The Student Room Group

What you wish you'd been told before coming to Oxford

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Original post by Niki_girl
Ah ok, I presume that you're in a more modern college then? You're still (I assume) living in/around Oxford though, which is practically ancient! :tongue:

yes, i used to live in this fantastic building 3414623599_203060c0a5_z.jpg

and next year i'll live in cowley...
Original post by moritzplatz
yes, i used to live in this fantastic building 3414623599_203060c0a5_z.jpg

and next year i'll live in cowley...


To be fair, it's probably a listed building, a spectacular 1960s architectural wonder, or something like that!

You can't convince me of it's ugly-ness and lack of history.

I live in Milton Keynes.
:smile: (although it's a perfectly fine place to live...just slightly uninspiring for a History student)
Original post by Niki_girl
To be fair, it's probably a listed building, a spectacular 1960s architectural wonder, or something like that!

You can't convince me of it's ugly-ness and lack of history.

I live in Milton Keynes.
:smile: (although it's a perfectly fine place to live...just slightly uninspiring for a History student)

yes it is listed and from the sixties, good guess :smile:
maybe it's just that i was used to live 200 meters from the colosseum in rome...
Original post by moritzplatz
yes it is listed and from the sixties, good guess :smile:
maybe it's just that i was used to live 200 meters from the colosseum in rome...


Then you were probably sick of the tourists - as I would guess would be the case if you went to ChCh? :wink:
Original post by Nag o ma Scylla
Just out of interest, why Queen's? It doesn't often get compared to Christ Church and we too have the delights of a sixties building in first year

Spoiler


what my college lacks is a really nice building that makes it look like an oxford college.

for example the main quad of queens is amazing. at hilda's we have nothing like that.
Do we have access to all of the content on JSTOR and other similar sites whilst at Oxford?
Reply 426
Original post by KingMessi
Do we have access to all of the content on JSTOR and other similar sites whilst at Oxford?


It's not all of JSTOR's content but seems to be a substantial portion. You can see what's generally available here: http://ejournals.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Original post by ktr
It's not all of JSTOR's content but seems to be a substantial portion. You can see what's generally available here: http://ejournals.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/


Many thanks. :smile:
Original post by KingMessi
Do we have access to all of the content on JSTOR and other similar sites whilst at Oxford?



Almost everything, I almost exploded when I realized how many articles I have access too. I've stockpiled sci articles for the future :smile:
Original post by mournfulpirate
Almost everything, I almost exploded when I realized how many articles I have access too. I've stockpiled sci articles for the future :smile:


Lovely. :holmes:
Reply 430
I see many of the points have already been covered. I'll add an extra bit of advice for Historians.

Pick and choose which lectures you go to - don't bother going to all of them as many of the tutors will recommend. You will learn from speaking with older students which lecturers are excellent and which are poor (do not waste your research time with the latter). You will also find that going to a lecture on a topic you wrote an essay on the week before won't usually contribute anything to your understanding of the topic (lectures are meant to be general guidelines, rather than lessons as some may be used to from school). In first year, beware of some lecturers who may well say "I understand you are writing an essay on this topic soon, so let us forget the schedule and talk about something completely different!"

At least in first year, your essays will generally be awful and they WILL to be torn to pieces in every tutorial no matter how good or bad it is!
Original post by Vanbrugh

At least in first year, your essays will generally be awful and they WILL to be torn to pieces in every tutorial no matter how good or bad it is!


This happened for 3 years for me... I don't think you can ever write a truly satisfactory tutorial essay.

General goings on would be me reading my essay. Tutor stopping, pausing, stroking invisible beard and saying.

"Ok... good! But..." and the subject of the tutorial would be raised, and it would be whatever glaring thing I forgot.
Reply 432
- Classical Chinese is horrible.

- Everyone who comes to Oxford is clever, but only about a 1/3rd of them are passionate about their subject.
Reply 433
Original post by aquatius
- Classical Chinese is horrible.

- Everyone who comes to Oxford is clever, but only about a 1/3rd of them are passionate about their subject.


:frown:

Is it the same for postgrads?
Original post by trollman
that I didn't get in.



Oh god, I remember you. Blast from the past.
Original post by aquatius
- Classical Chinese is horrible.

- Everyone who comes to Oxford is clever, but only about a 1/3rd of them are passionate about their subject.



LOL. You may speak for the language students, but this is not true.
Reply 436
Original post by Vanbrugh
(lectures are meant to be general guidelines, rather than lessons as some may be used to from school).


Urm... isn't it not that you go to Uni to get an education rather than just a 'guideline'?
Reply 437
Original post by kka25
Urm... isn't it not that you go to Uni to get an education rather than just a 'guideline'?


Not the person who made the statement, but I think what they may have meant was that attending the history lectures provides you with a guideline for the topic generally which are fleshed out in your own reading and essay writing and tutorials. You don't get everything you need to know from the lectures themselves.
Reply 438
Original post by ktr
Not the person who made the statement, but I think what they may have meant was that attending the history lectures provides you with a guideline for the topic generally which are fleshed out in your own reading and essay writing and tutorials. You don't get everything you need to know from the lectures themselves.


Of course not; but the idea that you just get a 'guideline' from a lecture is just not worth the amount you're expected to pay them...
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 439
Original post by kka25
Of course not; but the idea that you just get a 'guideline' from a lecture is just not worth the amount you're expected to pay them...


But at Oxford you're also paying for the one on one / two on one weekly tutorials, where you get intense feedback and have an intense debate on your essay.

For Arts subjects, lectures really are just a supplement to your own reading (where you've had access to potentially every book published in the UK) and tutorials.

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