Oxford / Cambridge - current students support / chat thread

[DadDadDad]

Continuing a thread for anyone who wants to talk about their sons' and daughters' experience being a student in Oxford or Cambridge. (Or nephews, granddaughters, sisters, uncles - or if you or they have now graduated but you want to share your thoughts - all are welcome!)

I have a DS in his second year at Oxford, studying a small humanity in a tiny college.

Over to you...

Different perspective here but I think DS1 (C) found it very helpful to know his ranking, otherwise no one ever gets any idea of their academic 'level' each week until the end of year exams. It can spur you on rather than deter you - but I can also see that for some people, it might feel off-putting.

As the vast majority achieve a 2:1 in the end, I doubt a future employer will look into exactly how you ranked in your cohort, if they're willing to take people who get less than a First. Given the entire cohort is pretty high performing in any case, it doesn't really matter if you're not at the top of that cohort. I do see how for some people though, the whole idea of any hierarchy might be really awful.

@Ginpostersyndrome

Did anyone else read this article? www.varsity.co.uk/features/22360

Is this the case for every subject at Cambridge? (The ranking within cohort).

I think from what my DD said, the engineering department lets them opt in or out of the rankings. I'm not sure what she did, we certainly didn't ask; she had a pretty realistic idea of her position within the cohort anyway.

Aside from the ranking issue, the young woman sounds rather sneery - saying things (friends/mental health) matter more to her than academics, as if the other schmucks are unrounded losers. She wants to be a writer donchaknow, not a poxy English teacher like some of her compatriots. And that business about the £4.50 coffee. Here’s a tip: you can make coffee in your room.

It sounds as if her place would have been appreciated more by another student, given that she says she doesn’t like reading. Whoever let the madam in in the first place?

When DS got the results of his first year exams, the information included where he ranked in the year group of 600ish students.

Thanks everyone. That's interesting. I just hadn't come across it before.
I agree that I don't think she comes across well in the article.
I don't know how DD will feel about it. She has no sense of where she sits in her cohort (I imagine one might get more of a sense in a science subject where you're working with others more?)

Ranking is a thing for DS's subject. Like @mutterphore's DS, my DS also likes to benchmark his progress. It is essentially the same as knowing your subject ranking at school (teachers gave this out at parents evenings at DC's school). I don't have a problem with ranking, whether for an exam, a road race or any other competitive situation.

@DottyHarmer, it does appear that the writer of the article is/was reading the wrong subject at the wrong university.

She's no good at maths either (if you came 182/233, you're not the 182th-worst...)

I haven't seen ranking since I was at school myself, and even then not all subjects did it. But I did wonder what the writer was doing reading English, if she doesn't much like to read.

Ranking applies to some parts of NatSci. In year 2 (I think) DD needed to come in the top 40 to be guaranteed a place on the Materials Science option for year 3. Had she ranked in the low 40s, she might have been lucky if someone higher ranked decided to take another option. I don't know her exact ranking (nor do I care) as I know she came in the top 40 and was most definitely not top. The reason for the cap on numbers is due to lab space.

I have mixed feelings about rankings. We don't do it at my school generally. When we had to do the Centre Assessed Grades in 2020, it was so hard to rank our GCSE cohort of 16 as they each had different strengths. You can have amazing full-marks performers who suck at composing but are perceptive listeners and all sorts of variants. Last year's was simpler, as rankings weren't required. However, I know who my "pretty sure to get a 9" people are, my "I hope they get a 7" lot and the rest are in the middle.

Hi hoping for help on Jan term dates . DS fresher at O can go back to College in Jan on Thursday of 0th week . Any clue when that is ? I’m confused by term and full term and DS not much help . Need to book day off .

The Full Term dates are here, and an explanation that full term is 3/4 of whole term.
And Cambridge weeks start on a Tuesday so I'd guess tues 18th jan is the start of week 1 so the Thursday of week 0 would be the 13th?

https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/term-dates-and-calendars

Maybe he should ask a porter, presumably they know when the undergrads are coming and going.

To rank objectively you need exams @Malbecfan. CAGs are inevitably subjective with effort and diligence, for example, being rewarded rather than the skill to pass exams.

Thanks Errol - Trying to get him to remember to ask someone who actually knows is a bit frustrating ! I think it’s 13th but then Term as opposed to Full Term seems to start on 7th so now I’m not sure

www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/dates-of-term

There you go Limegreenpink I've just had to do the same calculation as DD now needs to book a ferry to get from our new home back to Oxford. Thursday 13th is what I've got too.

Thursday of 0th week at Oxford will be 13th Jan

Apologies I gave the dates for Cambridge, though it looks like they may be the same for next term at least

@ofteninaspin we did have performances already recorded plus compositions either completed or almost done. We used the mock exam done under exam conditions with an external invigilator. However, performances are normally externally moderated and compositions marked entirely externally. It made for some tricky conversations. I have told my current year 11s to take every assessment seriously in case we need to use it.

Rankings is a thing for DS subject (Maths). He was very pleased with his ranking out of 190 students for last academic year. For some it can be very motivating, but equally crushing for others

I think lots of people opted out of the maths rankings over the past couple of years, including dd. I seem to remember they didn't bother with them this year. I hate rankings. It's terrible for mental health. I don't think academics should be competitive in that sense.

Terrible article (even I picked up on that statistics boob) but interesting topic. DS doesn't know his ranking for engineering -- probably a good thing. OTOH, given how much work he'd missed, he didn't do as disastrously as he might have...

I'm still surprised that DD gets her marks in percentages. It was all alpha, beta, gamma in my day. Another dinosaur moment.

Turns out DS doesn’t know his ranking and wants to… does anyone know how to find out? I don’t think he found anything on Camsis. (OTOH, “eyes have they and see not” as my DM would say…)

Does anyone have experience of Joint Tenancy Agreements?

DD has just sent hers through for us to check and it's a bit alarming that if one person drops out the rest have to cover their rent. Oxford rent is a far cry from the £9 a week I paid in Leeds in the 1980s!

Is there any form of simple legal agreement which would legally oblige each of them to pay their share even if they leave?

whiteroseredrose D1 is living in a houseshare this year and we had to argue over her tenancy agreement - each person had to have a guarantor, but the original agreement said that you could be responsible for the whole rent, rather than just for one person's rent. They changed it after an email exchange. This was a private landlord rather than through the university (Oxford). Ikwym about the rents - D1 and her friends (there are six of them altogether) are paying £600pm each for an 11 month contract.

@whiteroseredrose - apparently you can opt out of the JTA. Say that you want to stand guarantor for your own child and no one else and they will adjust the agreement. I found this out too late, so I hope DS's housemates don't default!