Not sure I want to go to Oxford...

The tutors only give offers to people who they think are capable and will thrive in the Oxford environment - they know what theyre doing. If you're good enough to get an Oxford offer, I would think very hard before rejecting it!

Well that guy was the only one who mentioned it to me, so it made me very happy.

In first year you sit 3 exams - one in Intro to Psych, one in Stats and one in Neurophysiology or Philosophy (or I think you could also pick Linguistics). Intro to Psych is 3 hours long, and you write two essays (each worth 25%) and do short notes (worth 50%). The short notes are basically a topic (e.g A-not-B error) and you write about that. You have to do 16 short notes overall (4 for each module) out of a choice of 20. The Neurophys exam is completely short essay based - 5 essays in 3 hours.

In second year you sit 4 Psychology papers, with 2 modules examined in each paper. For each module you write one essay (1hr), and do short answer questions (20mins) which are based entirely on the lecture slides. The 5th paper is a 3 hour stats paper based on questions around SPSS (the stats package that we use) outputs. This paper is also made up of a number of core practical reports that you write during the year.

The third year exams are 3hrs each in which you write 3 essays. You either sit 2 or 3 of these papers, depending on if you do a dissertation or not (if you do a dissertation then you only do 2 advanced options, and therefore sit 2 exams).

I've recently had an interview at Oxford University for Experimental Psychology and feel it went pretty well. However, I also hold an offer for Bath University with a placement year in industry.

I'm really not sure, if I got an offer from Oxford, that I'd want to go there. I know it's hypothetical at the moment and I can't decide until I do find out whether my application was successful, but I just wondered what people thought.

Thank you! x

Yeah I guess you're right, but they don't know everything about me, like how hard I find it to cope with stress and things like that.

Interesting! I think i preferred the exams i did at cambridge, just 3 hour 3 essay exams and dissertations/projects. We did three 3 hour exams, plus a compulsary dissertation in third year though, your third year sounds a little easier :P

Funnily enough, I applied to Cambridge for Chemical Engineering but I have an offer from Bath with a placement year. Even if I get the offer from Cambridge, I will still be firming Bath. I made a pros vs cons list about what I can personally get from each university, and on paper, Bath was (by far) the best choice for me. Perhaps you should do the same?

Other unis will probably have less workload. However, if it's like cambridge, For most subjects only a small percentage of people get 2:2s in third/second year. The only people i know at cambridge who've "dropped out" are either people whove had serious bouts of depression and had to re-do a year- I know this happened twice in my college but both did fine in the end.Before arriving, everyone is slightly insecure about whether they are good enough to be there, but that fades in the end!

I didn't enjoy my few days of interviews much, mostly enjoyed the city rather than the university or college itself.

Yeah I'll definitely do a list, it's good to know there's someone in the same position, so thank you

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Really interested to read your thread. My daughter is in a similar position and is undecided between Psychology at Cambridge or at Bath (with the placement). She is hoping that next week's offer holders open day at Bath may help, as it seems ages ago since she visited the campus. We know all about the benefits of Cambridge as her brother is currently studying there, but the placement year makes Bath very appealing. She has made a list of pros and cons but is still undecided! Good luck with your decision. You are in a great position and I am sure that once you are at your chosen university you will give little thought to the one you did not choose.