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

@Indicative. Thanks for posting that link. I don't understand the logic though. Aptitude is a measure of inherent ability. It can't be taught, so what grounds are there for contextualising it?

HAT scores and other aptitude test scores can certainly be improved upon with guidance and practice. Some schools offer both, others offer nothing. It's entirely right that scores should be contextualised. I'm sure Oxford would prefer that no schools helped but when you're looking at certain schools with dedicated university/ Oxbridge members of staff, they're not going to ignore the importance of the aptitude tests. They've been supporting pupils with these things for years.

thetideishigh I'm not sure I'd share that view, that Medicine is somehow apart (let alone above) other subjects. If the way the course at Oxbridge is taught is the sort of way you think you'd like to learn most, then the fact that the course is Medicine is no different to any other. Oxbridge Medicine is distinctive, so if that's what you're after in terms of science and tutorials then getting an offer from Oxford/ Cambridge will matter to an applicant quite a lot.

Interviews are their weakness so the Oxbridge admissions thing worries me more than Russell group Uni selection process.

But everywhere (or more or less everywhere, if not?) interviews for Medicine...?

Yes. Medicine probably isn't the ideal subject to go for if you don't feel comfortable with interviews....

But Hugo what would any applicant do differently if they knew the tests were contextualised? GCSEs have been contextualised for years. Do kids approach them differently as a result? It seems completely neutral to me although ironically grammars will be taxed fairly heavily and yet at our school - a good grammar - no help whatsover is given for any aptitude test other than BMAT. Not a dicky bird. For the CAT DD was completely on her own and simply read the Oxford website. Same as her siblings for their various aptitude tests. And yet contextualisation (given what the Merton piece says) will deduct points to quite a marked degree. But all she could do was what she did - knowing she'd be docked some marks wouldn't have affected what she did in any way.

What I mean is that I genuinely don't see why 'knowing' will make a jot of difference to anything, at any stage.

You banned apologies Hugo!

But that 15% figure has just been plucked from the air. I doubt it's anywhere near 15%.

The fact remains that the way your DS's school is able to teach, given its resources and the motivated student body, will put your DS at a significant advantage compared to schools at the other end of the educational spectrum.

Do we have any evidence that contextualisation of aptitude tests at Oxford has happened in other departments or only History ? Pretty sure I read the Physics dept report re 2019 entry and did not pick up any changes .

And Eton apparently hasn't felt a particular pinch, which you'd have expected it to, so probably too much shouldn't be made of contextualisation.

@goodbyestranger

So do the admissions department get told how much of an advantage a random student may have in a test that is designed to be a measure of aptitude? Perhaps a BME state school kid is the offspring of a history teacher or is tutored to within an inch of its life or goes to an Oxbridge factory like Brampton Manor? Are they just given the benefit of the doubt and adjusted upwards and all the so called "privileged" kids penalised in some arbitrary way for having parents who invested in their education? Is there any evidence that students can be prepped for a test that is meant to be a measure of inherent ability? I thought the whole purpose of an aptitude test was that you couldn't be prepped for it?

Isn't this just a means of socially engineering the cohort to meet targets?

It's not the only measure though MKDKIOH, for starters. I assume you don't want answers to those question . I also assume that you're a parent who 'invested'. In which case, think yourself lucky that you were in a position to 'invest'. Bleating about the inequity of contextualisation is rather wasted on me I'm afraid - grammar school kids (like mine) probably fare the worst on that score!

Oops. Questions not question.

The kids in good schools are privileged educationally, so there's not really such a thing as 'so-called' in this context.

Apologies if I'm missing something here but reading the Merton admission notes on history it talks about contextualised GCSE scores and separately about HAT. Surely that means only the GCSE score was contextualised and not HAT?

Hugo I'm absolutely sure that FOI requests will be hurtling towards Oxford as we speak!

Yes, fair point about apologies.

Normalising within the family could just as easily be characterised as additional pressure though, to be fair.

sandy I thought that then read further down - it does seem explicit.

DD4 hasn't asked for her CAT score so I don't have any comparative info from that.

@sandybayley, the Merton article clearly states that the HAT is contextualised on p5.

@hobbema - you're right. Sorry was looking at section 5 not page 5. Misleading to not state it consistently throughout the document!