The Oxford 2013 Results Day Discussion Thread

I got an offer from keble to study engineering... I'm not too sure as to what I could do for the next few months. I'm thinking of just travelling to various countries to meet a few of my relatives. Wbu?

And congrats on the offer!

I see! In the realkana font it's very hard to distinguish between the two. Thanks.

So learn the scripts and then some simple vocab? What did you do after learning the scripts?

Hopefully Thankfully I have some revision to distract me hooray. がんばって! (keep at it!)

The two "eyes" are more on their side on the shi, and more upright on the tsu.

The "smile" is drawn from the bottom upwards on the shi, and from the top downwards for the tsu. I'm sure none of that's technical vocab, but it helps me remember My handwriting is atrocious and definitely not correct/calligraphic, but here's how I'd write them.




Some fonts won't make it easy for you to tell the difference (boo, hiss). I still have to stop and think when I see one or the other! It helps that my name in katakana is ドロシー (doroshii), so I see that "shi" a lot

I haven't made any formal attempt to learn Kanji, apart from asking for some Kanji flashcards for my birthday. The way I learned the ones I know now was when I did some translating of Japanese showbiz articles (read: very formulaic!) for an English language website in my spare time. Sadly I had to stop, as it got a little too much in the run up to my GCSEs, but I learned so much Evening classes gave me a good grounding in grammar. Most of the vocab I know has come from Japanese pop songs. It's all a little patchy! Sorry I'm not much help But I feel happy to be talking to someone about Japanese, it feels like my interview all over again

Somerville for medicine What about you?

Jesus for physics What are you doing for your gap year?

Ha, that's wonderful! I suppose like any "other script", it's just about loads and loads of practise and use. I tried learning some ancient cuneiform recently and that's laughably difficult but really intriguing.

You really must go to Japan for an extended period and get totally into it!

I may take up some classes in the summer holiday, as I won't get any time at Oxford. Post uni I'd really like to formalise my grasp of the language (if I have any sort of grasp by then ) for the future.

It's nothing like your interview, I know next to nothing.

Is anyone else in the bizarre position of Oxford being their lowest offer?! Surreal 0.0


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*chants* Join us! Join us! Join us!
You would be surprised, I spent most of my interview being questioned on my personal statement rather than academic stuff! Probably because it's an ab initio subject.

Ah sorry I wasn't clear. I have the offer in letter form - just wondering if anyone has the UCAS confirmation to accompany it?

Hmmm... In the spirit of stalking everything I can possibly find related to Oxford, I just spent an hour reading through the current students chat

i didnt get a single A* at GCSE. with strong AS's will my chances for an interview be high? as i know oxford are harsh on the A* rule.

Depends on the course

Lol, I do that too! It's so entertaining and fascinating.

i didnt get a single A* at GCSE. with strong AS's will my chances for an interview be high? as i know oxford are harsh on the A* rule.

In a year's time we get to stress about collections



The problem with the whole AS thing is that it's generally your best 4 (or more) subjects, so most people applying to Oxford will have four A's. At Cambridge they see your UMS so there's more to discriminate, but at my school at least, the people who got offers were the ones with the best GCSE's.

Sorry if I'm being a bit of a downer, if you get good A's at AS (preferably 90+% in all of them), have a good Personal Statement and Reference (I actually have no idea how much this affects it all... although my interviews were primarily based off my PS, but then again other people said it wasn't mentioned at all) and do well in an entrance test (this can be one of the most important bits if you have one I'd imagine, as Oxford get to set it themselves) you could definitely get an interview. Get reading now would be my advice if you're really going for it!

For philosophy it was definitely important to read as much as I could, as I learnt to read difficult texts and think analytically through reading hideous stuff like Berkeley and Ayer.

In a year's time we get to stress about collections

would there be entrance exams for economics and management. and are there entrance exams for all courses in oxford and cambridge?