The Student Room Group

Oxford or Cambridge for Physics/Natural Science??

I plan to apply for Physics and what I found out from both Oxbridge open days, Cambridge seems to focus more on the average UMS on the subjects at A-Level, whereas Oxford focuses more on the PAT test and interview. I would love either Physics at Oxford or Natural Sciences then going into Physics in second year at Cambridge, but I'm afraid that it will be harder to get into Cambridge since the UMS requirement is high. I achieved AAAA in my AS, with 271/300 for Physics, 250/300 for Chemistry, 172/200 for economics and 95+ for my 3 maths modules. I need some advice on where should I apply for. Thanks!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
How well did you do on your GCSE's?
Do you think you could do well on the PAT?
Reply 2
Original post by evadommy
I plan to apply for Physics and what I found out from both Oxbridge open days, Cambridge seems to focus more on the average UMS on the subjects at A-Level, whereas Oxford focuses more on the PAT test and interview. I would love either Physics at Oxford or Natural Sciences then going into Physics in second year at Cambridge, but I'm afraid that it will be harder to get into Cambridge since the UMS requirement is high. I achieved AAAA in my AS, with 271/300 for Physics, 250/300 for Chemistry, 172/200 for economics and 95+ for my 3 maths modules. I need some advice on where should I apply for. Thanks!


The courses are pretty different, especially in first year. It's probably worth deciding purely on whether you like the flexibility of nat sci or the focus on physics that physics at oxford has. You will probably interview better if you prefer the course and so would have a better chance of getting in. Your UMS would almost certainly be enough to get an interview at Cambridge and anything can happen from there.
Reply 3
ive got a little bit of a dilemma myself..i was planning on applying to oxford for Physics cause i thought my AS's didnt go too well and I would perform decently well on the PAT however my AS's came out to be: 294- physics, 292-maths, 196-economics and 278 for chemistry which obviously i was chuffed with! this made me reconsider applying to cambridge for natsci but would it be an issue if i dropped chem and did an AS in further maths? so my A2's would be physics maths economics with 2 AS's in fm and chem. also my GCSES's are nothing spectacular (5A*'s and 4A's) which i hear oxford are quite keen on..basically i would be grateful for any advice anyone could give me!
PS sorry for hijacking your thread evadommy hahah i like your subject choice though! and if i were you, i would consider how good a test taker you are and try out the PAT cause if you can do well in that, the offer is all but yours!
Reply 4
Original post by Jozden
ive got a little bit of a dilemma myself..i was planning on applying to oxford for Physics cause i thought my AS's didnt go too well and I would perform decently well on the PAT however my AS's came out to be: 294- physics, 292-maths, 196-economics and 278 for chemistry which obviously i was chuffed with! this made me reconsider applying to cambridge for natsci but would it be an issue if i dropped chem and did an AS in further maths? so my A2's would be physics maths economics with 2 AS's in fm and chem. also my GCSES's are nothing spectacular (5A*'s and 4A's) which i hear oxford are quite keen on..basically i would be grateful for any advice anyone could give me!
PS sorry for hijacking your thread evadommy hahah i like your subject choice though! and if i were you, i would consider how good a test taker you are and try out the PAT cause if you can do well in that, the offer is all but yours!


Wow you had such excellent AS marks!! Congratulations on that! :smile:
I plan to take up further maths as my 5th subject next year too, both AS and A2 though. If I can't cope with it I'll drop economics.
Hey I'm really glad you hijacked my thread! Basically we have the same dilemma :smile: I still have to research a lot bout this. It seems pretty nerve-racking that your life falls in that short 2 hour PAT test but if you do well you'll be shortlisted for interview straight away. So sounds like you're applying for Cambridge haha?
Reply 5
Need help too! :s-smilie:I was planning to apply to oxford for physics earlier this summer, and now i achieved AAAAA, with 300/300 for physics, 300/300 for mathematics& futhermath ( the other two are completely irrelevant subject, arts etc.) So now i'm in a dilemma, shall i consider to apply to cambridge as they might put more weight on the actual AS scores? But the key thing is this: I didn't take chemistry. That means i'll have to take a whole A level chemistry at A2 which can be a real pain...
Reply 6
Words of advise people, you should focus less on trying to work out if you have a better chance of getting into Cambridge or Oxford but rather on which course you prefer out of them both. Are you certain you want to study physics at university or could you maybe see yourself enjoying chemistry/geology ect. In 1st year because at Cambridge half of your 1st year would be non-physics/maths.
Reply 7
yeah what qno2 said was always kinda in the back of my mind and after looking at the natural sciences course i think i do wanna apply for that, geophysics is quite cool in my opinion. and sjonlygw26 (what kind of a name is that?!) those are some pretty impressive AS results so congrats! You can apply for natural sciences without chem at A2 so i don't think thats a big issue as you're already doing fm maths and physics at A2 but maybe an AS in it might be helpful (what im doing kinda)
evadommy well done on your awesome results too! doing the whole fm is something that i thought about but was a little scared of hahah so you're a braver person than me and best of luck! are you leaning towards oxford or cambridge?
Reply 8
Original post by Jozden
yeah what qno2 said was always kinda in the back of my mind and after looking at the natural sciences course i think i do wanna apply for that, geophysics is quite cool in my opinion. and sjonlygw26 (what kind of a name is that?!) those are some pretty impressive AS results so congrats! You can apply for natural sciences without chem at A2 so i don't think thats a big issue as you're already doing fm maths and physics at A2 but maybe an AS in it might be helpful (what im doing kinda)
evadommy well done on your awesome results too! doing the whole fm is something that i thought about but was a little scared of hahah so you're a braver person than me and best of luck! are you leaning towards oxford or cambridge?


Thanks! :biggrin: I'm taking AS further maths now, still unsure of whether to take up A2 as well, and then drop economics because sitting for exams for 6 subjects in ONE SUMMER would be so stressful! I'm kinnnnnnnnnnnda leading towards Oxford now, but I will decide after doing more PAT tests practices. :biggrin: How bout you?
Reply 9
Original post by evadommy
Thanks! :biggrin: I'm taking AS further maths now, still unsure of whether to take up A2 as well, and then drop economics because sitting for exams for 6 subjects in ONE SUMMER would be so stressful! I'm kinnnnnnnnnnnda leading towards Oxford now, but I will decide after doing more PAT tests practices. :biggrin: How bout you?


6 subjects?! im only doing 3 A2's and FM AS and i thought that was a lot hahha also unsure about doing the full further maths course! and that sounds good, sure you'll do fine! personally im more or less decided on cambridge, just gotta choose a college then do some interview/test practice :smile:
Reply 10
Original post by Jozden
6 subjects?! im only doing 3 A2's and FM AS and i thought that was a lot hahha also unsure about doing the full further maths course! and that sounds good, sure you'll do fine! personally im more or less decided on cambridge, just gotta choose a college then do some interview/test practice :smile:


And you've got better AS results than me! :biggrin: I would drop economics but I'm already halfway there with an A already haha. So it'll be a really hard decision. What did you drop btw?
All the best to you!!! :smile: For Cambridge we need to do TSA around the time we got interviewed right?
Reply 11
Original post by evadommy
And you've got better AS results than me! :biggrin: I would drop economics but I'm already halfway there with an A already haha. So it'll be a really hard decision. What did you drop btw?
All the best to you!!! :smile: For Cambridge we need to do TSA around the time we got interviewed right?


yeah i quite like economics so i didnt want to drop it! dropped chemistry purely cause i didnt enjoy it although it probably would have helped my application but oh well! thank you, wish you the best of luck as well:smile: and not all colleges require the TSA! some are just interviews and some are tests etc
Reply 12
Original post by Jozden
yeah i quite like economics so i didnt want to drop it! dropped chemistry purely cause i didnt enjoy it although it probably would have helped my application but oh well! thank you, wish you the best of luck as well:smile: and not all colleges require the TSA! some are just interviews and some are tests etc


I like economics too! But I'm taking both AS and A2 further maths now! So sadly I had to drop economics :frown: My teacher was sad coz I was the only one who got A in AS economics and the only AS student with 4As at college haha :biggrin:
Yeah I checked there are only like 4 colleges which require the TSA. But do you know what kind of interview or test questions will they ask you? Hope you're getting on good with your test practices! I'm still kinda unprepared for what's to come haha
Reply 13
Original post by evadommy
I like economics too! But I'm taking both AS and A2 further maths now! So sadly I had to drop economics :frown: My teacher was sad coz I was the only one who got A in AS economics and the only AS student with 4As at college haha :biggrin:
Yeah I checked there are only like 4 colleges which require the TSA. But do you know what kind of interview or test questions will they ask you? Hope you're getting on good with your test practices! I'm still kinda unprepared for what's to come haha


ahh thats a shame! i (possibly stupidly) stuck with eco instead of the full further maths A2 so we'll see how that goes! thats so amazing though congrats! not too sure on the questions, im guessing they will literally give us a physics(well for me anyway) based question and then ask me to solve it on a whiteboard! im getting there haha thank god we still have a couple of months! i suggest doing some PAT practice cause even though you may not sit it, im sure the questions will still be relevant and they are pretty damn challenging haha! also Physics Olympiads are good i hear :smile:
Reply 14
Original post by Jozden
ahh thats a shame! i (possibly stupidly) stuck with eco instead of the full further maths A2 so we'll see how that goes! thats so amazing though congrats! not too sure on the questions, im guessing they will literally give us a physics(well for me anyway) based question and then ask me to solve it on a whiteboard! im getting there haha thank god we still have a couple of months! i suggest doing some PAT practice cause even though you may not sit it, im sure the questions will still be relevant and they are pretty damn challenging haha! also Physics Olympiads are good i hear :smile:

Well if you're confident in getting A*AA with economics that's not stupid at all! :biggrin: but an AS further maths will be really helpful too! For me I just think that maths is easier coz you're probably sure about the outcome, but for economics you gotta spend wholeeeee lotta time on it and the result could be either completely flopped or ace!
Well yeah it is for 'us' coz I decided to apply for Cambridge too! :smile: I love the options given and not just tied up to physics. I was doing the PAT practices too! And yes it is sooooooo challenging, also one of the reason why I'm not that confident in applying for Oxford. I can solve them but it takes me such longggggg time which I don't think I would've finished them in 2 hours!
I heard that Senior Maths Challenge are good too :smile: :smile: :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by evadommy
Well if you're confident in getting A*AA with economics that's not stupid at all! :biggrin: but an AS further maths will be really helpful too! For me I just think that maths is easier coz you're probably sure about the outcome, but for economics you gotta spend wholeeeee lotta time on it and the result could be either completely flopped or ace!
Well yeah it is for 'us' coz I decided to apply for Cambridge too! :smile: I love the options given and not just tied up to physics. I was doing the PAT practices too! And yes it is sooooooo challenging, also one of the reason why I'm not that confident in applying for Oxford. I can solve them but it takes me such longggggg time which I don't think I would've finished them in 2 hours!
I heard that Senior Maths Challenge are good too :smile: :smile: :smile:


yeah hopefully! economics is a bit ambiguous so i just gotta hope for the best and see how that goes, good luck with 9 or however many maths exams you have to do :smile: hahah yeah sorry i posted it then realised you also picked cambridge over oxford, apologies! do you know what college youre going to apply too? and thanks ill go check them out! :smile:
Reply 16
Original post by Jozden
yeah hopefully! economics is a bit ambiguous so i just gotta hope for the best and see how that goes, good luck with 9 or however many maths exams you have to do :smile: hahah yeah sorry i posted it then realised you also picked cambridge over oxford, apologies! do you know what college youre going to apply too? and thanks ill go check them out! :smile:


Fingers crossed you'll do well for economics! :wink: thanks :biggrin: Yeap I'm gonna take 9 maths modules! It's unfortunate that January exams are scrapped otherwise I would sit for few modules so it'll be easier for me during the summer haha...
Nah it's ok :smile: not sure yet, gotta make some last minute decision! I was planning to apply for open application but realised that I might be placed in a college which requires TSA. How about you?? :smile:
Reply 17
Original post by evadommy
Fingers crossed you'll do well for economics! :wink: thanks :biggrin: Yeap I'm gonna take 9 maths modules! It's unfortunate that January exams are scrapped otherwise I would sit for few modules so it'll be easier for me during the summer haha...
Nah it's ok :smile: not sure yet, gotta make some last minute decision! I was planning to apply for open application but realised that I might be placed in a college which requires TSA. How about you?? :smile:


Best of luck with all of that! which additional modules are you doing specifically eg M3 and S2? but yeah scrapping jan exams is pretty annoying seeing as they coulda helped us out a lot! applying for Churchill :smile: partly due to they only interview and they looked pretty good on the cambridge college pros and cons page (check it out if you havent already!), in my opinion its probably better to pick a college you like at least a little rather than an open application but its totally up to you ofc :smile:
Reply 18
Original post by Jozden
Best of luck with all of that! which additional modules are you doing specifically eg M3 and S2? but yeah scrapping jan exams is pretty annoying seeing as they coulda helped us out a lot! applying for Churchill :smile: partly due to they only interview and they looked pretty good on the cambridge college pros and cons page (check it out if you havent already!), in my opinion its probably better to pick a college you like at least a little rather than an open application but its totally up to you ofc :smile:


thank you! :biggrin: I'm doing FP1 M1 D1 for AS and FP2 M2 S3 for A2 Further Maths, it's some pretty odd combination! Well yeah I should check it out! :smile: That's what I thought so too. at least you know what to expect from your chosen college! :smile: I'm also going to the open day again this Saturday for some last minute questions haha!
Original post by Jozden
ive got a little bit of a dilemma myself..i was planning on applying to oxford for Physics cause i thought my AS's didnt go too well and I would perform decently well on the PAT however my AS's came out to be: 294- physics, 292-maths, 196-economics and 278 for chemistry which obviously i was chuffed with! this made me reconsider applying to cambridge for natsci but would it be an issue if i dropped chem and did an AS in further maths? so my A2's would be physics maths economics with 2 AS's in fm and chem. also my GCSES's are nothing spectacular (5A*'s and 4A's) which i hear oxford are quite keen on..basically i would be grateful for any advice anyone could give me!
PS sorry for hijacking your thread evadommy hahah i like your subject choice though! and if i were you, i would consider how good a test taker you are and try out the PAT cause if you can do well in that, the offer is all but yours!



I'd say don't drop chem if you're leaning towards natsci. Cambridge definitely prefer 3 sciences/maths. You'd need to drop economics. They take your UMS across the three most relevant subjects anyway.

Quick Reply