Cambridge English Students and Applicants

Dude, you're fine. I'd assume I'm the 'published poet' you speak of and that's really not a big deal - I've had some pieces published in magazines, I don't have a collection of my own yet. That's my project for uni. Also I'm not particularly well-read and my lowest UMS is in English. It's very easy to let other applicants intimidate you - and god knows they're often very intimidating - but you have to focus on yourself.

Hi all!

As a (hopeful) applicant to Cambridge University (I actually haven't been able to make a final decision yet since I'm still waiting for my remarks to see how the UMS fares), I'd like to ask a rather broad question...

I've been looking over my choice of reading materials over the past year and so and realised that my overwhelming passion for 20th Century literature (Faulkner, Greene, Chandler, Vonnegut, Hemingway, and currently Du Maurier) and poetry (Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Larkin, Plath), and even plays (Pinter) have unfortunately left me rather scant in the...well, the entire 16th-19th Century literature department. PANIC PANIC

Well, I guess I haven't been ENTIRELY negligent about pre-20th century literature. For example,

Novels-wise, I've read: Wuthering Heights, two Austens (guess which two), Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (which I really, really did NOT enjoy), and...well, that's it.

Plays-wise, a bit of Shakespeare (King Lear is one of my set texts for A2, and I've also read Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, Richard III...so all the 'mainstream' ones), Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, and Oedipus Rex.

And as for poetry...bit of Renaissance Verse, 17th Century Libertines Verse, some pre-20th Century American Poets (Anne Bradstreet, Allan Poe, Dickinson), and tried (mind you I tried) to get through translations by Heaney and Tolkien of Beowulf.

In case you can't be bothered to read all the above (I don't blame you), basically I'm a bit worried my reading's been overtly narrow which may pose a problem as my Personal Statement is also similarly dominated by references to 20th Century literature. I've been told we should always just put down what we enjoy reading the most as opposed to what we think the universities want, but I don't want them to think of me as being limited in my range of reading and unwilling to read pre-20th Century...I actually enjoy most of what I've read in this time period, I just don't really know where to start!

So here's the skinny: anyone here have any recommendations for 16th-19th Century literature for me to peruse and enlighten myself?

For poetry I think I'll be getting the Norton Anthology of Poetry, but I'm really clueless about novels. I quite enjoyed the Austens, I LOVED Wuthering Heights and I do like my Shakespeare, but I just want to explore a bit more...

Anyway if you've taken time to even skim through this post then thanks and also my sincerest apologies for the rambling nature of my prose. Any suggestions I will treasure most dearly!!!

Oh thank you so much. I guess you are right with everything but it is very easy -as you said- to let other applicants intimidate you but it seems to be particularly easy when you are a foreign applicant. I just feel that Cambridge doesnt really even understand what they are asking for or if they do God help us all.

Im from Finland and they demand me at least two laudaturs and no subject below eximia. Now, Im not going to lecture anyone on Finnish grading system but I just need to get this out of me :-D!
The thing is that in Finland we use this thing called Gaussian distribution which means that the best grade laudatur can only be achieved by 5% and eximia by 10% of the students. We need to do at least four exams and I was 'forced' to do seven, subjects varying from chemistry to English.
I do not know too much about a-levels but they sound a bit easier for me. *long whine*

Id just love to practice my poetry and read more books and get stuff done but all my time goes into revising. When I hear stuff(/rumors) like Cambridge favours students who have published things I get very desperate since they wouldn't even look at my application if I didnt have the demanded grades...which I honestly feel are much harder to achieve than the A-level demands. The things I do for my dreams.

Okay, whine over and please correct me since probably it will turn out that you are dying under the heavy workload of finals too and they are equally challenging and Im complaining in vain.

Its past midnight, it has been very stressful two months of revising and Ive hit the mental rock bottom. Please don't slay me.
Tomorrow will be better ^^

x

Don't worry about it.

I may not know anything about the Finnish education system, but that does not sound fun. Unfortunately, there is a bit of advantage to home applicants in that they are better catered for; int applicants have harder grades to get, usually.

I know that feeling, I often end up writing poems when I know I'm supposed to be working As for favouring published students, I guess being a published writer can help if you're applying for English, but it's one tiny part of a much bigger application.

I was dying three months ago. Right now I'm okay. Start school properly in seven hours, this will not be fun. But you have a total right to be dying right now...

No slaying from me

Hi guys! Wow, feeling intimidated by the poets among you. I've been lurking a bit and trying to get to grips with the reading. Anyone want to reassure me about the slightly terrifying medieval course? How much do they expect us to learn it on our own?

Thanks! :-)

Generally speaking you're going to be doing a lot of learning on your own. But you will find that the simpler Middle English stuff (like Chaucer) is very easy to slip into once you expose yourself to it for a little bit. For the harder stuff like Gawain (which you have to translate in the first part of the exam) you get specific language teaching. If you find all that stuff too hard you can still write about Wyatt / Skelton in the exam which is much closer to modern English. Not something to worry about.

Generally speaking you're going to be doing a lot of learning on your own. But you will find that the simpler Middle English stuff (like Chaucer) is very easy to slip into once you expose yourself to it for a little bit. For the harder stuff like Gawain (which you have to translate in the first part of the exam) you get specific language teaching. If you find all that stuff too hard you can still write about Wyatt / Skelton in the exam which is much closer to modern English. Not something to worry about.

Hey guys, is anyone here applying this year? How is the application going? Do you guys know when we'll find out if we have interviews or not?

Hi, Im applying! Essay deathline 6.11., so atm Im really busy writing them!

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No idea, all I know is that essay deadline submission's 14th of November...in the meantime, just praying to be called up for an interview!

Ah cool! Are you changing your essays loads? On the website it says that you have to declare that you haven't changed your essays for the Cambridge submission so I haven't done much to them... Should I be perfecting them d'you reckon?

Well as I am a foreign applicant I didnt have any suitable essays so I was allowed to write a new one. What kind of essays do you usually write in UK? I already sent mine off but could you give me the idea?

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Ah okay, where are you from? I have literally just written classwork ones, I wrote one on my A Level syllabus which is about As You Like It and another I wrote on Sylvia Plath. Neither are particularly interesting or stimulating, they are just part of my weekly essay cycles.. I don't know whether they're going to be good enough though, because other applicants might change theirs loads for the application! :/

Im from Finland. I dont know about the editing part but I just noticed I sent my essays off without numbering the pages. Great.

Do you really think that matters? It's not like they're going to reject you not for numbering the pages in your (pretty short, in the grand scheme of things) essays.