University College London

London

UCL ESPS Assessment Day

Hello,
I know threads have already been made about this topic but I have some questions remaining
I'm a french student applying through UCAS and got an invitation from UCL to attend their assessment day.

I was wondering if the TSA test was hard or if I had to practice a lot for it. Does anyone know?

Also, is there a face to face interview or just group discussions? Do they ask about things you put in your PS?

Finally, did a lot of people get rejected from UCL after the assessment day?

Thank you very much for your answers

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Reply 1

Lunsy

Hi there, I'm interested in any answers for that post as I'm also going to the Assessment day on March 5th -french applicant too :wink:

.

I am applying for the ESPS Dual Degree, and basically one of the only things that I know for sure is that I'm having a face to face interview with two Sciences Po representatives which will last 15-20 minutes. As for straight ESPS, I think I've heard somewhere that you won't have any interview, just some kind of group discussion that doesn't have an impact on you getting an offer or not.

Have you already tried the TSA ?

I guess I'll see you there :smile:

University College London

London

Reply 2

nem1611

Hi!

Congrats for the dual degree, it's so hard to get in!! I'm sure the interview will go well!
I'm taking the "concours SciencesPo" next weekend but ESPS in definitely my favourite!

Did you get offers from other unis?

Unfortunately, we won't see each other, my interview is on March 19th
Thanks for the heads up about the interview
I've seen the TSA practice tests on the UCL website. Some questions are easy but others are really tricky. So I think you should practice a little if you haven't yet

Bonne chance for the interview! Don't forget to give me some feedback :smile:

. Hopefully we'll both get in!

Reply 3

Lunsy

Original post by nem1611

. Hopefully we'll both get in!

Hopefully we will ! :smile:

I'm taking the Sciences Po exam in Villepinte next weekend too, and then I'll be heading to London for my Assessment Day :wink:

I've already tried the practice tests two times and got 70 and 78/100, though I'm not sure this is relevant - I think each question doesn't have the same value in the real TSA ?
I think I'll try the Oxford ones as they have that "Answer Conversion file" attached :wink:

I got two offers from Cardiff Uni -Politics, and Modern History/Politics-, though I didn't really intend to go there at first : my main goal was ESPS Dual Degree, and I just wanted to see if my application was ok enough to get an offer somewhere else (as I thought I wouldn't even be called for an interview in London haha :wink:

) Do you have some offers as well ?

I'll let you know how it goes !
By the way, any idea what the number of interviews/number of places ratio might be like ? It's so stressful not knowing whether there's a lot of competition at this point or not, I mean, is every applicant invited to the Assessment Days or do they eliminate the majority before interviews ? I'm so excited & nervous haha :wink:

Reply 4

nem1611

Hi!

So how did the assessment day go? Did they interview you? Was there a lot of people?
I hope it went well for you! Getting an offer for the dual degree would really be something amazing!

What about SciencesPo? I found the math test a little hard (I'm a S) as I didn't finish it. But almost nobody did so that's ok. History and English were easy! Did you pick the dissertation about the Republic?

Anyways, I've got an offer from Exeter (IR and history) and LSE (IR and history), I was so happy about LSE, they sent me the offer yesterday! But I have to get 16 at the back, which is not that easy!

Cheers

Reply 5

Lunsy

Original post by nem1611

Hi !

They did interview me, and yes, we were quite a lot of people (I'd say about 40-50 for the plain ESPS degree and 30 for the Dual Degree). It seems that there are only 16-17 places for 200 candidates in the Dual Degree, so it's really competitive this year ! The TSA was more or less like the ones you can find online, though no one had the time to finish it. As for the interview, I found it quite peculiar : there's absolutely no way anyone could know whether it went good or not in my opinion.

For Sciences Po I took Economics as an option, I found the questions rather tricky, or at least trickier than the examples I had seen online. In History, I took the Economic Growth since 1850 :wink:

English was fine, but I couldn't say about the two others though (I have to admit I didn't revise that much as I lost a lot of my confidence when I saw the amount of work that some people had done for the exam).

I hope your assessment day goes fine :wink:

Reply 6

nem1611

Thanks, I hope it goes fine to!

Yeah, I get it, some people have been working SciencesPo since the day they were born :wink:

!

I did not revise that much either because I'd rather study in the UK that in SciencesPo. But since I still had studied a little for the concours and already worked to write my lettre de motivation I taught that it would not do any harm give a try at SciencesPo. My ES friends said the economic exam was hard this year, it seems that la création monétaire was not a very expected subject. But don't get your hopes down, from what I've heard, nobody did good in their option.

Did you apply at LSE? If you were invited to UCL it surely means that you have good chances to be offered a place at LSE !

Anyways, do you go to school in Paris?

Cheers

Reply 7

Clareita

Hi there, i'd like to ask you something as i'm going to the assessment day on the 19th of March as well! Did they interview individually (maybe asking you questions about what you wrote in your personal statement and why did you chose that course) or did you just take part in the discussion group? i would be so please if you can answer me as i really don't know what to practise more specifically!

Thanks

Reply 8

Lunsy

Original post by Clareita

Well, are you applying for plain ESPS or the Dual Degree ?

For plain ESPS!

Original post by Clareita

For plain ESPS!

Then you won't get interviewed, you'll just take part in a discussion group which -from what I've heard- won't be assessed. I can't tell you a lot more than that about it though, as I only applied for the Dual Degree with Sciences Po :smile:

Otherwise I'd advise you to practise the TSA a bit, it's better if you've really got used to it : on the d-day you'll be stressed so make sure you're okay with the way it works ; also make sure you can do it in an hour and a half as it is the exact time you'll have (though virtually nobody managed to finish it on my assessment day, including myself :smile:

-maybe try to answer at least 45 questions out of 50 ?).

Reply 11

Clareita

Hey,thank you very much for your suggestion,I feel way more relieved! By the way, I did two simulations, do you think I should practise more? I think they are not so difficult, but sometimes it takes longer for me because of the foreign language! Late me know if you get in 😉

Reply 12

Lunsy

Oh right, where do you come from ? :smile:

Well, I don't really know if you should practise more (I did 3 personnally). How much questions can you do in 1h30 ? And what were your scores on the two TSAs you did ?

I will let you know, though I'm starting to freak out, as they said we'd hear back a week or a week and a half after and it's been a week and a half already ! :wink:

Reply 13

Jozka

Original post by Clareita

I had the ESPS assessment day in February, and they didn't do any individual interviews. They just had small discussion groups, each with about 12 people in, but they're not assessed, they're just for fun - they don't even take a register or anything. :smile:

Reply 14

Clareita

I am from Italy! Where do you come from? I've done some practise but I'm not very good, in one of them I've made half of the questions right! I'm so scary,I have to be there in like two hours! I REALLY hope it's going to be fine! Did you receive anything from ucl?