Are there many weird oxford things?

*Sigh* Such is the state of the british state education system that it's students do not even know the difference between a suit jacket and a dinner jacket:/ They didn't used to let them in without that sort of basic knowledge.

*Sigh* Such is the state of the british state education system that it's students do not even know the difference between a suit jacket and a dinner jacket:/ They didn't used to let them in without that sort of basic knowledge.

*Sigh* Such is the state of the british state education system that it's students do not even know the difference between a suit jacket and a dinner jacket:/ They didn't used to let them in without that sort of basic knowledge.

Man this forum is way too easy, you say anything even remotely conservative sounding and you're accosted by a multitude of left wing liberal types all highly indignant and offended.

Why are people like you such tossers? You post these idiotic snobby statements and then assume everyone is smirking along with you in your little Tory universe.

If you had half the brains you think you do you'd know that during the late 1990s Oxbridge admissions criteria (thankfully) changed to the far more meritocratic criteria of ability to take it from the tutors. I mean sure most private school students, due to their single sex somewhat conservative education will have an advantage over state school students when it comes to being given a good seeing to by fellow members of an educational institution, but the tutors know how to recognise potential and do their best to conduct interviews in creative ways that even private schoolers haven't encountered before.

Man this forum is way too easy, you say anything even remotely conservative sounding ******** and you're accosted corrected by a multitude of left wing liberal types sensible people with brains all highly indignant and offended.

Oh right, I assumed you were taking the piss, you actually meant what you said... Well in that case *negs*

Man this forum is way too easy, you say anything even remotely conservative sounding and you're accosted by a multitude of left wing liberal types all highly indignant and offended.

I'll have to remember to neg him tomorrow - I can't, seeing as I've already repped you for your earlier post

Heh, I was just reminding myself I should positive rep you for your correction in half an hour.

I don't think I'm impressed with this crop of applicants/randomers who post in our forum.

Ah, so it wasn't you who repped me the other day then. Hmm...

Don't think I've repped anyone in the last month. I don't do much repping.

Oh dear, looking at my rep it seems people miss the buggery references... Was I too subtle?

lol, I just got negged by someone for my post too.
"you're stupid and not funny".
how kind

Sigh, first off rep does not matter in the least so you can neg rep me all you want, considering it reflects the opinion on a bunch of complete randomers whose opinion hardly matters, and secondly I thought liberal types were supposed to respect free speech? Apparently such respect only applies to opinions you like or approve of.

Oh well, I stand by my initial point.

Sigh, first off rep does not matter in the least so you can neg rep me all you want, considering it reflects the opinion on a bunch of complete randomers whose opinion hardly matters, and secondly I thought liberal types were supposed to respect free speech? Apparently such respect only applies to opinions you like or approve of.

Oh well, I stand by my initial point.

Very well I will explain my point of view.

First off, an education system is not merely there to teach people about numbers and how to read, it's there to teach people the skills & social graces in life they need to suceed. Now, while obviously "success" in life does not equate to simply being invited to events which require you to know the difference between a suit and a dinner jacket, I would invite you to give me an example of success in which knowledge of the above difference is useful if not vital. I define success in the traditional, pragmatic and no-BS sense, i.e. being the top of your field in a difficult career or pursuit.

Secondly Oxford as an institution used to recruit not solely on academic ability, which I believe to be very important, but also on other factors such as your character as well as your knowledge of basic social graces. The sort of people oxford produced were not only highly intelligent at their subject, but were also well rounded people of a high-calibre. They had a certain "quality" to them, if you go talk to most of the older fellows I think you'll find many will privately agree if not publically state this (being considered politically incorrect and all), or at least this has been my experience.

Knowing some basic social things like this is obviously not a replacement for academic ability or intelligence, nor is it a "make or break" quality which I may have inadvertantly made it out to be in my first post, but it's the sort of thing that you would expect a well rounded social person to know and I'm very much concerned Oxford seems to be giving into this "equality" business a bit too much. The whole point of Oxford is to skim off the cream of society's youth and boost them further with a strong education, not to become some sort of paragon of equality where everyone is given the mistaken impression they're equal to everyone else, which is obviously not true.

The point is, while I applaud efforts to remove irrelevant criteria such as race, background, etc, getting rid of everything apart from academic ability in the criteria is a serious mistake.