[Steve.]

(Original post by punctuation)
Is that your listing, by the way?

My books from Amazon are arriving so late... Next month, the email says. I can't wait that long! I want to get started.

It shouldn't take too long for books from amazon to arrive to Canada, how long have you been waiting ? My books on the other hand take three weeks X:

And what did you order by the way ?

[punctuation]

(Original post by Steve.)
It shouldn't take too long for books from amazon to arrive to Canada, how long have you been waiting ? My books on the other hand take three weeks X:

And what did you order by the way ?

I put the order in last week. Right now there's a postal strike, or there has been for the last week, so some mail is delayed. Anyway, Amazon is slow I guess, because I ordered 4-5 books and they have to send it all at once. They mentioned they would ship it around the 15th of July and it would take about a week after that.

I ordered:

Thinking Skills by Butterworth, John & Thwaites, Geoff
Critical Reasoning: A Practical Introduction by Thomson, Anne
Critical Thinking: An Introduction by Fisher, Alec

A psychology textbook, and a book for my personal statement.

[punctuation]

I thought I would revive this thread! How has your practising been? Mine hasn't. I'm kind of stuck because I don't want to waste the specimen papers before any of my books get here. I've already done 1 1/2 tests, so I think I've done enough for now... Maybe I should try the essay?

I'm a bit lazy with the essay section, I haven't done any of the actual questions; however, once I did write a mini essay for practise on a random philosophical question I found in my law textbook... O.o

Anyway, my books have shipped! Yay! All except the omnipotent Thinking Skills though... >.> I don't know why that hasn't been shipped yet. Ah well, I'll satisfy myself with the other two books and my personal statement books.

Delivery estimate: July 5!!! Hooray!!! THAT'S TODAY. O_O

That's in addition to the three philosophy books I purchased on a whim~ YAY BOOKS!

[tohuwabohu]

Hm. This is where I wanted to post my question, so just ignore the other one. Which one of the books is the best? I still like the textbook (sooo good for practising, even though/maybe also because you need on average an hour per lesson) but I think it's good to read sth on top of that, just to make sure I really know everything. But I CAN'T DECIDE!!!!

(Original post by punctuation)
I thought I would revive this thread! How has your practising been? Mine hasn't. I'm kind of stuck because I don't want to waste the specimen papers before any of my books get here. I've already done 1 1/2 tests, so I think I've done enough for now... Maybe I should try the essay?

I'm a bit lazy with the essay section, I haven't done any of the actual questions; however, once I did write a mini essay for practise on a random philosophical question I found in my law textbook... O.o

Anyway, my books have shipped! Yay! All except the omnipotent Thinking Skills though... >.> I don't know why that hasn't been shipped yet. Ah well, I'll satisfy myself with the other two books and my personal statement books.

Delivery estimate: July 5!!! Hooray!!! THAT'S TODAY. O_O

That's in addition to the three philosophy books I purchased on a whim~ YAY BOOKS!

[punctuation]

(Original post by Phia7)
Hm. This is where I wanted to post my question, so just ignore the other one. Which one of the books is the best? I still like the textbook (sooo good for practising, even though/maybe also because you need on average an hour per lesson) but I think it's good to read sth on top of that, just to make sure I really know everything. But I CAN'T DECIDE!!!!

THINKING SKILLS HAS ARRIVED

Well aside from Thinking Skills I'd recommend "Critical Thinking: A Practical Introduction" by Anne Thomson, only because I'm going through it right now and I find it very helpful. Is that what you meant?

[nightmare91]

(Original post by punctuation)
THINKING SKILLS HAS ARRIVED

Well aside from Thinking Skills I'd recommend "Critical Thinking: A Practical Introduction" by Anne Thomson, only because I'm going through it right now and I find it very helpful. Is that what you meant?

That "Critical Reasoning: A practical introduction" has arrived today yaaay It is indeed good! So I guess from now on I will read a little bit of it everyday

[punctuation]

(Original post by nightmare91)
That "Critical Reasoning: A practical introduction" has arrived today yaaay It is indeed good! So I guess from now on I will read a little bit of it everyday

Hooray! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I have yet to read the other books, so I can't compare its excellence, but it's working quite well for me at the moment so I can't complain.

Good luck with everyone's practise!

[punctuation]

An update!

The two books starting with critical thinking are obviously only critical thinking, but what I realized from flipping through Thinking Skills is that half the book contains critical thinking and the other half problem solving. If you are having mild difficulty with the latter more so than the former, this book will help you more than the others will.

All of the books are very good, but out of the three I purchased Thinking Skills is the only one that references the problem solving aspect of the TSA.

[nightmare91]

(Original post by punctuation)
An update!

The two books starting with critical thinking are obviously only critical thinking, but what I realized from flipping through Thinking Skills is that half the book contains critical thinking and the other half problem solving. If you are having mild difficulty with the latter more so than the former, this book will help you more than the others will.

All of the books are very good, but out of the three I purchased Thinking Skills is the only one that references the problem solving aspect of the TSA.

Thank you for letting us know! So I guess I will just start with the Critical reasoning and for problem solving I'll use the Thinking Skills. I still haven't started though, first I want to finish my personal statement which I will have done by the end of this week hopefully.

Btw.: Are you still in this summer school? Don't you have any vacation at all?

[kset]

wait wait wait. you are using books for TSA? is that a joke? TSA is made to check your THINKING abilities, i suppose. You cannot learn how to think from a textbook... just use your brain.
lol...

anyway, these tests are great i will recommend them to my school as soon as i get there back ;D and very easy, also.

[nightmare91]

(Original post by kset)
wait wait wait. you are using books for TSA? is that a joke? TSA is made to check your THINKING abilities, i suppose. You cannot learn how to think from a textbook... just use your brain.
lol...

anyway, these tests are great i will recommend them to my school as soon as i get there back ;D and very easy, also.

Actually you can prepare for the test, Oxford themselves even recommend these books

[kset]

(Original post by nightmare91)
Actually you can prepare for the test, Oxford themselves even recommend these books

Sven, I am doing the test just now and see no clue how to prepare for this. this is a type of tasks, that you just use your brain, analytical skills, etc.
i thing i shall buy the textbook just out of curiosity...

[nightmare91]

(Original post by kset)
Sven, I am doing the test just now and see no clue how to prepare for this. this is a type of tasks, that you just use your brain, analytical skills, etc.
i thing i shall buy the textbook just out of curiosity...

Nah if you think you don't need it, don't buy it because they aren't that cheap. I guess what this book does is giving you confidence that you actually prepared for the test. And it helps to get used to those sort of questions, that's all I guess.

[kset]

it is somhow similar to some IQ tests and other types of tests, which we sometimes do at school. (sometimes people from Jagiellonian University come to us and we do some tests, as we are considered the best high school in Poland)

[punctuation]

(Original post by nightmare91)
Thank you for letting us know! So I guess I will just start with the Critical reasoning and for problem solving I'll use the Thinking Skills. I still haven't started though, first I want to finish my personal statement which I will have done by the end of this week hopefully.

Btw.: Are you still in this summer school? Don't you have any vacation at all?

Ah, good luck with your PS! I'm hoping to get mine finished this weekend as my last book arrived in the mail.

Yeah I am still taking it. It ends the 5th of August, coincidentally the day before I fly out. I realized that I said it was 7 days a week earlier. It's actually 5 days a week, so it's not that bad. Reminds me, I need to study for that test tomorrow...

[Eldedu]

Hi guys,

just finished taking an online specimen paper one, 45/50, wondering how that compared globally (i.e. did I do well enough?)

Thanks.

To whoever neg repped this. Really?

[Eldedu]

(Original post by kset)
wait wait wait. you are using books for TSA? is that a joke? TSA is made to check your THINKING abilities, i suppose. You cannot learn how to think from a textbook... just use your brain.
lol...

anyway, these tests are great i will recommend them to my school as soon as i get there back ;D and very easy, also.

I agree with you on the first part, even if I don't see the need to be rude about it. Different people have different approaches. I believe books would be of little use in helping me personally to prepare for a test like this, and apparently so do you, but these same books no doubt are very helpful to other applicants.

Nice to see you're such a modest fellow.

[punctuation]

(Original post by Eldedu)
Hi guys,

just finished taking an online specimen paper one, 45/50, wondering how that compared globally (i.e. did I do well enough?)

Thanks.

Did you do the one on the Cambridge site? That's a good score though. Don't forget CT and PS is weighted differently for different subjects (i.e. for PPE PS is worth more than CT is). Also some specimen are supposedly easier than others (e.g. 2008 v 2009). All in all, though - you did really well!

[Eldedu]

(Original post by punctuation)
Did you do the one on the Cambridge site? That's a good score though. Don't forget CT and PS is weighted differently for different subjects (i.e. for PPE PS is worth more than CT is). Also some specimen are supposedly easier than others (e.g. 2008 v 2009). All in all, though - you did really well!

Cheers, good to hear . I did the specimen paper on the Cambridge site, wasn't dated.

[007dunlop]

Hi all.

Bascially, I'm wanting to apply for Oxford this year, and am on track for the grades. However I'm currently not doing very well at all on the TSA assessment - well, the mulitple choice side of things anway. I did the 2009 paper, and last night had a crack at the section B essay question, and was just wondering if anyone who attends Oxford/did this TSA essay/knows the admissions system at Oxford could have a quick read and let me know if this is the type of thing they're after, and if I have waffled too much? Even if you're an English student, just let me know whether you think my argument is good enough.

Constructive criticism is very much needed please! I'd rather you slate me now before I sit the real thing!

The essay question I did was:

'If you can give reasons for your actions, does that mean that your actions are rational?' Here's my answer:

'As human beings, we seem to always want to impose logic on event, or establish a pattern of cause and effect. If a train moves, the engine must ultimately move it. If I assault my neighbour, (s)he must have done something to aggrevate me. This is a trait which allows us to stand out from many other species: our ability to deduce conclusions.

In Edgar Allan Poe's 'Tell Tale Heart', the madman claims that because he can accurately talk to the reader through the thought processes he went through before, during and after the murder of his master, he simply can't be crazy, because a 'crazy man' wouldn't have hidden the body and evidence of the crime as well as he did. As a logical human being, I too can recognise the reasoning here. But just because the madman can explain and give reasons for his actions, it is questionable whether what he did was 'rational'.

The human mind has an amazing need to explain things which are otherwise considered 'irrational'. The concept of walking on water seems totally irrational given the idea of gravity and water density. But if we see this event fro ourselves, we want to impose logic on the event. Maybe there is some form of supportive material underneath the water surface? Or maybe it is simply an illusion done with mirrors and reflected light? Therefore, we accept the fact that this consequence (ie. walking on water) must be rational, we can give reasons for it.

If a paedophile rapes 6 children, we cannot see the morality in this individual's actions. But if (s)he tells us that the voices inside their head told them to do it, and if they didn't, they were going straight to hell, we [I]could[I] see the reasoning behind their actions. Does it make the consequence 'rational'? To me and you, possibly not. To the paedophile, yes.

It seems that perception and individual differences play a big part when deciding if the reasoning behind one's actions is 'rational'. If we accept the definition that 'rational' is anything that is logically thought out, then given our human desire to impose logic, all our actions are ultimately rational, given the circumstances that we think through an action before we do it'

Bit of an abrupt end, but I couldn't think what else to write!

Thanks guys!!