[Trollolollol]

Economics and management, state comp, 10 a star, 7a and a b in critical thinking as, a star maths a2 others taking this year, successful Christ church Oxford e and m. If you want help ask


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[Trollolollol]

And I felt ill before I got offer and tbh waiting for interview is worse I remember shouting n train home from London when I saw interview email and random suits congratulating me


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[-chiquitita]

What was your subject?
French and Spanish

Which college did you apply to?
Magdalen

What is your school type (independent, grammar, comprehensive)?
Comprehensive

What were your GCSE grades?
Scottish qualification system so it's Standard Grades, and I got 8 1's (equivalent of all A's - we don't have an A* type grade)

Your AS grades.
Again, it's Highers rather than AS - AAAAAA (English, French, Spanish, history, modern studies and maths)

Your predicted grades for A2.
Advanced Highers - AAA

Your final A2 grades.
No idea yet. Mid-exams just now, yay.

How did you do in your entrance test? (If required)
I did the MLAT for both French and Spanish. Didn't find the French one too difficult other than some of the more random grammar points (also we hadn't yet done the subjunctive in school, somehow, so I taught myself it. Not sure how well that worked out for me.) The Spanish one I thought was much harder, although that's possibly because I've only done Spanish for a year and a bit, but my interviewer told me I had the third highest score out of all the applicants to study Spanish, which was EXTREMELY reassuring to hear mid-interview.

How well did your interview go?
I thought my Spanish interview went okay... It was about an hour after my arrival and I felt extremely underprepared, but the half-hour of reading/studying a text before the actual interview was calming. I chose to discuss a poem and kind of got the general gist of it so was able to explain that, although the interviewer prodded me in the right direction we talked about the text for a good 3/4 of the interview, then I basically talked about what I'd read (a teensy bit of Lorca). Ooh, and he asked me if I wanted to speak Spanish, to which I politely said no thanks and explained that my spoken Spanish sucks since at that point I'd studied it for less than a year and in that time i'd mostly focused on grammar etc. Theeeeen he asked if I liked grammar and I said that it was my favourite thing about learning a language, cause I find it bizarrely interesting, and yeah, that turned out to be one of his specialities and we bonded over our love of grammar. Pretty sure at this point I was mentally high fiving myself.

French - not so great. I was the first interviewee so that was slightly nerve-wracking, and I had to sit at a high chair in the centre ofthe room while the two interviewers sat at the other side. And the passage I had to read was this horrendous thing about water and the origin of the word through the ages, or something. Then I had to talk about this mysterious passage in French. Horrible. After my pitiful attempts to mumble a few French words we discussed the books I'd written about in my PS (Pere Goriot and L'etranger) in a LOT of depth. At one point I found myself comparing the main character in goriot to 'modern celebrities such as Katie Price who are desperate to climb the social ladder', oops. Then I forgot the names of all the characters in l'etranger and had to wait for the interviewer to say them first. (he was an expert in Camus and we had a really interesting debate over whether you can be held accountable for your
actions if you're mentally, which was definitely the high point of the interview ) And when it finished, as I left, I spontaneously apologised for being so rubbish at speaking. Lol.

How nervous were you before your got your acceptance letter (congratulations, by the way)?
Before my interviews I was quite so-so about the whole thing, but being at Oxford for a few days made me realise how much I wanted to go and I was pretty much on tenterhooks for the next few weeks. Then when I actually got my letter of acceptance I screamed and burst into tears.

[such_a_lady]

(Original post by -chiquitita)
What was your subject?
French and Spanish

Which college did you apply to?
Magdalen

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[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Trollolollol)
Economics and management, state comp, 10 a star, 7a and a b in critical thinking as, a star maths a2 others taking this year, successful Christ church Oxford e and m. If you want help ask


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

You're a beast .

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Blutooth)
I rarely say this but,
n**** please.

Recruiters won't care if you get a 2:1 from Merton or from St Bennets. It's all the based on the same criteria. If you've got an Oxford degree, that's impressive enough, then it's all about the quality oif the individuals. I'm surprised I needed to tell you that.

I'm going to resurrect this debate since I'm reading this thread again. I'll be more specific: top law firms and investment banks know Merton is more academic. I've heard this from the recruiters themselves and one of my own (non-Merton) tutors. These jobs have a high Oxbridge intake so they are more discerning. Many of the preliminary application forms even ask for your college.

[la-dauphine]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
I'm going to resurrect this debate since I'm reading this thread again. I'll be more specific: top law firms and investment banks know Merton is more academic. I've heard this from the recruiters themselves and one of my own (non-Merton) tutors. These jobs have a high Oxbridge intake so they are more discerning. Many of the preliminary application forms even ask for your college.

Merton isn't "more academic". The quality of teaching is the same at every college, and an Oxford degree is an Oxford degree. These recruiters are missing out if they seriously believe that a law student from St Anne's or wherever won't make the mark just because of the college they went to.

[Blutooth]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
I'm going to resurrect this debate since I'm reading this thread again. I'll be more specific: top law firms and investment banks know Merton is more academic. I've heard this from the recruiters themselves and one of my own (non-Merton) tutors. These jobs have a high Oxbridge intake so they are more discerning. Many of the preliminary application forms even ask for your college.

It doesn't bother me since my college was 5th on the table this year. However, realistically Merton tops the Norrington table partly because it has one of the highest proportions of science students and because the percentage scoring firsts in science subjects is far greater than humanities.

And let me get this straight; do you think with if 2 candidates went up for interview both with firsts from Oxford that the interviewers are going to presume the Merton medic is likely to be smarter, and consequently to be more likely to give him a place based on that assumption? Seems like that would sort of defeat the point of an interview. Or do you think the interviewer will just find out which individual is more suited to the job, regarding college choise as a mere triviality that is unlikely to tell them of the difference in merit between the two?

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Blutooth)
It doesn't bother me since my college was 5th on the table this year. However, realistically Merton tops the Norrington table partly because it has one of the highest proportions of science students and because the percentage scoring firsts in science subjects is far greater than humanities.

And let me get this straight; do you think with if 2 candidates went up for interview both with firsts from Oxford that the interviewers are going to presume the Merton medic is likely to be smarter, and consequently to be more likely to give him a place based on that assumption? Seems like that would sort of defeat the point of an interview. Or do you think the interviewer will just find out which individual is more suited to the job, regarding college choise as a mere triviality that is unlikely to tell them of the difference in merit between the two?

I don't think the college makes that much of a difference, it certainly is considered though. Your college's superstar Philosophy tutor is an absolute bawse. I heard you have lots of bimbo Geography girls though.

[Blutooth]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
I don't think the college makes that much of a difference, it certainly is considered though. Your college's superstar Philosophy tutor is an absolute bawse. I heard you have lots of bimbo Geography girls though.

Why do you think I applied there ?

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Blutooth)
Why do you think I applied there ?

Oh **** son, I just realized you're doing Comp Sci & P, with the Milliciser! I may well apply for a second degree doing that course. You're lucky!

[Blutooth]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
Oh **** son, I just realized you're doing Comp Sci & P, with the Milliciser! I may well apply for a second degree doing that course. You're lucky!

No, it was for the hot geography girls ofc

[Blutooth]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
Oh **** son, I just realized you're doing Comp Sci & P, with the Milliciser! I may well apply for a second degree doing that course. You're lucky!

What are you studying mate? Nice to see my tutor is so well-regarded . How did you find out about the course?

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Aeonstorm)
Well I'm actually from that girl's school's brother school. And I am most definitely not rich; I got a scholarship to enter, otherwise my family would never have been able to afford the tuition fees, which are similar to Oxford's for international students.

And I think that the reason they are from that small group of NSW private schools is simply because many of the top students in the state, and particularly students who want to study overseas, come from those schools. However, the very best schools are actually selective schools with a huge proportion of Asian Australians (sometimes upwards of 95%; I am Asian Australian myself and chose the independent school over the selective school because of this ridiculous percentage), so have you met any of those?

P.S.(weeks later) I don't know any Asian Australians, but the Asians I know tend to own other students academically. Definitely an element of Asian culture ( to generalize) that I support in a big way.

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Blutooth)
What are you studying mate? Nice to see my tutor is so well-regarded . How did you find out about the course?

I study PPE and ,whilst its a superficial factor, Millican was the most charismatic first year lecturer. it wasn't until I read his insane CV that I realized what a beast he was. I have a friend at Hertford that has told me about his epic tutorials. I heard about the new course, and it sounds great. I'm set on some combination of Comp Sci/Maths/Philosophy for a second degree and CS&P sounds fun.

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
P.S.(weeks later) I don't know any Asian Australians, but the Asians I know tend to own other students academically. Definitely an element of Asian culture ( to generalize) that I support in a big way.

As you'd expect the PPEists are quite a sciencey/nerdy bunch, so I heard about CS&P through the grapevine and several fellow PPEists would agreed we would have applied for it. The 'born for one subject' theory spouted by students, or at least their Personal Statements, is a myth.

[Blutooth]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
I study PPE and ,whilst its a superficial factor, Millican was the most charismatic first year lecturer. it wasn't until I read his insane CV that I realized what a beast he was. I have a friend at Hertford that has told me about his epic tutorials. I heard about the new course, and it sounds great. I'm set on some combination of Comp Sci/Maths/Philosophy for a second degree and CS&P sounds fun.

Sounds awesome.

Also completely agree with the above statement ^^

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by Trollolollol)
And I felt ill before I got offer and tbh waiting for interview is worse I remember shouting n train home from London when I saw interview email and random suits congratulating me


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Random suits bow down to E&M. It's the City degree (sorry Cambridge).

[tooambitious]

(Original post by mournfulpirate)
Random suits bow down to E&M. It's the City degree (sorry Cambridge).

i didnt know this, ive heard it the other way round because striaght econ Cambidge is more mathematical, what makes you say that?

[mournfulpirate]

(Original post by tooambitious)
i didnt know this, ive heard it the other way round because striaght econ Cambidge is more mathematical, what makes you say that?

My E&M friends are chased by banks et al. TBH I'm exaggerating, Cam kids are probably equally, if not more, in demand. Their degree is harder/more mathy.