Oxbridge Aspirants: Sep 2021

[funkysatsuma]

Not sure if it's too early to start this thread in Nov 2019 :)

DS would like Cambridge Economics as the first choice. Would like to know where can we get some help to prepare for the ECAA test - appreciate any pointers/links. Thanks in advance

DD2 had a fairly forensic examination of her personal statement at Oxford hobbema, across the interviews, and both DSs had comments thrown at them which very clearly indicated that the personal statements had been thoroughly read. It seems to be very college dependent, as so much is.

Writing personal statements is hard: you kind of need to master the “humblebrag” .... So not “I was elected president of the History Society at my school” but “My role as President of the History Society at school has afforded me the opportunity to...”.

Ds too was grilled on PS at interviews for History. It is college and interviewer dependent. Some questions were nice, some nasty!

Hello.

Can I join please?

My Dd is going for medicine at Oxford. She has done the first draft of her PS, and has been having extra sessions via teams from her school on BMAT (and UCAT for other universities).

She's not too fussed about one particular college as she is going for a choral/organ scholarship so there might be some movement after that audition depending if she gets offered one. I think she has to put four colleges down (or maybe more?) on her audition form, and fingers crossed that process can happen in person in September at Oxford rather than remotely. Lots of scholars apparently get offered a different college entirely to any they put down, so she's trying to keep a very open mind.

She was in the UCAS-run seminar on Oxbridge entry last week. I don't know if anyone else was? She said it was very informative and that UCAS said deferral rates for both Oxford and Cambridge were very low indeed, and not at all like other universities this year. The unknown is how results will affect that though of course!

Hi
I'm also new round here and we are currently in the throes of trying to help DS2 sort out where he wants to go to. He'd like to apply to Oxford for Maths, but we're not too clued up on how to support him. He was going to apply to Cambridge but he was put off by the thought of all the exams at once. Plus his school said they couldn't give him "anything extra" to help (!)
In terms of his schooling, he is currently taking Maths, Further Maths, French and music. Since lockdown there have been no lessons online, and work set via Show my Homework only. He has had to teach himself as he goes along and just get on with it. It's pretty poor but it's a city school of 2000 pupils and they are stretched in many ways.
So..at this stage, reading from other posts, he should start work on a personal statement; are there any websites that could be helpful with this? Anything else we should be doing?
He has got a place on the Sutton Trust summer school coming up soon which he's pleased with!!

@AFingerofFudge hi, we're state school and have not yet started on the PS yet, although the last few posts on this thread is making me panic!

Our school has given one online talk about making Oxbridge applications, but it seemed more discouraging than encounraging

We have one DC looking at to read Maths and one DC looking at MFL. I'm hoping both will make an Oxbridge application (don't ask, don't get) but they both think they would prefer to go to a London university...

Yes, I'm not sure Oxford is his preference, but only because he doesn't really know anything about it. He's also looking at Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol. Not sure where else to look for Maths- he's not keen on Warwick only because "someone " told him it's not great for music and he'd like to get involved with music stuff on the side (jazz, classical, piano, choir type stuff)

@ColePorter that was in answer to you!

@coleporter that's a shame it was discouraging! for what it's worth, Independent schools in my experience do the discouraging talk repetitively, time and time again.

Does anyone actually have any encouragement from school? (Rather than external person/outreach) I don't know.

@AFingerofFudge Birmingham do music seriously, and they have various awards and opportunities for those not studying music as a degree. Worth a look?

@ElephantAndButterfly good tip thank you- I'll get him to look

At Cambridge you have to study more than one language. Most people apply for one post A level with one ab-initio. My dad wasn't very taken by the Oxford courses which are very literature focused, whereas Cambridge ( in her opinion) MML courses are more broad.

@AFingerofFudge wait til he's got the summer school done and dusted. Then with his PS it's maths maths maths. That's all that really counts with a teensy bit about other Interats. But honestly Oxbridge is all about the subject!Similar background here - comprehensive kids: DS got into Cambridge for English, DD didn't make the cut fir Oxford maths. To be clear she got 4 A stars but her lack of Mat prep let her down. She ended up at Durham tho and loves it. It also gave her plenty of musical opportunities. Serious brass musician! Loads of musical
Stuff going on. Tell your boy to take a look xx

@TheoneandObi great info thanks (and great username!) He is definitely all about Maths so it won't be hard for him to focus on that in his PS.

Haven't seen an aspirant chemist declare their hand yet but if there is one I'm happy to share knowledge. DS1 is an offer holder for this year. He says the most useful thing for his application was an extended essay (kind of EPQ) his school requires pupils to do. I think it caught the eye of one of the tutors at the college he got pooled to as it's quite similar to his field of interest.

Worth noting that pooling is no bad thing. If you apply to an oversubscribed college the applicants get shared around.

@AFingerofFudge my DS has an Oxford maths offer. He didn't start working on his PS until August and it was definitely all maths. He eventually decided on Oxford rather than Cambridge because he liked the city more, he would rather know he'd not got a place earlier rather than later (due to STEP) and he liked the course slightly more.

I've just realised my post said 'dad' when it should have said 'dd' !

Please can I join in. Dd at a very good Indy but has had no support guidance or help so far, just been asked to have a very rough draft PS in on Monday.
Anyone else looking at E&M? Dd feeling hopeless looking at the stats although she has great GCSEs and predicted grades. Does anyone else have a child that has gone through this, we are floundering!

Ha ha, I wondered why your dad was getting involved, kaptainkaveman!

Oh, to add our school gave a breakdown of potentially the most likely outcome for A levels is that they are being pushed into July and we have been advised not to book holidays.
The second point was Covid depending there may be some teacher assessment involved but the likelihood is no predicted grades.
Has anyone else received this!

Knottylox DD is an offer holder for PPE & one of her good friends tripped at the final hurdle for E&M. He was at a very ordinary state school with 9×9 and an 8 for his GCSEs, but a lower mark than DD on his TSA. Sandybayley can recommend a good book to get your DD into the swing of the TSA.

Afingeroffudge* DD's experience on UNIQ this time last year formed the basis of her PS, along with her EPQ. I hope he enjoys the summer school even if it's not quite the same as he originally anticipated.

@Hogh do you think the interviews are solely based on TSA ? Do predicted grades also play a part? Can I ask what score did your adds friend achieve? How much practice is required?
Any book recommendations gratefully received.

@Knottylox - the book in question is 'Think You Can Think?: Cracking the TSA' by Minesh Tanna. DS1 really didn't do well on the TSA but fortunately for Chemistry (at least last year) it didn't really matter.

@Knottylox - the E&M stats are scary! DS1's school has a good Oxbridge record but for E&M the success rate is very low. But if you don't try you'll never know.

@sandybayley I wish I had a crystal ball and wish someone could offer advise.
Her school say she is a very credible E&M candidate, academically alls great clean sweep of 9s and predicted 4A* but she is going up against the schools super competitive all out must win, anything less than 98% is a fail, dual track Harvard and Oxford, national sports champ etc etc type.
With E&M being so competitive my poor Dd feels she’s lost before she’s started even though she has been working on super curricular since September. and feels compelled to switch her application to something completely different just so she won’t be compared against this girl. The school anticipates 1 offer for E&M.
Dd is very confident in her alternative selection but it’s not really what she would choose to do. What would you do? Encourage her to play her most confident card as an Oxford degree regardless is a great thing to have or would you work on her self confidence?