Oxbridge Aspirants 2022...Part 2...applications submitted now the tense wait!

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

Thought I would start a new thread as part one is nearly full and found thread one to be of great support.

So its deadline week this week for our applicants then the nervous wait begins to find out of they have made it to interview. DD applying for HSPS at Cambridge. We know it is a long shot but got to be in it to win it and she is very keen to try. Looking at the admissions info it does not look as though she will need to sit a test prior but all the best to those who will have to.

Can I join you all? DD has applied for Oxford. I thought I was all calm and collected but it turns out I am not. I cannot stand the waiting!

In 2019 DS1 got his Chemistry invite to interview on 29 November, the same day as his Durham offer. I know this as I have a happy photo on my phone

Mine for Law/ History/ Classics were 21st to 25th (all those subjects are first week of interviews); DS heard for Medicine on the set date.

@ProggyMat how did your DD get on today? DS said Latin was”ok”. Sigh. Every exam he’s ever written has been ok so frankly it’s hard to tell. Apparently the classics teachers thought it was hard and that the Horace extract a bit mean. His best friend did the Greek one too and thought part was hard.

His college email said not to expect to hear about interviews until at least 19 Nov. Must remember to check he uploads the course work.

Hmm ds is in the pub the night before TMUA. Working up to that student lifestyle I guess...

@Horace123 DD thought the Latin paper was truly horrendous with lots of obscure vocab and nothing like any of the previous practice CAT papers she has done.
If I had to sum up the general consensus from her peers and friends she met at summer school, it would be that they all felt ‘shafted’ by it.
DDs teachers didn’t see the paper(s) and as such haven’t commented on it/them.
In regard to the Greek paper, DD thought that was a better paper than the Latin but once again very heavy on obscure vocab and quite unlike previous ones
Anyhoo, they’re done now and next step is to email over her written work
The college DD applied to said interviewees would be contacted 7 days prior to interview which I believe for classics is W/c 6th December?

Good luck for everyone sitting the HAT tomorrow. When D1 did it, she found it quite difficult and had no idea how she had done, so don't worry too much if that's your DC's experience too.

@ProggyMat It’s interesting as 3 at DS’s school are applying for classics at Oxford (not all same course though). The one student thought Latin was awful - he is doing A levels. The other student (who did Greek too) also thought it was awful but for Latin he is slightly disadvantaged I think as he’s doing it for IB at standard level as his Greek is higher level. DS only one doing it at higher level for IB and syllabus is different. DS did say that they are not expected to know all the vocab (no one ever knows all the vocab) but people marking look to see how they handle it. Let’s hope so! I take no comfort in DS thinking it was ok because he always says that and it is in no way a good indication of how he has done - I suspect he just wants to avoid a lengthy post-mortem discussion with me about it.

Not sure if teachers saw paper or if kids found the verse and prose and showed them. But all the classics teachers (it’s a fairly big department) though the Latin was mean.

Going to encourage DS to upload coursework this week and then we can put it to the back of our minds.

@TerrifiedandWorried

Can I join you all? DD has applied for Oxford. I thought I was all calm and collected but it turns out I am not. I cannot stand the waiting!

Welcome! Pull up a chair! What's your daughter applied for?

Further good luck vibes for today's test takers!

Good luck to all with tests today! DD has her HAT. She has got herself in a bit of a state but I think she'll be fine once she's got the paper and can direct her energy.

I think it was the sheer volume of obscure vocab in the passages that they had to have an ‘educated guess’ at that shocked them. Particularly given A level is ‘vocab heavy’ and the previous CAT papers
DD had a good rant with colourful language ! 😂
A big thumbs up to winging the written off- DD has set herself a deadline of this Friday.

Law with German Law. It's a whole other world about which I know nothing. I am very much being led by her! She had excellent GCSE results and has excellent predicted grades for A level but it seems nothing is a given. Obviously I think she is amazing and totally deserves to go exactly where she wants but will they see that?!

Hand hold here for anyone currently biting their nails while there DC are sitting tests. I have brought DS to a private exam centre so am literally sitting in a hotel room with nothing much to do but catastrophise!! 😰. Roll on 11am ... unless he runs out screaming before then!

@kitnkaboodle That sounds so stressful! I was at work when DD did the LNAT. I must have checked my phone 1000 times. And then got told she had no idea how it went.

@kitnkaboodle - yep, keep looking at the clock and panicking here! It's not as if DS can even relax properly afterwards - he's got his first round of mocks next week and is worried about computer science, which he has completely neglected for several months.

We have promised him a pub lunch today, though :)

Messaged ds to check he had actually arrived and he replied to say he wasn’t allowed in the exam room as it was “too early” (20 min before start) so he was chilling in the library. Naturally I’ve convinced myself he hasn’t turned up, or gone late and been refused entry.

Can I join in? DS has applied to Oxford for Physics....other choices St Andrews, Bath, Warwick and Durham. He's just sat the PAT and found it really really hard so its going to be a long wait now to see whether or not it is enough to have secured an interview......

Hi @leonardo1972. My DS has just sat the PAT for physics too. Walking back at the moment but says it was really hard and there were several questions he couldn't start.

He's also applied to Durham, Bristol and Royal Holloway. He already has an offer from RH, which is his backup, and hasn't decided on his 4th choice. Think it's between Bath and Birmingham...

Any news @kitnkaboodle?

Hope all went well for the others with 'ATs' this morning.

Now we can breathe for a bit, @leonardo1972 and @foodledoff ... reunited with DS after the PAT. He seems satisfied with the way it went. This is his second go at it and he thinks he did better than last year (when he didn't get an interview), so it's a good result as far as I'm concerned! He's now off to meet a mate who is at the uni here (Oxford) and I can have a touristy afternoon. Trying to keep it all low key and not get too enthused about the Oxford vibe ...

Good to hear it went well @kitnkaboodle - hopefully second time lucky for him. Enjoy your touristy afternoon :)

Have a lovely time kitnkaboodle. If you haven't got to Blackwells yet they usually do really lovely advent calendars from Germany on the first floor.

Ah ... just loaded up with lovely Christmas stuff from the Bodleian library shop - including advent calendar!! Feels like Christmas here - it's freezing!

Would anyone know why some Cambridge colleges ask for written work and some don't? Presumably those that don't rely more on the interview? If you are applying to a college that doesn't want written work and you end up being pooled to a college that does, how does that work? Can they ask for written work later?

great choice im going there soon.

Oxford MAT ( sat yesterday) solutions are out. Probably best not to look at them !!