[cpchem]

(Original post by HoVis)
What I wish I'd been told before coming...

- To not be a wimp throughout the first two terms and put off taking up rowing until the third term, because it's absolutely awesome and I wish I'd rowed in Christchurch Regatta with the rest of my year. That said, I'll get to know the new freshers by the wonderful medium of sharing painfully early and cold outings with them this October.

- To avoid old, (apparently) charming DPhil'ers who seem too good to be true. They are, and tend to **** one over.

- That it is actually ok to leave Oxford for a weekend and go home to avoid 6th week blues!

- That the Alternative Tuck Shop should be visited on the first day of 0th week rather than halfway through Hilary!

- To bring warm clothes in winter and strappy tops in summer. Crazy micro-climate.

i) Rowing is stupid. Modern boats have engines - they allow one to travel faster with rather less effort.

ii) I think you'll find it's fifth week blues... not sixth, unless there's been some sort of slippage in the space-time continuum since I were a lad (by which I mean undergraduate).

iii) The ATS gets boring (also expensive) eventually, and they also don't seem to understand the words "no cucumber".

[Andy the Anarchist]

(Original post by HoVis)
What I wish I'd been told before coming...

- To not be a wimp throughout the first two terms and put off taking up rowing until the third term, because it's absolutely awesome and I wish I'd rowed in Christchurch Regatta with the rest of my year. That said, I'll get to know the new freshers by the wonderful medium of sharing painfully early and cold outings with them this October.

- To avoid old, (apparently) charming DPhil'ers who seem too good to be true. They are, and tend to **** one over.

- That it is actually ok to leave Oxford for a weekend and go home to avoid 6th week blues!

- That the Alternative Tuck Shop should be visited on the first day of 0th week rather than halfway through Hilary!

- To bring warm clothes in winter and strappy tops in summer. Crazy micro-climate.

Was I the person who introduced you to the ATS?

[bysshe]

I agree, it's fifth week blues, not sixth week! I've gone home for the weekend at the end of every fifth week, and I think it's for the best. It helps me get through the last few weeks of term.

I like the ATS too. I stopped going to Cafe Creme after they gave me a wrap with meat in (traumatic experience), and I think I prefer the ATS overall.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

Somehow as the terms went by, my fifth week blues either extended or shifted over to 6th week

(Original post by HoVis)
- To avoid old, (apparently) charming DPhil'ers who seem too good to be true. They are, and tend to **** one over.

Oh dear

That makes me think of one of my own:

- That getting rather/too pally with tutors invites suspicion, gossip, accusations and lots of problem

[Mook]

(Original post by bysshe)
I've gone home for the weekend at the end of every fifth week, and I think it's for the best. It helps me get through the last few weeks of term.

Everyone works differently. I've never gone home during term in my two years in Oxford so far - I find it a lot easier to have people around me who are in the same mindset and who can support you like that. But then again I have a friend whose family lives just outside Oxford and she goes home virtually evey weekend.
So I guess I would tell people that you should do whatever makes you happiest, regardless of what anyone else seems to be doing.

[Skippeh]

(Original post by Andy the Anarchist)
How are you doing that much?

I like getting 100 haha and if I don't I feel guilty for some reason

[Andy the Anarchist]

(Original post by Skippeh)
I like getting 100 haha and if I don't I feel guilty for some reason

Do less seriously, you'd be better off reading around the subject. A levels are hoop jumping exercises.

[Mook]

(Original post by Skippeh)
I like getting 100 haha and if I don't I feel guilty for some reason

Whilst it's great that you work hard and obviously get a kick out of doing well, you probably don't want to come to Oxford with that kind of attitude. You will not get 100. It's different for some science students (i.e. the geniuses who can still get in the 90s) but the vast majority of people have to make the change in first year from consistently getting 90+ in A levels to suddenly receiving marks in the 60s.

[tigrrmilk]

- that choosing my degree based on it being oxford (which is what i did really), and based on the course being one that i thought would be good for me, rather than one that i would actively enjoy, was completely stupid.

- that being somebody who doesn't work well unless there's an imminent deadline isn't good.

- that you can love oxford and hate it a lot at the same time.

[Little Jules]

(Original post by HoVis)
- That the Alternative Tuck Shop should be visited on the first day of 0th week rather than halfway through Hilary!

(Original post by cpchem)

iii) The ATS gets boring (also expensive) eventually, and they also don't seem to understand the words "no cucumber".

That Olives is in fact a million times better than ATS - or pretty much anywhere else in Oxford.

[tigrrmilk]

harvey's is better than olives. more variety and less mayonnaise. olives is alright though.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by tigrrmilk)
- that being somebody who doesn't work well unless there's an imminent deadline isn't good.

- that you can love oxford and hate it a lot at the same time.

Do you not like English Lit then? I used to miss English Lit. Much as I loved doing a Music degree, I did occasionally get a yearning for Shakespeare or Chaucer Soon fixed that with my medieval play malarkey

[Liebest0d]

(Original post by tigrrmilk)
- that choosing my degree based on it being oxford (which is what i did really), and based on the course being one that i thought would be good for me, rather than one that i would actively enjoy, was completely stupid.

ouch

[tigrrmilk]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)


Do you not like English Lit then? I used to miss English Lit. Much as I loved doing a Music degree, I did occasionally get a yearning for Shakespeare or Chaucer Soon fixed that with my medieval play malarkey

i love english lit - but i get on very badly with the way the course is structured. it's very historical and i get very little choice - basically i want to focus more on criticism & theory, and modern literature, and i just... can't. my own fault for choosing the course, but it's frustrating. ah well, only a year to go

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by tigrrmilk)
i love english lit - but i get on very badly with the way the course is structured. it's very historical and i get very little choice - basically i want to focus more on criticism & theory, and modern literature, and i just... can't. my own fault for choosing the course, but it's frustrating. ah well, only a year to go

I can kinda empathise, coz I had the same problem with Mods (though fortunately for me, things changed after that). I was very lucky that lots of pop options popped up for my Finals

Hopefully the Special Topics paper or whatever it is will give you something you can really get your teeth into next year?

[tigrrmilk]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
I can kinda empathise, coz I had the same problem with Mods (though fortunately for me, things changed after that). I was very lucky that lots of pop options popped up for my Finals

Hopefully the Special Topics paper or whatever it is will give you something you can really get your teeth into next year?

yeah, i am quite hopeful about next year . i'm even enjoying shakespeare so far! especially since i found an adaptation of much ado about nothing with david tennant being benedick

[eenie_pod]

(Original post by tigrrmilk)
i love english lit - but i get on very badly with the way the course is structured. it's very historical and i get very little choice - basically i want to focus more on criticism & theory, and modern literature, and i just... can't. my own fault for choosing the course, but it's frustrating. ah well, only a year to go

I thought the English course at Oxford was really flexible and free, and that you had loads of choice?
is it particular to your college? I'm hopefully a Teddy Hall fresher (for English) and was expecting quite a lot of freedom in the course...

on another note, which course would you have done if not for English lit?

[bysshe]

(Original post by eenie_pod)
I thought the English course at Oxford was really flexible and free, and that you had loads of choice?
is it particular to your college? I'm hopefully a Teddy Hall fresher (for English) and was expecting quite a lot of freedom in the course...

on another note, which course would you have done if not for English lit?

I don't know how it works at Teddy Hall, but I'd agree that the course is probably less flexible than many other English courses. At some universities you might be able to avoid certain centuries or periods altogether, whereas that doesn't really work. At my college, we weren't really given a choice about whether we wanted to do Old English or Middle English, for example - we all did Old English whether we wanted to do or not. Similarly, there was never any question of avoiding the Victorian or Modern papers.

It's been all right for me, though. I think it depends on your own preferences, but even when we were given a choice between three writers for one week (Eliot, Yeats or Auden), it was still a choice, and by the end of term our tutors were usually fine with us writing about whoever we wanted to. Although there are some exceptions. Someone in my class wanted to write an essay on Rimbaud one week, but couldn't because it would mean studying him in translation, and we're only supposed to focus on writers who originally wrote in the English language. So that's slightly annoying, I suppose.

[eenie_pod]

(Original post by bysshe)
I don't know how it works at Teddy Hall, but I'd agree that the course is probably less flexible than many other English courses. At some universities you might be able to avoid certain centuries or periods altogether, whereas that doesn't really work. At my college, we weren't really given a choice about whether we wanted to do Old English or Middle English, for example - we all did Old English whether we wanted to do or not. Similarly, there was never any question of avoiding the Victorian or Modern papers.

It's been all right for me, though. I think it depends on your own preferences, but even when we were given a choice between three writers for one week (Eliot, Yeats or Auden), it was still a choice, and by the end of term our tutors were usually fine with us writing about whoever we wanted to. Although there are some exceptions. Someone in my class wanted to write an essay on Rimbaud one week, but couldn't because it would mean studying him in translation, and we're only supposed to focus on writers who originally wrote in the English language. So that's slightly annoying, I suppose.

Thanks. It sounds alright actually - doing a bit of everything gives you a broad knowledge.
Just a tad nervous about the workload!

[bysshe]

(Original post by eenie_pod)
Thanks. It sounds alright actually - doing a bit of everything gives you a broad knowledge.
Just a tad nervous about the workload!

Really, the workload's fine. As I keep saying to prospective English students, just make friends with some PPEists and you'll be fine. I haven't found the workload too bad at all. Just keep up with the reading, work hard without getting too stressed out, and you'll be all right. The deadlines might seem scary at first, but you'll quickly adapt.