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Are Oxbridge degrees harder than other degrees?

This is a replacement first post, as the original poster of the thread asked for their posts to be removed. Question as per the thread title. :smile:

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Reply 1

Kvothe the Arcane

From what I've read, yes. You're probably best doing some searching as this thread has been done before.
You're gonna get a mixture of "oxbridge degrees are harder than other degrees" or "oxbridge is no different to the top RG unis"
and then the thread is probably going to derail into a debate about the relative prestige of non oxbridge unis compared to the two unis as well as the difference in employment prospects....

Reply 2

russellsteapot

I doubt many/any people are in a position to answer this, as not many people have done the same course at two different universities at the same time. But people ranking universities in order of difficulty of obtaining a degree, based entirely on assumptions, is one of the more common pasttimes you'll see on here. I appreciate this is more of a non-answer than an answer, but it's more intended to help counterbalance the unqualified "omg yes Oxbridge is harder than flying across the Atlantic with self-powered arm wings made from pigeon feathers" that you'll get from other people.

You certainly have to do a lot of work at Oxford and Cambridge, the workload is very intense based on measurable things (e.g. amount of contact time, assessments during terms, etc). Whether it's actually any harder than somewhere else to pass the exams and obtain a specific grade is probably something only an assessor, rather than a student, could answer. Perhaps it is harder. Perhaps it is actually easier because of the quality of teaching, amount of contact time and guidance. Perhaps it varies from student to student.

Reply 3

cambio wechsel

A couple of points I'd throw out:

Something practically no student weighs in choosing is that Oxbridge assessments are almost entirely closed-book 3 hour examinations, and are certainly this in the arts and social sciences. For some that might be easier than the mixed-method assessments typically favoured elsewhere. For others it might make Oxbridge look far more daunting.

I think as well that it's harder to utterly bomb-out at Oxbridge than elsewhere, and this is reflected in drop out and failure rates. Once you're in, your chances of securing a degree (and even a goodish degree) are likely higher than they would be had you not been accepted and gone to your insurance choice. And this of course is a function of the fact that the tutorial/supervision system makes it far harder to hide - you can't fly under the radar.

Yes.

From the position of someone at Oxford who knows people doing the same course at other universities, I would say that it certainly seems so.

Reply 6

Felix Felicis

Not sure about other degrees but I've heard that that's definitely the case with maths @ Oxbridge (I, W)

Reply 7

chazwomaq

Yes - I estimated that I was doing 2-3 times the amount of work for natural sciences as friends at other RG universities, at least in the first year or two. Of course you get more help as well, because of the weekly supervisions

Reply 8

Caedus

There's a TSR member, who's name I cannot remember, who I believe did identical courses at Cambridge & UCL and I recall him saying that his grades went from a questionable 2:2 to a comfortable 1:1.

Reply 9

Brachioradialis

Extra work outside examinations does not necessarily make it more difficult, just more effort. Undoubtedly they come out with a more refined knowledge of their subject, but that doesn't mean it's harder to pass the course.

FWIW my uncle is a professor at Portsmouth and also designs and marks exams for Cambridge. He has no connection to Cambridge and graduated from Leeds. Make of that what you will.

Reply 10

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Quite frankly, yes :yes:

Reply 11

Octopus_Garden

Original post by Felix Felicis

Not sure about other degrees but I've heard that that's definitely the case with maths @ Oxbridge (I, W)

It's certainly what the professor at one college told the students one year!

Reply 12

Brachioradialis

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Quite frankly, yes :yes:

Do tell us about your non-Oxbridge experiences?

Reply 13

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by MJK91

Do tell us about your non-Oxbridge experiences?

Well obviously I only did an undergrad at Oxford but I had friends at other very prestigious Music departments doing far less work than me, both in terms of quantity and quality :yes:

When I went to Goldsmiths for my Masters, I suddenly went from being at the very bottom of the year group (as I was at Oxford) to being the top of the year group, without any particular effort or changes on my part. To be fair to my Goldsmiths cohort though, most of them were significantly older than me and had been out of education for a long time, so didn't know about basic things like JSTOR, which wouldn't have been there in their time. Can't hold it against them :nah:

Was just a very very different environment :yes:

As has been alluded to on this thread, Nichrome is the best person to ask, but we've agreed on this in countless threads :yes:

Reply 14

the bear

much much harder. it is like comparing University Challenge to Blankety Blank

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 15

sosadsosad

I thought that was the whole point of Oxbridge - that they're harder :erm:

Reply 16

XxelliexX

Having only studied at Cambridge, I can't comment. It would be quite rude to say that I'm working harder than people at other universities when I've never experienced their workload.

Reply 17

Theflyingbarney

Obviously as others have said it's difficult to be sure without having done both an Oxbridge degree and another one, and it also probably depends on how you're defining 'difficult', but I think it's a fair assumption to make. The easiest comparator is basically knowing what people are like and roughly how clever they are, and then balancing that against their respective grades - thus the fact that I would consider the girl in my year at Cambridge who got a 2:2 in her first year to be quite a bit cleverer than someone else I know who got a 2:1 at an RG uni would suggest that Oxbridge is somewhat harder.

There are of course arguments that because Oxbridge have the resources and the staff to enable people to do better than they might otherwise, it is in fact easier; but I'd reject this since the high quality of teaching merely means the expectations are greater. As cambio wechsel says, there is also the fact that it's hard to completely fail at Oxbridge but that's more to do with the fact (a) that there is a lot more constant scrutiny through the supervision system, and (b) that they are very keen to keep people in the system - so if for example you have significant personal problems that cause you to do badly they prefer you to 'degrade' (i.e. repeat a year) rather than dropping out entirely.

Reply 18

ukmed108

Heard from a friend that St Andrews Chemistry is quite rigorous with 2-3 hour labs every day, whereas at Oxford Chemistry they only have a lab every 2-3 weeks? Is this true?