What are my chances of getting into Oxford?

Well i didn't have a language at GCSE!

What are you on about? Not having a language at GCSE wouldn't put you at a disadvantage at all! Its not like you learn anything at GCSE level anyway!

You quite clearly don't know what you're talking about, Dave, so be quiet.



That means you really DO need a foreign or ancient language GCSE to study at Cambridge (especially for Arts subjects) but as I said above I don't know if this is true for Oxford.

Well then surely YOU should have been capable enough to find out for yourself, this is the passion and drive for literature... you seem (obviously) really intelligent, but that would then imply that you maybe could not have been bothered to find out yourself. It's not hard to go on amazon or a library to find books from the same author.

And also extra curricular activities are not essential for an application in English (possibly drama, writing or debating), they are really looking for your passion and talent within English Literature.

xx

Actually, the matriculation requirements at Cambridge do state 'a language other than English' at GCSE as being necessary.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/ugprospectus/applying/applying01.html

Errr so what about Oxford? I feel so thick now.

'Ang on, I'll have a look and see if I can see what they say... but as we've already discussed it doesn't seem that Cambridge, at least, take their own matriculation requirements hugely seriously so don't worry too much about it!

Ok, a couple of pages you might find useful:

http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/prostud/admission.html

http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/courses/enreq.shtml

It seems Oxford don't have formal matriculation requirements any more...

Thank you very much, that was very useful! :-) I am feeling a bit more positive after that, it seems love of literature is a top priority and I certainly have that! Are you an Oxford student yourself?

No, I would never sink so low! I'm at Cambridge

:-o!!! What are you studying?

Natural Sciences.

Cool! My dad went to Cambridge, he did civil engineering. :-)

Excellent, good choice on his part! Good luck with your application, m'dear

How was I supposed to know if a book by the same author was as good as The Handmaid's Tale or a load of crap, for example?

Um, by reading it, perchance?

Wow, repliers here are certainly being pessimistic. It's a very competitive course to apply for and the interview will be challenging, from what I've heard, but why shouldn't you have just a good as chance as most? I think the interviewers will be more impressed by an eloquently spoken, intelligently enthusiastic candidate with horror of horrors, just an A at Eng lit (so what?) than one with a string of GCSE A*s and one sided, stuffy views. Just a theoretical example.

Sorry but you mentioned before your teachers are suggesting other reading.. well if you really love Eng Lit you should have already been doing that yourself, and yourself have the passion to read other non-exam texts...

Teachers have an element of input, but they will either give you their specific area of study or things that they feel will get you into Oxford..

Passion for literature should already have been there before A'Levels.

xx

That's a bit harsh - There's nothing wrong with a teacher recommending a student to read a certain book if they feel that their student will enjoy it. Teachers are there for advice and to take your own initiative to go and ask for recommended reading is hardly a negative trait! After I became interested in genetics, my biology teachers were more than willing to recommend books they thought would interest me - after all they know me as a person, who else better to advise me on background reading?

Plus, who says this person doesn't read any other literature other than that which is recommended to her?

Well I think the point I made is that I didn't want to waste time reading stuff that's not really worthwhile reading. There are so many books I want to read and I don't want to bother reading books (or wasting the money) if they aren't going to be any good.