Economics applicant thread UCAS 2014

Hey everyone, 2d year economist at Cambridge here - would love to help anyone if there are any questions TSR was such a big help for me

Hey - is there anyone you know of that got an offer applying POST A-level?

Hey everyone, 2d year economist at Cambridge here - would love to help anyone if there are any questions TSR was such a big help for me

If you wouldn't mind sharing, what were your GCSEs and AS scores?


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No problem, GCSE:

A* - Maths, Bio, Chem, Physics, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, History, ICT, Economics, French

A-Level:

Maths - A*
Further Maths - A
Physics - A*
Economics - A
French - A
AS History - A
EPQ - A

Could you tell us your UMS scores that you applied with?

Oh my i dont know if i can remember :P ummm okay approximately the averages where:

Maths (already had the A*) - 93
Physics - 99
Economics - 90
History - 83 (I just did AS for this)

Thats really what i can remember, sorry! But i know that the overall average was like 93-94

x

Could you say a bit about the course itself? i.e. how theoretical it is, how much maths there is, how hard the maths is (compared to A levels). Also how many hours a week you spent working on average and could you possibly discuss a typical supervision assignment?



I'm actually an offer holder btw

Congrats on your offer!

Basically the course in 1st year is split into 5 parts:
1. Micro
2. Macro
3. Maths&Stats
4. Politics, Development, Regulation of Employment
5. Economic History

So maths is directly 1/5 of your course but you have to use it in macro and micro too. Its not as hard as some of the stuff I learnt in Further Maths, but the context of the questions i.e. because it is for economics, makes it very challenging sometimes. It's the module I struggled with the most this past year.

On average, including lecture time, I work about 7 hours everyday 7 days a week. Some people condense it and work more each day but take a day off each week, etc.

For each supervision depending on for which module, I either get an essay (4 and 5) , a work sheet (1 and 2) or a problem sheet (3). I would say that for the essays and work sheets I could spend up to 12 hours (but obviously sometimes less). Each week you will get one essay, one work sheet and one problem sheet.

Of course the work load will depend on which college you are at - I am at Caius. Hope this helps

Congrats on your offer!

Basically the course in 1st year is split into 5 parts:
1. Micro
2. Macro
3. Maths&Stats
4. Politics, Development, Regulation of Employment
5. Economic History

So maths is directly 1/5 of your course but you have to use it in macro and micro too. Its not as hard as some of the stuff I learnt in Further Maths, but the context of the questions i.e. because it is for economics, makes it very challenging sometimes. It's the module I struggled with the most this past year.

On average, including lecture time, I work about 7 hours everyday 7 days a week. Some people condense it and work more each day but take a day off each week, etc.

For each supervision depending on for which module, I either get an essay (4 and 5) , a work sheet (1 and 2) or a problem sheet (3). I would say that for the essays and work sheets I could spend up to 12 hours (but obviously sometimes less). Each week you will get one essay, one work sheet and one problem sheet.

Of course the work load will depend on which college you are at - I am at Caius. Hope this helps

Wow that seems like the amount of work i do during exam time. Working that hard all year round is going to be tough (if i even get an offer) but i guess its all worth it :P


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What kind of stuff is in the Economic History? Also any tips on writing a solid PS?

Yeah dont worry you get use to it and adjust - its a bit of an adjustment for everyone at first so don't worry everyone is in the same boat

You basically look at the Industrial Revolution, Late Victorian Ear and Interwar period of Britain and analyse why the economy grew the way it did, looking at theories, articles, books, etc.

And for a ps, I honestly don't know because I am not an admission tutor but i would say that Oxbridge care less about extracurricular than other unis, but its still worth a mention. Just show that you are interested in the subject, you have read books beyond the level of just y13 textbooks and that you are a very capable individual.

What were your other 4 UCAS choices? And which ones did your honestly expect to receive offers from?

Sounds interesting! + what kind of books did you read? SOrry for al the Questions!

My other choices were LSE, UCL, Warwick and Bristol and got offers from all of them - do you mean which I was expecting to get offers from when i applied?

Yeah before you applied which ones did you expect?