Ask Peterhouse - 2017 entry

OP

Original post by Florescence

Hi! How important would you say books are in a personal statement for Law? What are Admission Tutors looking for in Law personal statements?

Hi, thanks for asking!

There's not one answer to this question. No particular weighting is applied to any particular element so I can't say books are 25% important or anything like that. In a personal statement we want to see why you want to study Law - what appeals academically to you and what have you done about this? Reading is one of the most obvious ways to answer the second part of this but remember we're more interested in quality over quantity. It is far better to throughtfully reflect on one or two books/cases/experiences than to just list dozens and dozens of things.

Reply 3

Rachel58

11

With reformed A-Levels, will UMS average still be used? My highest marks are in history but it's reformed and that's what I'm applying for :s-smilie:

What are history interviews like?
Thanks :h:

Reply 4

Florescence

4

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

Hi, thanks for asking!

There's not one answer to this question. No particular weighting is applied to any particular element so I can't say books are 25% important or anything like that. In a personal statement we want to see why you want to study Law - what appeals academically to you and what have you done about this? Reading is one of the most obvious ways to answer the second part of this but remember we're more interested in quality over quantity. It is far better to throughtfully reflect on one or two books/cases/experiences than to just list dozens and dozens of things.

Great, thank you for clearing that up!

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Rachel58

With reformed A-Levels, will UMS average still be used? My highest marks are in history but it's reformed and that's what I'm applying for :s-smilie:

What are history interviews like?
Thanks :h:

Hi, good questions and one we'd be happy to clear up.

UMS average has never been an important assessment tool - we look at UMS on a module-by-module basis. We're very experienced in assessing candidates without UMS (~40% of candidates in previous rounds haven't been taking A level and Peterhouse had been taking students for centuries before A levels were even invented, never mind UMS). We won't ask for raw scores in reformed subjects but your teachers can mention this in their reference if they like (and if you/they think its important for all your UCAS choices to see it) or they can send this in separately as part of a transcript. We're happy for schools and teachers to post us as many extra documents as they like - one of the nice things about the Cambridge admissions system is that the amount of resources and time devoted to each candidate allows us to incorporate any and all available information.

Information on 2016/17 interviews at Peterhouse can be found on our website and we'll add likely dates once we can. For History, you will have two 30-minute interviews, one with interview prep (preparing notes on a source or stimulus text for discussion in the interview). Both interviews will be academic in nature, discussing periods you've studied at A level and also asking you about things you won't have studied directly. There's also likely to be some discussion on your submitted written work and/or your written reponse in the pre-interview assessment.

Reply 6

metrize

18

Hi for the engineering interview will questions that we do for the interview be the things we've learnt and can be applied or will it be totally different to see what you can do from scratch?

Reply 7

OP

Original post by metrize

Hi for the engineering interview will questions that we do for the interview be the things we've learnt and can be applied or will it be totally different to see what you can do from scratch?

Hi, probably a bit of both! They will be questions you can do with the knowledge you have but perhaps presented in a way you're less familiar with or where one or two steps need explaining. Remember that interviews are assessing whether you woudl flourish with our supervision-style of teaching and are meant to be as much like supervisions as possible. Try and approach them as a learning experience where the interviewers will try and teach you something rather than as an exam. Have a look at http://i-want-to-study-engineering.org/.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

k.russell

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

Hi, good questions and one we'd be happy to clear up.

UMS average has never been an important assessment tool - we look at UMS on a module-by-module basis. We're very experienced in assessing candidates without UMS (~40% of candidates in previous rounds haven't been taking A level and Peterhouse had been taking students for centuries before A levels were even invented, never mind UMS). We won't ask for raw scores in reformed subjects but your teachers can mention this in their reference if they like (and if you/they think its important for all your UCAS choices to see it) or they can send this in separately as part of a transcript. We're happy for schools and teachers to post us as many extra documents as they like - one of the nice things about the Cambridge admissions system is that the amount of resources and time devoted to each candidate allows us to incorporate any and all available information.

Information on 2016/17 interviews at Peterhouse can be found on our website and we'll add likely dates once we can. For History, you will have two 30-minute interviews, one with interview prep (preparing notes on a source or stimulus text for discussion in the interview). Both interviews will be academic in nature, discussing periods you've studied at A level and also asking you about things you won't have studied directly. There's also likely to be some discussion on your submitted written work and/or your written reponse in the pre-interview assessment.

Can you explain a bit what you mean by a module-by-module basis? Are there particular modules which you look for high scores in for certain subjects?

Reply 9

OP

Original post by k.russell

Can you explain a bit what you mean by a module-by-module basis? Are there particular modules which you look for high scores in for certain subjects?

We look at scores for each modules individually more than the average as we know that summary statistics (by definition) don't give all the information. There are some cases where we might look at particular modules but we're generally looking for scores which indicate candidates are on track to meet or exceed the typical offer.

Reply 10

k.russell

Original post by Peterhouse Admissions

We look at scores for each modules individually more than the average as we know that summary statistics (by definition) don't give all the information. There are some cases where we might look at particular modules but we're generally looking for scores which indicate candidates are on track to meet or exceed the typical offer.

Do you think winning UC last year is going make Peterhouse very popular in this admissions cycle?
In general, is Peterhouse a bit of a hard one to get into because of its small size relative to how venerable/prestigious it is?

Reply 11

OP

Original post by k.russell

Do you think winning UC last year is going make Peterhouse very popular in this admissions cycle?
In general, is Peterhouse a bit of a hard one to get into because of its small size relative to how venerable/prestigious it is?

We'll have to wait and see! Nobody quite knows what's going to happen with appliant numbers this year given AS reforms and the new admissions assessments.

Although our intake is small, don't forget about the Winter Pool. Over the past few years we've gone from a net importer to a net exporter in the Pool. Last year about 1 in 4 of our applicants got an offer somewhere in Cambridge, which seems pretty good to me. We're certainly not the most oversubscribed so we can't that venerable or prestigious!

Reply 12

james813

18

Hi, for engineering do you put more emphasis on UMS from mechanics modules, or look at all Maths/Physics modules together?

Reply 13

OP