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Oxford Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) Students and Applicants

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Original post by lou_100
Although, as I understand it... the first two terms I would have the option to study Linguistics as well if I wanted.


I think if you're going for Psych they recommend (make it compulsary?) you take Statistics/Neuropsych as your third paper. I'm not a current student, though, and it's just information I've read somewhere (probably on TSR), but I'm still sceptical as to whether you can take all of Psych, Phil and Ling in the first two terms. They do say, after all that it is possible to opt for a tripartite route after the first two terms. :confused:

(I'm considering applying for the course, too, btw. :biggrin:)
Reply 21
Original post by bíborcsiga
I think if you're going for Psych they recommend (make it compulsary?) you take Statistics/Neuropsych as your third paper. I'm not a current student, though, and it's just information I've read somewhere (probably on TSR), but I'm still sceptical as to whether you can take all of Psych, Phil and Ling in the first two terms. They do say, after all that it is possible to opt for a tripartite route after the first two terms. :confused:

(I'm considering applying for the course, too, btw. :biggrin:)


Yeah it just says: choose 3 from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neurophysiology and statistics.

So presumably you take the two you are doing (for us psychology and philosophy) and then a third... but you might be right that you can't take linguistics. I don't see why not though? I'd probably take neurophysiology anyway :tongue:.

And yay, where else are you looking? (without cramping the style of the original poster - I know its a little off topic , apologies)
Original post by lou_100
Yeah it just says: choose 3 from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neurophysiology and statistics.

So presumably you take the two you are doing (for us psychology and philosophy) and then a third... but you might be right that you can't take linguistics. I don't see why not though? I'd probably take neurophysiology anyway :tongue:.

And yay, where else are you looking? (without cramping the style of the original poster - I know its a little off topic , apologies)


I thought this would be a more appropriate thread for our discussion, so I quoted you here. This whole paper-choice question could be worth an email to the admissions people, but I guess we still have a long way to go and tbh a 20% chance (at best). :s-smilie:

I'm not from the UK, so I think I'll only be applying to Oxford there (for financial reasons mostly). :smile: And for the Psych&Ling course, so technically not the same as yours (though I'd be very much interested in taking some Philosophy papers if possible!).

Where else are you looking? :smile: And what are your A-Levels, out of curiosity?
Reply 23
Original post by bíborcsiga
I thought this would be a more appropriate thread for our discussion, so I quoted you here. This whole paper-choice question could be worth an email to the admissions people, but I guess we still have a long way to go and tbh a 20% chance (at best). :s-smilie:

I'm not from the UK, so I think I'll only be applying to Oxford there (for financial reasons mostly). :smile: And for the Psych&Ling course, so technically not the same as yours (though I'd be very much interested in taking some Philosophy papers if possible!).

Where else are you looking? :smile: And what are your A-Levels, out of curiosity?


Ahh okay then :smile:

Well there isn't a huge selection of Unis that do Psychology and Philosophy (i.e. not like there is for Maths or English etc) - there's about 20.

So I'm looking at Warwick (already have), Nottingham, Bristol, Exeter (then possibly will look into others like Leeds or Reading or Sussex as 4th/5th options but I haven't researched them yet so no idea what grade requirements are like).

Biology, RS (Philosophy and Ethics), Maths and Psychology but most likely dropping Biology :smile:

How about you, where else you looking/what A levels?
Original post by lou_100
Ahh okay then :smile:

Well there isn't a huge selection of Unis that do Psychology and Philosophy (i.e. not like there is for Maths or English etc) - there's about 20.

So I'm looking at Warwick (already have), Nottingham, Bristol, Exeter (then possibly will look into others like Leeds or Reading or Sussex as 4th/5th options but I haven't researched them yet so no idea what grade requirements are like).

Biology, RS (Philosophy and Ethics), Maths and Psychology but most likely dropping Biology :smile:

How about you, where else you looking/what A levels?


I don't do A-Levels, but my finals will be in Lit&Lang, History, Maths, English and ICT&Computing. Hoping to do an additional one in Biology next year (I'm actually finishing school this year).

Have you thought about maybe applying for straight Psychology or straight Philosophy at other unis, or are you only looking at joint honours courses? :smile:
Reply 25
Original post by bíborcsiga
I don't do A-Levels, but my finals will be in Lit&Lang, History, Maths, English and ICT&Computing. Hoping to do an additional one in Biology next year (I'm actually finishing school this year).

Have you thought about maybe applying for straight Psychology or straight Philosophy at other unis, or are you only looking at joint honours courses? :smile:


Well a couple years ago when I thought about University I always thought I'd do Psychology. Then when I got older/started A levels I decided I really wanted to do straight Philosophy. Then I had a bit of a toss up between doing Psychology and Philosophy because I love them both, so thought a good settlement would be a joint honours :smile:
Original post by lou_100
Ahh okay then :smile:

Well there isn't a huge selection of Unis that do Psychology and Philosophy (i.e. not like there is for Maths or English etc) - there's about 20.

So I'm looking at Warwick (already have), Nottingham, Bristol, Exeter (then possibly will look into others like Leeds or Reading or Sussex as 4th/5th options but I haven't researched them yet so no idea what grade requirements are like).

Biology, RS (Philosophy and Ethics), Maths and Psychology but most likely dropping Biology :smile:

How about you, where else you looking/what A levels?


Hey, we have nearly identical course choices and we both wish to apply for this course. :P Sadly, I haven't taken Mathematics - I took English Language instead. What were your grades in January; if you don't mind me inquiring?
Reply 27
Original post by liamdunne
Hey, we have nearly identical course choices and we both wish to apply for this course. :P Sadly, I haven't taken Mathematics - I took English Language instead. What were your grades in January; if you don't mind me inquiring?


Woo hey partner. :biggrin:

I didn't actually take any exams in January. I've done them all in May. My college seemed to think people do better in May so don't offer automatic entry into Jan exams.. I think you have to specifically request to be entered or something. Hmm. What about you?
Original post by lou_100
Woo hey partner. :biggrin:

I didn't actually take any exams in January. I've done them all in May. My college seemed to think people do better in May so don't offer automatic entry into Jan exams.. I think you have to specifically request to be entered or something. Hmm. What about you?


Ah. I'll contact you in August and we can share results; if you'd like that? :wink: Sorry for being overly-friendly. I'm just surprised because you are, literally, the first person on the entire website I have stumbled across who does nearly identical subjects to me (3 of 4) and is also thinking of applying to do the same university course! :P Anywho, I got 4 As (extra A in General Studies but who cares about that crap?)
Reply 29
Original post by liamdunne
Ah. I'll contact you in August and we can share results; if you'd like that? :wink: Sorry for being overly-friendly. I'm just surprised because you are, literally, the first person on the entire website I have stumbled across who does nearly identical subjects to me (3 of 4) and is also thinking of applying to do the same university course! :P Anywho, I got 4 As (extra A in General Studies but who cares about that crap?)


Sure, I don't mind. I've got my heart set on Philosophy and Psychology now, I can't see myself changing my mind again now. Oh well done on the grades :smile: I'm praying I've gotten the grades I want/need for AS.
Hi, I'm a student in the United States and I have a couple of questions about the testing requirements...
For international applicants, the requirements include sending 3 SAT II Subject Tests with a score of 700 or above, or 3 AP Exams with a 5 that are relevant to the course that I want to apply to, in my case PPL. With this in mind:
1. May I mix and match SAT II tests and AP Exams? Say I wanted to use two SAT IIs and one AP Exam, would that be okay?
2. I am having a little trouble deciphering how "relevant" a test needs to be. So, I have taken the Biology, Chemistry, US History, Math II, and Literature SATs and have 2 AP exams under my belt (AP US History and AP English Language), I will have 5 more by May, and one of them is Psychology...but that is way after the application deadline. I was contemplating on using Biology, AP English Language, and perhaps taking the Spanish SAT II...do I need to take the Spanish SAT or could I pick another one of the tests I have already taken- I'm just not sure how relevant US history, Math II, Chemistry, or Literature is to the course I want to apply to. I do have time to take the Spanish SAT, so that isn't a problem....
Help? Suggestions? Advice? Thank you!
Hey!

I'm assuming your AP score is good? Remember that is also a condition!

1) Sadly, not really, although if you had a REALLY GOOD explanation for why that was the best you could do and an alternate form of proof of academic success, you might get away with it. If your school doesn't offer many APs, do what I did and take extra APs self-study - its really not that bad.

2) Your 'relevant' SAT subject tests so far are Biology, Chemistry, Lit, Math II and Psych - if you got over 700 on those, you're golden. Chemistry and Math II are relevant in that the PPL course is a science course, so showing that you achieved in hard science and math can be useful. Remember that the importance of the relevancy is limited: that is, it is important to show that you have done related coursework to show interest in the subject, but remember that overall academic achievement is the other important part.

I'm assuming that you're new to the UK process, so I'm going to introduce you to the term that will define your senior year if you apply to Oxford and are successful: 'conditional acceptance'. Basically, it doesn't matter how far past the app deadline the APs are: Oxford looks at your existing scores before interviewing you, then look at what exams your taking this year, and if they decide to admit you, they will give minimum score requirements for this year's APs - generally at least three scores of a 5, with specific courses named (I'd guess for you it would be AP Psych, Lit and Spanish).

It's hard to explain, so here's how it went for me (History and Politics applicant):

Before Applying:

APs with a Score of 5: Lit, Lang, US Gov, World History
APs with a Score of less than 5: APES
SAT Subject Tests with a Score >700: Lit, World History

Senior Year APs: Euro History, US History, Latin, Comp Gov

Acceptance Conditions:
5 in European or US History
5 in Comparative Governments and Politics
5 in one other AP (so for me, Euro/US or Latin)

You don't know until you get AP scores back if you are definitely in (stress.stress.stress).

If you have any other questions just ask! I'm always happy to help :smile:
Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I got 5's on both exams, so I'm not really worried about them score-wise.

So, just to clarify the "conditional acceptance" thing, if I apply this October, despite my other 5 AP exams being in May, they will wait until I receive my May scores, if I am conditionally accepted, to verify admission? I still have to send in three scores in October though, right? Or would I simply send any scores I currently have, and let them look at all of my academic achievement?

I am assuming you got accepted at Oxford?? From what I have researched, academic achievement seems the most important part of the application. As for another part of the application, do you have any advice for the personal statement?

Thanks again!
Reply 33
Is anyone applying for Philosophy and Linguistics? If so are you applying to the same course for all your 5 uni choices? Which other unis apart from Oxford are you applying to?
I'm in Year 11, which I know instantly makes me sound naïve. But, at the risk of sounding like an *******, I'm pretty smart - I'm predicted 8A*1A at GCSE and get basically the best results in my year in some of my subjects. And whilst I am by no means stupid enough to think that I will get into Oxbridge, especially before I've finished AS, I have been set on at least applying for a few years now - and a couple of months ago I set eyes on the PPL course.

It just looks like such an amazing course, since I love Psychology, Philosophy and all things to do with language, and I'm doing Psych, Philosophy and English Lit at A-level...but there doesn't seem many resources to look into it; it's a pretty new course, not done at many unis, and not many people seem to be applying for it. I'd really like to hear about what it's like.

Are there any PPL students here, or anyone who knows about the course? :smile:

Thanks, Annie x
I'm also in Year 11 now, but I'm more interested in science. I too already know I want to do a science degree, maybe medicine. :smile:
Original post by lou_100
Ahh okay then :smile:

Well there isn't a huge selection of Unis that do Psychology and Philosophy (i.e. not like there is for Maths or English etc) - there's about 20.

So I'm looking at Warwick (already have), Nottingham, Bristol, Exeter (then possibly will look into others like Leeds or Reading or Sussex as 4th/5th options but I haven't researched them yet so no idea what grade requirements are like).

Biology, RS (Philosophy and Ethics), Maths and Psychology but most likely dropping Biology :smile:

How about you, where else you looking/what A levels?


Hey, awesome, you're doing the same A levels as me! Though I start them in September (and I'm doing English Lit as well). What are they like? I'm doing OCR Bio, Edexcel RS, Edexcel Maths and AQA Psych :smile:
Reply 37
Original post by paradoxicalme
Hey, awesome, you're doing the same A levels as me! Though I start them in September (and I'm doing English Lit as well). What are they like? I'm doing OCR Bio, Edexcel RS, Edexcel Maths and AQA Psych :smile:


You've dug up an old post, I've finished my A levels now :biggrin:

Well I did the same Maths and Psychology boards as you. My advice with Psychology would be to get as many UMS as possible in the first year in the easy shorter questions. I got close to full UMS, naturally predicted an A*, ignored teachers saying A2 was so much harder, and missed the A* massively despite working really hard. I still got an A overall, but my UMS dropped to a low B and mid A in the A2 papers. So you never know how you will find the A2 year, and get as many UMS as possible at AS because it's a lot easier in first year with Psychology, i.e. more so than some other subjects where there isn't such a big jump in difficulty.

Maths is fine, sometimes you will not understand something and it might not even click until a few weeks before the exam, but that happens to everyone. Just power on and do lots of questions and ask lots of questions and everything will click in time. At first the content and concepts are a bit overwhelming (e.g. I remember looking at the words integration and differentiation and the formulae in the book and thinking "what the...") unless you've done GCSE additional maths, but once you actually start doing the questions with your teacher its much simpler.

Anyway, I ended up dropping Biology after AS and continued on to get AAA. I was predicted 3A*s and everyone was sure I'd get at least 1 or 2, but despite working so hard I didn't get any. Still got into my uni so don't care (!) but just highlighting that lots of work needs to be put in, especially in A2 year.
Original post by paradoxicalme
I'm in Year 11, which I know instantly makes me sound naïve. But, at the risk of sounding like an *******, I'm pretty smart - I'm predicted 8A*1A at GCSE and get basically the best results in my year in some of my subjects. And whilst I am by no means stupid enough to think that I will get into Oxbridge, especially before I've finished AS, I have been set on at least applying for a few years now - and a couple of months ago I set eyes on the PPL course.

It just looks like such an amazing course, since I love Psychology, Philosophy and all things to do with language, and I'm doing Psych, Philosophy and English Lit at A-level...but there doesn't seem many resources to look into it; it's a pretty new course, not done at many unis, and not many people seem to be applying for it. I'd really like to hear about what it's like.

Are there any PPL students here, or anyone who knows about the course? :smile:

Thanks, Annie x


Hi! I've just finished my A-levels (English Lit, English Lang, Philosophy and Psychology, so pretty similar to yours) and will be studying PPL (Philosophy and Linguistics, to be specific) at Oxford from October. :smile:

It is a very new course - this will be the first year it's available (although Philosophy and Psychology has been offered for a while) and I've yet to come across anybody else doing it. :tongue: So yeah, resources are reasonably limited, although there's stuff on the Oxford course page here. You may already know this, but you don't actually apply for all three subjects - your application is based on two subjects (so Philosophy and Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology or Psychology and Linguistics), though apparently it may be possible to switch that to a tripartite degree after your first year.

There's a limit to how much I can tell you about the course now, but if you have any questions I'll try my best to answer! I expect by the time you come to apply and the course has been running a few years there will be far more information available anyway. Good luck with your GCSE year. :h:
Original post by OwlPatronus
Hi! I've just finished my A-levels (English Lit, English Lang, Philosophy and Psychology, so pretty similar to yours) and will be studying PPL (Philosophy and Linguistics, to be specific) at Oxford from October. :smile:

It is a very new course - this will be the first year it's available (although Philosophy and Psychology has been offered for a while) and I've yet to come across anybody else doing it. :tongue: So yeah, resources are reasonably limited, although there's stuff on the Oxford course page here. You may already know this, but you don't actually apply for all three subjects - your application is based on two subjects (so Philosophy and Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology or Psychology and Linguistics), though apparently it may be possible to switch that to a tripartite degree after your first year.

There's a limit to how much I can tell you about the course now, but if you have any questions I'll try my best to answer! I expect by the time you come to apply and the course has been running a few years there will be far more information available anyway. Good luck with your GCSE year. :h:


That's awesome! It's good to know my A-levels are good for the course :smile: what grades did you get? Since I want to be a journalist, I'd probably apply for Philosophy and Linguistics too and then maybe switch to a tripartite degree, though I thought you could do tripartite from the start so thanks for telling me :smile: Thanks for the link, congratulations on getting in! :biggrin: and sorry if I didn't make it clear, I've just finished my GCSEs :smile:

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