Oxbridge applicants for modern languages - 2025 entry (applying in 2024)
I am setting up this thread to act as a space for students who are applying, or considering applying, to study languages at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
I am an Oxford graduate – I studied Russian and Spanish at Christ Church College. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Oxford student and I would like to support others in their applications to study languages at Oxford.
Feel free to post any questions or concerns that you may have surrounding the application process – I will do my best to answer them 😊
Scroll to see replies
I was just a few points below the threshold for a bronze🥲
Hi James,
Thanks for your message! In answer to your question - yes, I would absolutely recommend putting this down on your personal statement. Even if you didn't get a medal, universities - especially Oxbridge universities - love to see that you have gone out of your way to explore languages beyond the curriculum and to take advantage of language-related opportunities. Taking part in competitions like the UKLO can be a great way to demonstrate how enthusiastic and motivated you are to study languages.
May I ask - which language(s) are you considering applying for?
There are lots of other competitions you can get involved in as well if you're interested! I have listed some below
•
The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, hosted by the Queen's Translation Exchange - this one is about to close (ends 28th March) but is a great thing to get involved with if you can. You will need to ask your teacher(s) if your school is registered, as entries are sent in by teachers not individual applicants.
•
The Stephen Spender Prize - this is another competition for language students/enthusiasts. It is a poetry in translation competition which is really worth getting involved in and mentioning on your personal statement, even if you don't get an award as mentioned above - it's the effort you're putting in that counts. (This competition opens on 1st May). I highly recommend visiting the Stephen Spender website as there are also lots of resources and guides for budding linguists. Below is an overview of the translation competition:
Submit an English translation of a published poem from any language, together with a commentary of no more than 300 words. The translation should be max. 60 lines. (It is worth noting that a 'commentary' refers to a translation commentary, which is essentially an explanation of why you chose certain words over other alternatives during the translation process)
•
Oxford's French and Spanish flash fiction competitions (deadline 27th of March) if you are applying for either French or Spanish. This competition is great because you can enter it yourself (i.e. not through your school) and it only requires you to write a story of under 100 words! (in the target language - i.e. either French or Spanish).
•
Trinity College Linguistics Essay Prize - this competition opens a bit later in the year (last year's submission deadline was 1st August), so just something to keep an eye on if you're interested!
•
Trinity College Languages and Cultures Essay Prize - this one might be more relevant for MML applicants. They are currently accepting submissions but the deadline is also 1st August so plenty of time to prepare! Here are the essay questions that you can answer for this competition (you can only respond to one):
•
‘Cultural objects are never objective. It is crucial to ask whose perspective is dominant.’ Discuss.
•
‘Language is often the least effective mode of communication.’ Discuss.
•
‘What truth is depends on what language you use.’ Discuss.
•
‘Artists change the world by re-defining the meaning of words and/or images’. Discuss.
•
There are also plenty of English competitions that you could get involved in, which are particularly relevant if you are applying to Oxford, as the Modern Languages degrees at Oxford are essentially literature degrees (specifically, there is the Trinity College Gould Prize for Essays in English Literature or there are a range of competitions on The Poetry Society's website which you can browse through).
Additionally, if you enjoyed the UKLO then I would highly recommend reading the Language Lovers' Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos, which contains lots of puzzles similar to those found in the Linguistics Olympiad!
Finally, we will soon be uploading some exciting articles on the LinguaTute website, which explore some of the unconventional and lesser-known ways that you can prepare an application to study languages at Oxbridge - I will let you know when those are up!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ffion
Thanks for your message! In answer to your question - yes, I would absolutely recommend putting this down on your personal statement. Even if you didn't get a medal, universities - especially Oxbridge universities - love to see that you have gone out of your way to explore languages beyond the curriculum and to take advantage of language-related opportunities. Taking part in competitions like the UKLO can be a great way to demonstrate how enthusiastic and motivated you are to study languages.
May I ask - which language(s) are you considering applying for?
There are lots of other competitions you can get involved in as well if you're interested! I have listed some below
•
The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, hosted by the Queen's Translation Exchange - this one is about to close (ends 28th March) but is a great thing to get involved with if you can. You will need to ask your teacher(s) if your school is registered, as entries are sent in by teachers not individual applicants.
•
The Stephen Spender Prize - this is another competition for language students/enthusiasts. It is a poetry in translation competition which is really worth getting involved in and mentioning on your personal statement, even if you don't get an award as mentioned above - it's the effort you're putting in that counts. (This competition opens on 1st May). I highly recommend visiting the Stephen Spender website as there are also lots of resources and guides for budding linguists. Below is an overview of the translation competition:
Submit an English translation of a published poem from any language, together with a commentary of no more than 300 words. The translation should be max. 60 lines. (It is worth noting that a 'commentary' refers to a translation commentary, which is essentially an explanation of why you chose certain words over other alternatives during the translation process)
•
Oxford's French and Spanish flash fiction competitions (deadline 27th of March) if you are applying for either French or Spanish. This competition is great because you can enter it yourself (i.e. not through your school) and it only requires you to write a story of under 100 words! (in the target language - i.e. either French or Spanish).
•
Trinity College Linguistics Essay Prize - this competition opens a bit later in the year (last year's submission deadline was 1st August), so just something to keep an eye on if you're interested!
•
Trinity College Languages and Cultures Essay Prize - this one might be more relevant for MML applicants. They are currently accepting submissions but the deadline is also 1st August so plenty of time to prepare! Here are the essay questions that you can answer for this competition (you can only respond to one):
•
‘Cultural objects are never objective. It is crucial to ask whose perspective is dominant.’ Discuss.
•
‘Language is often the least effective mode of communication.’ Discuss.
•
‘What truth is depends on what language you use.’ Discuss.
•
‘Artists change the world by re-defining the meaning of words and/or images’. Discuss.
•
There are also plenty of English competitions that you could get involved in, which are particularly relevant if you are applying to Oxford, as the Modern Languages degrees at Oxford are essentially literature degrees (specifically, there is the Trinity College Gould Prize for Essays in English Literature or there are a range of competitions on The Poetry Society's website which you can browse through).
Additionally, if you enjoyed the UKLO then I would highly recommend reading the Language Lovers' Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos, which contains lots of puzzles similar to those found in the Linguistics Olympiad!
Finally, we will soon be uploading some exciting articles on the LinguaTute website, which explore some of the unconventional and lesser-known ways that you can prepare an application to study languages at Oxbridge - I will let you know when those are up!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ffion
Thank you so much, these are really helpful tips. I’m planning to apply for French and Spanish and potentially starting a language ab initio!
Oh awesome! The UKLO website and the language lovers' puzzle book would be particularly useful if you are applying to study a language ab initio, as candidates for ab initio languages are required to take the Language Aptitude Test (quite similar to the puzzles found on the UKLO website and in the book). Which ab initio language are you considering applying for?
Anyway, let me know if you have any other questions about either applying to Oxford or studying there!
Anyway, let me know if you have any other questions about either applying to Oxford or studying there!
It happens that I did the UKLO this year and I have the book you reference haha - I got it as a Christmas present! I’m not too sure yet, I like the idea of doing Russian or something as it’s quite different to my other languages!
Russian was very interesting to study at Oxford, but I'd say only if you really like Russian literature (or translation), as the course is very literature heavy.
One thing I would mention is that if you choose to study a language that's part of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES) you will have more opportunity to study the historical, cultural and social aspects relating to the language, whereas in the MML department the courses tend to focus much more on literature (which I thought was a shame because Russian history is so interesting!).
The other thing is that the year abroad options for Russian now are quite limited. I was in the last group that actually managed to spend their year abroad in Russia! Then covid hit, then the war. Now students are going to countries like Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, etc. which is still cool but obviously not the same as actually going to Russia. (I think at the moment they are sending students to Estonia).
The last thing I would mention is that Russian is extremely difficult, and the quality of language teaching at Oxford is surprisingly poor. The quality of the literature tutoring is outstanding - you will come face to face with the people who have literally written the books you are studying and using to write your essays, which is incredible. For example, my Spanish tutor (Dominic Moran) had personally interviewed Pablo Neruda and written numerous books on him. However, back to language tutoring - the onus of actually becoming fluent and improving your language skills largely depends on the individual, especially after the first year when the number of language classes decreases.
In case this is helpful, here is an overview of the structure of the Russian ab initio course at Oxford:
•
First year - focuses primarily on learning the language. You have around 2-4 hours of language classes every day. Depending on which teacher you get, you may have vocabulary tests every week, and grammar tests as well. There is very little literature during this year as the focus is to get your language skills up to scratch before the year abroad in second year. It is very intense, yet most students will not be fluent (not even close) by the end of the first year.
•
Second year - the year abroad. As mentioned, they are currently sending students to Estonia, but that may change in the future. Again, the focus is on improving your language and beginning to read the classics in Russian.
•
Third & fourth year - the third and fourth year are the important years in your degree. It is over these two years when you will study all of the material that will be in the Final Examinations (the course in the last two years is referred to as FHS = Final Honours School). The priority until this point should just be getting your Russian language skills to a high level so that you can easily understand the texts and produce decent translations. Over these two final years, most weeks will consist of small translation classes (1-2 per week), literature tutorials every fortnight (which students submit essays for), and language/discussion classes (where you usually go through an article or something like that and discuss it in Russian).
If you are considering applying for Russian, I would recommend reading some Russian books in English to see if you enjoy them. If you wanted to read some Russian poetry, there is a great book called 'The Heritage of Russian Verse' by Dmitri Obolensky which provides an anthology of poems by Russia's most renowned poets over the last few centuries alongside their English translations. Aside from this, I would recommend checking out 'Eugene Onegin' by Pushkin, Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky, and perhaps some short stories by Chekhov or Tolstoy. LinguaTute will also be putting on a Russian literature course this summer (and a Hispanic literature course!) so keep an eye on the LinguaTute website for those! Btw, we have now published a blog post that you might find helpful, it is called 'Do You Need to "Read to Succeed" at Oxbridge Language Interviews' - you should be able to find it on the 'Blog' page. This article provides some alternative, unconventional suggestions for how you can begin preparing for an application to Oxbridge - definitely worth a read!
Sorry for the long message, I hope you found at least some of that information useful!!
I am setting up this thread to act as a space for students who are applying, or considering applying, to study languages at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
I am an Oxford graduate – I studied Russian and Spanish at Christ Church College. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Oxford student and I would like to support others in their applications to study languages at Oxford.
Feel free to post any questions or concerns that you may have surrounding the application process – I will do my best to answer them 😊
A noble aim, well done
Thanks for your message! In answer to your question - yes, I would absolutely recommend putting this down on your personal statement. Even if you didn't get a medal, universities - especially Oxbridge universities - love to see that you have gone out of your way to explore languages beyond the curriculum and to take advantage of language-related opportunities. Taking part in competitions like the UKLO can be a great way to demonstrate how enthusiastic and motivated you are to study languages.
May I ask - which language(s) are you considering applying for?
There are lots of other competitions you can get involved in as well if you're interested! I have listed some below
•
The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, hosted by the Queen's Translation Exchange - this one is about to close (ends 28th March) but is a great thing to get involved with if you can. You will need to ask your teacher(s) if your school is registered, as entries are sent in by teachers not individual applicants.
•
The Stephen Spender Prize - this is another competition for language students/enthusiasts. It is a poetry in translation competition which is really worth getting involved in and mentioning on your personal statement, even if you don't get an award as mentioned above - it's the effort you're putting in that counts. (This competition opens on 1st May). I highly recommend visiting the Stephen Spender website as there are also lots of resources and guides for budding linguists. Below is an overview of the translation competition:
Submit an English translation of a published poem from any language, together with a commentary of no more than 300 words. The translation should be max. 60 lines. (It is worth noting that a 'commentary' refers to a translation commentary, which is essentially an explanation of why you chose certain words over other alternatives during the translation process)
•
Oxford's French and Spanish flash fiction competitions (deadline 27th of March) if you are applying for either French or Spanish. This competition is great because you can enter it yourself (i.e. not through your school) and it only requires you to write a story of under 100 words! (in the target language - i.e. either French or Spanish).
•
Trinity College Linguistics Essay Prize - this competition opens a bit later in the year (last year's submission deadline was 1st August), so just something to keep an eye on if you're interested!
•
Trinity College Languages and Cultures Essay Prize - this one might be more relevant for MML applicants. They are currently accepting submissions but the deadline is also 1st August so plenty of time to prepare! Here are the essay questions that you can answer for this competition (you can only respond to one):
•
‘Cultural objects are never objective. It is crucial to ask whose perspective is dominant.’ Discuss.
•
‘Language is often the least effective mode of communication.’ Discuss.
•
‘What truth is depends on what language you use.’ Discuss.
•
‘Artists change the world by re-defining the meaning of words and/or images’. Discuss.
•
There are also plenty of English competitions that you could get involved in, which are particularly relevant if you are applying to Oxford, as the Modern Languages degrees at Oxford are essentially literature degrees (specifically, there is the Trinity College Gould Prize for Essays in English Literature or there are a range of competitions on The Poetry Society's website which you can browse through).
Additionally, if you enjoyed the UKLO then I would highly recommend reading the Language Lovers' Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos, which contains lots of puzzles similar to those found in the Linguistics Olympiad!
Finally, we will soon be uploading some exciting articles on the LinguaTute website, which explore some of the unconventional and lesser-known ways that you can prepare an application to study languages at Oxbridge - I will let you know when those are up!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ffion
Loving all these resources!
I am setting up this thread to act as a space for students who are applying, or considering applying, to study languages at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
I am an Oxford graduate – I studied Russian and Spanish at Christ Church College. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Oxford student and I would like to support others in their applications to study languages at Oxford.
Feel free to post any questions or concerns that you may have surrounding the application process – I will do my best to answer them 😊
Now, here's a thought - I wrote a free online book via TSR called Oxford Demystified. Both my sons, and many kind TSRians donated their own chapters about how to get in for their own subject.
I have chapters on just about every subject, apart from Russian! In order to help the maximum people possible, and take your place in the Pantheon of the Greats (as I call it), would you consider writing a Russian chapter for Oxford Demystified? Then, in the future, if anyone comes on the applicant thread and wants to apply for Russian, I can forward them your chapter. Here is the whole book, if you would like to take a look, and find out what I am about.
Oxford Demystified - The Student Room
Thank you for reading this message.
PS. I studied Russian to GCSE level, so I know how tough (but fascinating) it is!
I am setting up this thread to act as a space for students who are applying, or considering applying, to study languages at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
I am an Oxford graduate – I studied Russian and Spanish at Christ Church College. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Oxford student and I would like to support others in their applications to study languages at Oxford.
Feel free to post any questions or concerns that you may have surrounding the application process – I will do my best to answer them 😊
I’ve just had a go at a practice MLAT paper for Spanish, how much would you charge to have a look over it and give some feedback? Thanks in advance🙂
I am setting up this thread to act as a space for students who are applying, or considering applying, to study languages at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
I am an Oxford graduate – I studied Russian and Spanish at Christ Church College. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Oxford student and I would like to support others in their applications to study languages at Oxford.
Feel free to post any questions or concerns that you may have surrounding the application process – I will do my best to answer them 😊
Hi There!
Thanks so much for setting up this thread. I’m considering applying to Oxford to do French as a mature student. Would love to hear more about your experience and how you chose your college. I’m thinking of doing an open application.
Best,
Edda
You can get the solutions on the MLAT section of the Oxford website for free!
I have chapters on just about every subject, apart from Russian! In order to help the maximum people possible, and take your place in the Pantheon of the Greats (as I call it), would you consider writing a Russian chapter for Oxford Demystified? Then, in the future, if anyone comes on the applicant thread and wants to apply for Russian, I can forward them your chapter. Here is the whole book, if you would like to take a look, and find out what I am about.
Oxford Demystified - The Student Room
Thank you for reading this message.
PS. I studied Russian to GCSE level, so I know how tough (but fascinating) it is!
Hi! Thank you so much for responding on this thread, and please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
This resource looks absolutely fantastic, well done! I would love to get involved - however, at the moment I don't think I'd have enough time to write a chapter for this (I work three jobs, one of which is running a business by myself, so I'm quite busy!). I will have more time in August/September once our literature courses have finished, is that too long to wait? I'm sorry I can't be of more help!!
All the best,
Ffion
Hi James, sorry for my slow response. I've sent you a message on TSR but as Edda has mentioned above you can find the answers online for free - we have a section on the LinguaTute website (go to Oxbridge > Free resources for Oxbridge applicants) where you can find MLAT papers from 2011 with their respective mark schemes, alongside some other helpful resources (online websites, competitions, books) on that page as well. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much for setting up this thread. I’m considering applying to Oxford to do French as a mature student. Would love to hear more about your experience and how you chose your college. I’m thinking of doing an open application.
Best,
Edda
Hi Edda,
My pleasure! That's really exciting, would you be applying for sole French or a joint honours?
So in terms of my experience, I actually decided to apply to Oxford very last minute (I had been set on Cambridge for almost a year, but after visiting Cambridge at an open day I decided that it actually wasn't for me). I went to the Oxford open day in September with my mum and I decided to apply to Christ Church because I basically liked how it looked (very superficial I know) - I loved the dining room, the library and all the huge quads. However, once I was accepted and actually went to Christ Church, I found that being in a bigger college came with its downsides. First and foremost, it was quite difficult to socialise with people (my year group very quickly subdivided into large friendship groups which rarely crossed over/interacted with each other - it felt very cliquey, and as I am not a group person I found this quite difficult to navigate). I also hadn't realised that Christ Church was such a right-wing college and that it was largely populated by private school students - think Eton and Westminster. Overall, if I could go back, I probably would have picked a different college and done a bit more research into what each college was like. Nonetheless, there were upsides to Christ Church - it is a rich college, so they have lots of grants (travel grants, book grants) which are easy for students to apply for. The meals are very cheap and good quality (it was about £2.50 for three courses while I was there, which you pay as a lump sum per term). There are formal dinners every night (unlike in most colleges) - this is where students wear their gowns to dinner, they are waited on by catering staff, a prayer is said in Latin before dinner, and it's generally just quite a cool, social experience. There is also an informal seating every night if you don't have time for the formal.
Right, that's my personal experience covered. Now...
My advice for someone trying to decide which college to apply to - things to think about:
Accommodation - some colleges (like Christ Church) offer students college accommodation for the duration of their degree. However, many colleges don't do this, which can mean added stress having to find a place and people to live out with in your third or fourth year. However, living out can actually have its advantages (when you live in college you have to clear out your room after every term, which basically means moving in and out 3 times every year. Kind of annoying.) When you live out, you get to leave your stuff in your room when going home for the holidays and you have more flexibility around the dates when you leave/return - i.e. you don't have to contact the university if you want to stay in Oxford outside of the normal term dates). Nonetheless, living in is generally considered better because you don't have to organise external accommodation and you usually get much more central accommodation.
Sports and leisure activities - if you are sporty then this is definitely an important thing to bear in mind when choosing a college. Some colleges are far more centred around sports than others. Christ Church was great for me in that respect as I enjoyed rowing, and Christ Church is the closest college to the river. It also had the Christ Church Meadows which is great for running. However, if you are quite sporty and competitive, I would suggest St Edmunds Hall (Teddy Hall), as this is a smaller college with a nice community feel and lots of sporty people/sports groups. It does have a reputation for being a 'laddish' college though.
If you are interested in theatre/acting - Brasenose is quite a good college for this as they have their own drama group, Corpus Christi is another good one, but you can get involved with almost all the uni theatre groups regardless of which college you join. If you are interested in choir singing then Merton, Exeter, Magdalen, New College or Queen's all have great choirs.
Location - most colleges are quite central, which is very handy, but do bear in mind if you are considering applying to colleges like St Hilda's, St Hugh's, St Catherine's and LMH that they are a little further out than other colleges (particularly Hilda's and Hugh's).
LGBTQ+ and political standing - I know this is a slightly odd thing to consider, but it is actually quite a large part of your experience at Oxford. As I mentioned, Christ Church was quite conservative/right-wing, but if that's not your political standing then I would suggest colleges such as Wadham (known as the 'gay' college for its large proportion of queer students), Hertford, Somerville or LMH.
Research the tutors - generally, you will have tutorials with a tutor from your college (for some more niche subjects, like Russian, this isn't the case as there aren't enough Russian tutors for each college, however with French you will most likely get an in-college tutor). I got really lucky when I was applying, because my tutor was a specialist in Neruda, and I just happened to adore Neruda, so we had a lovely chat during my interview about Neruda's poetry. This is a tricky thing to find out as tutors often change colleges but if you search '[college name] Oxford French tutor' then you might be able to get an idea of who may be your future tutor/interviewer.
Finally, I would just like to give a shoutout to Queen's College, which is home to the Queen's Translation Exchange - a language group that hosts lots of language and translation events. It also hosts Creative Translation workshops in schools, which Oxford students can get involved with and help to deliver/teach. If you love all things languages then I would certainly recommend Queen's.
Overall, choosing an Oxford college is a difficult decision to make because most of the things that you end up liking or disliking about your college can't really be Googled (i.e. the atmosphere and social environment of the college). It is important to visit Oxford and have a look yourself, and although it's hard, try not to spend too much time looking into the different colleges - you should primarily focus on developing your interest in French and French literature.
That said, here are some resources that can help when researching colleges:
That Oxford Girl
Uni Admissions - The Complete Guide to Choosing Your Oxford College
Oxford University Alternative Prospectus - College Suggester (generates suggestions for which college you should go to based on your preferences regarding things like atmosphere, sports, accommodation, food, etc)
Final note on an open application - I think it depends on your personality and preferences, if you don't really mind where you end up then this is obviously a good option, but I think if you know there are certain things you'd like in a college then there isn't much harm in applying to a specific one (a lot of people get pooled to other colleges anyway so there is no guarantee that you will end up at the college that you apply to). Up to you!
Okay, I'm done. Sorry that was so long!! I hope you find at least some of this helpful haha, let me know if you have any other questions!
All the best,
Ffion
This resource looks absolutely fantastic, well done! I would love to get involved - however, at the moment I don't think I'd have enough time to write a chapter for this (I work three jobs, one of which is running a business by myself, so I'm quite busy!). I will have more time in August/September once our literature courses have finished, is that too long to wait? I'm sorry I can't be of more help!!
All the best,
Ffion
Don’t worry, please contact me when you have time
Thank you. This is most helpful.Do I just go to the website to book it?
Yes! Just search 'oxford modern languages open day 2024' and it should bring you to the page 😁
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