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Oxford History Students and Applicants

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I don't know how high that is on the A-level scale, but I doubt it will be a big problem. It is just one part of the application (obviously I can't know how big exactly), and probably not the most important part of it.

I think they just want to see your way of presenting an argument, and they can use it as a point of discussion in your interview.

Reply 101

AnitaB

Thanks for advice
The good thing is though, that my teacher has written thorough and positive comments on my essays. :smile:

I try not to worry that much then.

Reply 102

Query

Does anyone know when History Prelims results are released?

Reply 103

Mook

Query

Does anyone know when History Prelims results are released?

I don't think there's a precise date I'm afraid - it should probably be some time soon though, as I think mine came out about this sort of time last year. I just got a text from one of my friends saying they were out.

Reply 104

phenix0930

Andy the Anarchist

HPol student here

Depends on the college, I did 2/3 of my politics paper in Michaelmas, some colleges do no politics tutorials at all in that time.

Thank you for the information!! :wink:

Reply 105

phenix0930

rkd

Let me guess - Hobsbawm's "Age Of..." or Gildea's "Barricades and Borders"? I found both ridiculously dull, so at best I'd recommend reading some chapters of Gildea that look interesting and a national history of France, Germany (David Blackbourn is good, I hear) or Russia.

For your foreign texts paper, though, definitely read both in translation before you come, because a good knowledge of the text is much more important there.

Good guess! It's indeed Hobsbawm for the trilogy, while for the other book, it's not Gildea (though I did find him quite interesting when I was reading his Children of Revolution at some point last summer), but Bayly's Birth of the Modern World, which is ultra-long. I've read a bit of the Age of Revolution and so far it doesn't appear to be too tedious, and Hobsbawm seems more celebrated than Bayly (I make this presumption based on the length of the wikipedia articles under their names :p:

)
National history seems to be more appealing to me than the quite theori-ish books above. And thank you for the suggestion! I'll go and have a look.

Reply 106

phenix0930

youes25

Sorry.. I do history not history and politics so I'm not sure how the course works. However, I think the historian and politics students at my college (LMH) did some kind of politics module (whilst historians did british history), a general history paper (like us) and theories of the state, which is an optional subject on the history course. Your foreign language paper will be a year long paper.. did you say you were doing general history in Michaelmas (your first term)? If so you will be studying general history and the language paper during your first term. As I said, only read for things you will be studying in the first term. You'll have plenty of time to read for your Hilary (2nd term) subject during the christmas holidays. I recommend that you email your tutor and ask him what you will be studying in Michaelmas, then you will know what to read for. And don't worry, remember you are going to be studying prelims in your first year, they don't count towards your degree.

Well, yeah, I'll be doing the general paper during MT, and the latin paper seems to be lasting for two terms, each one covering a book.
Thank you for the advice, very helpful indeed!

Reply 107

Mook

lucycl

Hi,
I'm trying to decide which language paper to take - I have A level French and AS level Latin, and while I'd prefer to take the Latin paper, I'm wondering if I'd be at an appropriate level linguistically for it? After all I haven't done it in two years.. I suppose sensibly I should do French?!

I didn't do a language paper, but I'd suggest you maybe try to get hold of copies of the texts in the original language and have a look. Even if it just means going into a bookshop and having a cheeky flick-through without buying them. If you want to improve your Latin then I think there is a Latin for Historians class at the language centre which you will be able to go to.

Reply 108

youes25

lucycl

Ooh interesting. Thanks for the idea! Another thing I've just noticed - on my reading list it says for 'The History of the British Isles' one should read 'Introductory texts' - what does this mean! It's not too specific..

Introductory texts are books that cover a broad period or theme on your course. They will normally contain a lot of factual information and they will help you get a good idea of everything that happened in the period that your course covers. An example of an introductory text for British III is Maurice Keen's 'England in the Later Middle Ages.' Look at the relevant bibliography for your British course on the History Faculty website. If you're lucky there should be a list of introductory texts and you'll be able to choose one or two you like the look of. If your bibliography doesn't have a list of introductory texts you may find some which come under the heading 'general'. Failing that, just look for books that have broad sounding titles like 'England in the Later Middle Ages' and read those.

Hope this helps, good luck

Reply 109

Eric Arthur

I don't know how many times I've posted this now - http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate-admissions/preparatory-reading

Why don't other colleges have anything similar?

Reply 110

JoshW7

I'm considering the 'History and English' course at Oxford, but am I right in thinking that there are only an intake of 8 students every year? If so, this seems incredibly low. Does it mean only one of the colleges offers it?

This must make it extremely difficult to get into; it's enough to dissuade me from applying for it!
:eek3:

Reply 111

rkd

JoshW7

No - several colleges will offer it, but most will only take one candidate a year (or none if nobody applies/is good enough). The figures are also a bit off because some people will apply for Hist & Eng but get an offer for just History or just English, so your chances don't just rely on being one of the chosen eight!

Specifically, the colleges offering Hist & Eng are: Balliol, Corpus Christi, Exeter, Harris Manchester, Jesus College, Mansfield, Merton, Pembroke, St Catherine's, St Hilda’s, St Hugh’s, St John’s, St Peter’s, Somerville, Wadham, Worcester.

Reply 112

Andy the Anarchist

My college actually has 2 History and English students in my year, but methinks this is an anomaly.

Reply 113

tc92

I've got a place at Warwick deferred for French & History, but am considering withdrawing and going for Oxford, as I got A* (French) A* (History) A* (Maths) A (Latin).
The two things that I'm unsure on are the workload and the French course itself.

i) What is the workload like for French & History in terms of number of lectures, tutorials a week and reading/essays? Oxford is notoriously hard, but being joint honours is it far harder??

ii) All Oxford languages courses are heavily literature-based. But do the French language classes allow you to explore modern social/cultural issues?
And is the literature studied just for it's own sake as literature, or in relation to social/cultural/historical ideas etc? (If that makes any sense whatsoever)

I'm fairly confident that if I were to go for Oxford I'd stand a strong chance; I just don't know whether it is really for me as it's a real unknown.
Thanks

Reply 114

Bezzler

Okay, I do a modern languages joint school, so I can help a bit, and my college sister does History and French as well!

The "workload" as such isn't too bad - you'll probably have two tutorials a week, sometimes three, plus about 4 hours of language classes. Each tutorial will have an essay attached to it. Probably about 3-4 hours of lectures a week, but not compulsory.

It is very literature-heavy. I can't speak for French, but German did have one module that attempted to explore modern social/cultural issues (imaginatively called German society and culture) but it was kind of crap. The literature is in the context of its period, I suppose, but only by virtue of studying the literature, if that makes any sense. After the first year, however, you do much more to do with periods - you have to pick one period paper out of three (medieval, early modern or modern) and that does look more at historical ideas in relation to the literature.

Reply 115

cornish-chough

Hi everyone, I hope this thread is in the right place

I have been considering applying to Oxford for a little while and got GCSE results on Tuesday - 4 A* and 8 A grades. Teachers and parents think that it's worth applying, so I was just going to ask how suitable my A level choices are.

As you can see from the thread title, I'd like to study History with German. I have chosen:

•

History
German
Spanish
English literature

I got A* in German, Spanish and Eng lit, though I had hoped for A* in History too. So how suitable are my choices and are my GCSE results considered 'good enough'?

Thanks all :smile:

Reply 116

elieshout

Well, you're doing both subject you want to apply for, which is exactly what Oxford recommends in this case. Plus the other two are well respected and suitable for the course. So these choices are definitly good. Those GCSEs are also fine, well within the range that they don't really matter.

Reply 117

Andy the Anarchist

Those choices are fine, I didn't get an A* in GCSE History, yet I'm doing History and Politics at Ox, so it's not impossible.

Reply 118

Rachel Honey

cornish-chough

•

History
German
Spanish
English literature

I got A* in German, Spanish and Eng lit, though I had hoped for A* in History too. So how suitable are my choices and are my GCSE results considered 'good enough'?

Thanks all :smile: