellar results and predictions. This seems to be particularly so on The Student Room, when I occasionally scan threads on there.

She'd be happy with all of her choices, and two others particularly so anyway. It will be what it is!

Coleoptera I’d echo what Goodbyestranger said about not overthinking the ELAT (can’t speak for the HAT as I haven’t had a DC sit it.)

DD did the ELAT a few years ago and got next to no guidance from her school (a high-achieving independent.) Maybe others give more, I don’t know. She did practice using the past papers on the website but had no real idea if she was on the right track. They were useful for getting the timing right though.

I’ve just had a quick look and see that they now have 3 examples of marked past papers on there with examiner comments and scores. I’d advise your DD to look at those very carefully as they show answers in the different bands and will give her an idea of the sort of thing they are looking for.

It is possible to do very well without much, if any, help from school. DD got 58/60 the year she sat it which put her in the top 10 or so (they issue a graph of the distribution of scores with the results.) Others may have had better/more preparation but in the end it comes down to picking out interesting comparisons and close reading on the day. There’s no formula to it (other than following the guidance on the website)

Best of luck to both your DDs

@Abilockhart I'd have thought Politics and Philosophy both counted towards HSPS - Politics being the Politics and international relations and Philosophy counting towards Social Sciences.

Any other DCs applied for Trinity College, Oxford? Law in particular?

I would love to share stories.

I haven't got a DC applying this year Aurea but DD4 might well apply for Law next year (if she doesn't go for Classics). DD1 and DD3 both read Law at Oxford though and graduated relatively recently. Not Trinity though, and DD4 won't apply to Trinity.

Thanks for the reply. You must have a very successful and bright family.

DS chose Trinity for the music scene, accommodation, food, Law Society, debating society and food! He didn't want to choose the most popular college.

Do you have any good and bad points to tell about Trinity.....

It seems to attract a more than average number of Etonians. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's for the bad list or the good list!

Central though, and nice gardens :)

Well my son goes to a Scottish comprehensive, so not exactly Eton. He does have self-confidence though and is used to all walks of life.

Cheers both :)

Coleoptera the aptitude tests offer a chance for those who aren't flagged by their schools as obvious candidates, so it's good for your DTs that Cambridge as well as Oxford now set so much store by them.

The aptitude tests try to have questions that are obscure - in that a candidate can't draw on their teaching at school - so no Tudors/Nazis/Cold War etc. Ds said something about dogs in history was on the paper when he did it. You didn't have to be a canine expert to answer, it was more of a reasoning and extracting information sort of exercise. Ds said he enjoyed it (he is the King of Waffle).

That's the source only Irma, the essay one is vague so that a student can adapt their A level teaching to whatever is asked. Admittedly the source bit carries way more marks. The same happens at interview - mine have had some very obscure sources (two of them twenty or so pages long) to read and discuss.

One year they had to discount the HAT because the thing was so incredibly obscure that no-one got what it was about :)