Cambridge Applicants for 2013 Entry

Ah did you find it useful?
That's a shame.
Looks like you have found your niche! I'll admit Selwyn is on my list purely for location. I can't remember why I'm not considering Pembroke though, might have been because I didn't like their website

As for preparation, I'm trying to do as much as is possible, what with the looming summer exams and a semi-hectic social life. Reading the recommended books, as well as bits of texts from further afield (e.g. Kant & Bentham); getting work experience (1 week in a combined court, 1 week at a chambers and more to come after exams); doing 'relevant' extracurriculars (debating); doing a law-related EPQ (to also be begun after exams); and keeping up to date with current affairs. Hopefully if I can fulfil the above to a good enough standard, it'll hold me in good stead for my application

Oh hello. What made you choose King's? And what kind of reading did you do?

Sorry to jump in but I felt I had to save you from the pain you're looking to inflict on yourself...
Whatever you do, don't read Kant straight- it's the philosophy equivalent of shotting Absinthe (gives you a headache straight away)!!

If you're looking for some nice philosophy to read with a kind of legal edge then try Mill's "On Liberty" and Michael Sandell's "Justice". "Justice" has sections on utilitarianism and deontology so you can get a bit of Kant without the headache
If you've gone ahead and read any of Kant's critical essays already then you are a much braver man then I will ever be woman!

I went on that! That's where I saw the posh people



You are applying in our year! Your education confuses me

Ah did you find it useful?
That's a shame.
Looks like you have found your niche! I'll admit Selwyn is on my list purely for location. I can't remember why I'm not considering Pembroke though, might have been because I didn't like their website



Regarding Emma - I see that you have a swimming pool. Does anyone actually use it or is it too cold?

Haha, to be fair I said "bits of" Kant and Bentham - I got Philosophy of Law by the former (it was free on Kindle ) and quickly realised that a) I wouldn't want to read it cover-to-cover, and b) I wouldn't need to. Thanks though, will check out Sandell's book - it was his Justice series of lectures which first got me interested in jurisprudence.


Congrats on your offer(s) by the way - would love to message you some time with a few questions, if that's okay?

7 AS's

How did you do in January? If you survived you're on the right track

Lily. Please stop being so hard on yourself. I know why you do it but sometimes you can accept that you are amazing

I don't think she's just on the right track, I think she's on several of them!!!!

The right track follows Lily instead of the other way around

Haha, to be fair I said "bits of" Kant and Bentham - I got Philosophy of Law by the former (it was free on Kindle ) and quickly realised that a) I wouldn't want to read it cover-to-cover, and b) I wouldn't need to. Thanks though, will check out Sandell's book - it was his Justice series of lectures which first got me interested in jurisprudence.


Congrats on your offer(s) by the way - would love to message you some time with a few questions, if that's okay?

Que pasa?

Eee - some of my favourite people are here!

I want to finish an essay before midnight, so I best be off. But I hope you're both okay

Not really I have to say. It's all the stuff I'd read already. Did you find it useful?
Calm yourself down. Did those posh boys in suits give you a hot flush?
I have. It's great! You should apply! If you both get in, I'll hold a party....a tea party! Sadly I don't think I'll get in.

Oi - stop it! I'm not half as smart as you lot. I'm just a restless person who has to be doing a lot all the time.

In other words: I get bored easily and it's misinterpreted as cleverness

I'm not at Emma yet by the way, but I hear it's too cold to be used up until around may time, then it's opened so everyone goes there to relax after exams (if weather permits it).

Que pasa?

Hey! Well as an international student, I never actually got to visit Cambridge until my interview day, so I basically chose King's because it is one of the most central colleges, it's super old and beautiful (which I love, because I come from a country where everything's new – Canada!) and I also heard that King's is really politically active, which I personally like. It's not a super big college, and not a super small one either, which is nice. But really, I kind of just chose King's because it's the most beautiful of all the colleges haha

As for reading... I realized afterwards that I didn't read nearly as much as most Oxbridge languages applicants on TSR! For German [ab initio], I read some Kafka, poetry by Rilke, but focused mainly on history (which I really love and got asked about at interview as well!) For French, I really like symbolist poetry (Verlaine, Baudelaire, and especially Rimbaud) and existentialism/absurdism – I read Huis Clos (Sartre), L'étranger (Camus), En attendant Godot (Beckett) and La cantatrice chauve (Ionesco <3). I also watched some French & German films as well!

Hope this helps somewhat x

Lo siento pero no hablo espagnol But yeah, you are really clever >.<

Me neither. Thanks, so are you, and probably much more than me!. Still, Cambridge takes only the best of the best of the best of the best (ad infinitum).

Eee - some of my favourite people are here!

I want to finish an essay before midnight, so I best be off. But I hope you're both okay

Good good, glad to hear it! I think you're still brave attempting even bits of him though- whilst we look at sections of other Philosophers' works as part of Philosophy A Level there is an unspoken rule that Kant can only ever be studied through scholars :P

Yeah that's absolutely fine! Your extra curriculars sound incredibly similar to what I did and my EPQ was on a piece of Jurisprudence too, so hopefully I can be of some help!

Wow, sounds like you're really prepared then! My friends who do Philosophy are forever recommending Kant. And you're doing the EPQ? We start in summer as well, though I haven't come up with a vaguely literary question yet. Yeah, you can probably tell I'm trying to read a lot. I'm woefully ignorant of poetry and am trying to make up for it now; I'm relatively good on drama and 19th century lit, as well as a few of the classical epics from GCSE Latin/Greek. I've been to the RSC Summer School for three years (with this August coming as my fourth). But I'm just trying to get a good grounding so I can have some basis to approach more difficult texts.

I was so shocked. At the time I just thought to myself that he's not trying to put me off, it's just the way he thinks and does things, that approach sort of helped! Haha, I am indeed Mr Khan .

It was in essence about the issues that arise from a contract. Something about a supplier emailing a consumer about a potential sale of an item, then the supplier sells it to another consumer. The original person goes to buy the good, only to find out that it has already been sold. I don't remember it all, sorry!

I told him that the first line was irrelevant, as was line two and a few others. He didn't seem too pleased, but I was sure that the lines in question had little to do with the issues involved.

That, hasta manana and una abeja are literally the only phrases I consciously know in Spanish Deeeeeeeeeefinitely not. My expertise is only in languages whereas everyone else is multidisciplinary, and I'm looking likely to fail half my subjects at the moment (and by fail, I mean not get an A ). If I don't get 90% in Italian then I probably won't even apply. It's hard to tell unless you know where everyone else is at, Arva - you might be overestimating the competition

really happy you said that because i have a couple of questions. What college did you apply to? what were your gcse grades and your ums scores? did you get called for an interview and if you did, how was it and what feedback did you receive? how many work experience placements/voluntary work did you have? what other medical schools did you apply to?

Sounds like a lot - not so horrific when you know the context:

-Maths
-Physics
-Chemistry
-Biology
-English Lit
-French
-Fine Art

The Sciences overlap quite a bit (especially Physics and Maths) and English is just eloquent waffling - although I think English is the one I'm most worried about...

I hear he's very difficult to get into, but hopefully just dipping in and out, as well as using excerpts provided by scholars, will get me by.

I'm sure you'll be fine - it sounds like you're genuinely passionate and making the effort in all the right areas! And as for the EPQ, I wouldn't stress, I'm sure summer will give you plenty of time to get the creativity flowing