Applying to Oxbridge for 2023 intake

[riverpebbles]

Not sure if there is already a thread on this? My son is hoping to apply to Cambridge for Computer Science for October 2023 start.

DS has applied for Classics at Cambridge, Exeter (offer received), St Andrews, KCL and Edinburgh

Absolutely fab to hear of so many offers!!! Well done to you all and your DC’s.

Nothing received for DS but still very very early days. He has applied for Economics & MML at Oxford/Warwick/UCL/Kings College London/Durham

Currently focusing on admissions tests prep.

Comp sci at Cambridge, Manchester, Warwick, UCL and York (A3 offer received) here. Plus his twin going for Economics at Durham, Warwick, Loughborough, Southampton and tbc.

Acknowledgments from all 5 for DS and his Physics application - Oxford, Lancaster, York, Warwick and Durham. No offers as yet though, but it is early days! A couple of them have sent through application portal email invitations though - not sure what that is all about without any offers received from them.

Snap! She's delighted to have something!

NSAA today - my DS seems calm enough!

He applied for Cambridge, Edinburgh, Imperial, Southampton and Exeter. So none of the early offer universities!

My son had an email yesterday from the Cambridge college to say that notifications for interview will be sent out by 21st November.

Good luck to the other NSAA mums today.

@hornetgirl good luck to your DS and others today.
Can I ask which college emailed about interview dates pls?

Which sections is he planning to do? Dd is going to do biology in the time pressured s1 and then look at the questions to decide between chem and biology on s2

Good luck to those taking exams today and yesterday. DS has received 3 offers now (Classics) - Nottingham, Exeter and Warwick - which is great. Not expecting to hear from any more for a while.

Well done to your DS @Azure nice to hear about another classics candidate

That's great @Azure - 3 offers in must be very reassuring. Best of luck to all exam takers. DS has a Warwick offer and now just prepping for test.

Hi @balzamico , just noticed your question.

DS sat the HAT two years ago and is now inks second year of history at Oxford. He went to a state comprehensive with a good history department, but even then he really needed to practice for the HAT.

I’m sure your DD has seen the sample papers on the history faculty website - it is so very important that she works with them before the exam. Each previous question comes with marking notes, so if she is finding it hard to get into, she could choose one to just make an un-timed, not formally answered first stab at, then maybe talk through the marking scheme with someone. Even just explaining her answer and how she thinks it would be marked to a parent who has no knowledge of the question would be very useful to her. she could then work up to doing full, timed practice papers (there are quite a few of them, and she should note that, in the oldest ones, only the last, long question, is relevant for practice).

DS ended up doing all of the previous papers and he was immensely glad that he did, partly because he felt well prepared for HAT and also because it got him working in a way which he has had to regularly while at Oxford.

Hope that helps, and very good luck to your DD.

First offer in from Birmingham.. he's off the starting blocks and happy

Dd found the NSAA more difficult and eve more time pressured than the past and specimen papers.But never mind, it's done now

Pembroke college

He said that the maths was OK but tough towards the end.
He chose biology for paper 1 and 2 before today.

May I join in late. Dd thought the maths NSAA section was quite evil.
She chose chemistry for the rest.

Got quite stressed in the morning getting there was there was a traffic jam caused by an accident on the main road. Nightmare scenario you always dread would never actually happen.

Oh no! Did you get your dc there in time for the start?
Dd usually just manages to finish s1, but today had to skip through, and guess loads because they would have taken too long.Thete werev5 from her school taking it and one person cried!

Yes . Thanks for asking. We were supposed to be there more than 30 mins before the start, we got there 20 before the start. But it was stressful sitting in the car not knowing how long the hold up was going to be (even with the wisdom of Waze).
she had to call the school while we sat in the car. Now I’m keen to find out what the normal protocol would be for such scenarios, in case it happens for the actual exams, e.g. do they have less time?

@AffronttoBS don't panic 😊. What should happen is they can still sit the exam, as long as they turn up working half hour of the official start time (or before the exam has finished in v exceptional cases). Always let school know asap so they facilitate this easier. It happens every year to someone

@mumsneedwine yes, I imagine there should be standard procedures for dealing with these exceptional scenarios, but schools don't advertise it , rightly so, otherwise it would be open to abuse.

Mine have always known from school that if they were late with a legitimate and unavoidable reason they could start late. It was neither 'advertised' nor a secret. It wouldn't be an easy thing to abuse and even if it were, it's unsettling to start late coupled with the fact that everyone else then leaves the exam hall (almost inevitable disruptive) while the student is carrying on, so it would be a dumb thing to try. It confers no advantage whatsoever. Mine were always conscious of the possibility of being late because of the random timing of sheep and cow movements on the lanes between home and school and the random length of time for that movement to complete (two fields up not so bad; ten fields very bad).They could only build in so much time for potential sheep and cow disruption. With mobile phones of course it's very easy to prove the legitimacy of traffic disruptions, whether of the wheeled or legged variety.

DS has been sent a link to a logic admissions test for Imperial. Any other dc doing that?

Which course in Imperial is DS applying for? My DD is also applying to Imperial, but no such link received yet (that she's told me about)....