The Oxford TSA thread - 2015 applicants - 5th Nov 2014

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In terms of the essay I found some past questions and practiced writing in the time limit: they don't give you extra paper in the exam and you get two sides of A4 to write on so practicing being concise will help you

Also - my teachers told me that apparently the colleges don't look at the essay unless you're a marginal candidate (i.e. they can't decide whether to see you or not) or if they can't decide whether to accept you or another candidate.

No idea if this is true or not!

Reply 21

AKell17

Original post by Kerpal

I've heard various rumours about the TSA, and I have no idea where it comes from or what bits are true :P

Reply 22

LeJennifleur

Original post by Kerpal

I agree that Think you can think was good for this but what I thought was pretty disappointing was the lack of strategy in it. I personally didn't think it was that great to just get an explained answer because there were so many more aspects to the TSA which were required in order to let you complete the test in time (and get a high mark).

I used Cracking the Thinking Skills Assessment by Mitesh Desai (Amazon Link here) and was really pleased with the focus on strategy this added to Think you can think. I also liked the question and answer section - my favourite thing was how he tries to make you see that some questions can take three minutes or thirty seconds.

Each to their own. I haven't come across anyone else who was disappointed with it, it certainly got me where I wanted to be. Do what works for you :smile:

Reply 23

Kerpal

Original post by LeJennifleur

Each to their own. I haven't come across anyone else who was disappointed with it, it certainly got me where I wanted to be. Do what works for you :smile:

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I thought Think you can think was really good but I just thought it didn't quite go far enough with some aspects of the exam.

I guess the issue for me is that I came from private school so needed to be in upper quartile in order to be considered for an interview. That's where I think Cracking the TSA gave me the extra lift I needed to get the interview.

Reply 24

the1akshay

No exam has ever seemed as scary to me as the TSA Oxford...

Reply 25

LeJennifleur

Original post by Kerpal

Where did you get that idea from?!

Reply 26

Kerpal

Our teachers showed us a lot of past data regarding scores and interviews. Essentially the data suggested that when the TSA first started up it didn't seem to have much of an influence on who got invited to interview but then as time went by lower scoring candidates consistently failed to get interviews.

The school I attended is consistently top 20 nationwide by results so perhaps it is the sort of place where Oxford expect you to have a lot of extra prep and as such demand more of you results wise. I think my extension that all private school candidates need to achieve higher scores was possibly too wide thinking about it.

The other side of this is that the college I am joining has 2 state school candidates who got lower TSA scores than some of my friends at my old school who were not invited to interview at all. Again though it could be college specific and perhaps not reflective of the overall view that Oxford college take wrt the TSA

Reply 27

Harshil1

Any PPE applicant writing the TSA around?

Reply 28

ayesha_17

Tips for the essay? Can't seem to find much about it in the books I have.

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Reply 29

AKell17

Original post by ayesha_17

Tips for the essay? Can't seem to find much about it in the books I have.

Posted from TSR Mobile

My method was always an introductory paragraph, followed by the viewpoint I disagreed with. I then did a paragraph of my opinion, while also refuting points from the above paragraph. Finally I wapped in a quick conclusion and job's a goodun

Reply 30

sellerofdreams

I'm doing the TSA this year for ppe. Is it worth buying one of the cracking the tsa books? Anyone have any experience with those? I'm consistently getting around average results and I want to improve my score.
Also, how important is the essay?

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Reply 31

LeJennifleur

Original post by Kerpal

Remember that whilst the TSA is an important aspect of your application, it is still regarded alongside your exam results/predicted grades etc. - so somebody with a lower score being shortlisted above somebody who scored higher may have had much stronger grades, for example. Different subjects also use different cut off points; for instance E&M applicants will generally need to score pretty highly to be shortlisted whilst my subject (EP) isn't quite so demanding.

In terms of education, you won't be disadvantaged by going to a high performing school - if you have strong grades and score very highly on the TSA, you'll be shortlisted for interview regardless :smile:

Original post by sellerofdreams

I used the Cracking the TSA book and found it helped me a lot, especially for critical thinking. Might be worth a go if you want to improve your speed or technique :smile:

Nobody really knows exactly how the essay is used, but it isn't as important as the first section - a brilliant MC section will make up for a less-than-brilliant essay, but not the other way round :smile:

Reply 32

kashagupta

Q28 2013 paper-what is the best way to answer these questions?

Reply 33

Harshil1

Any PPE applicant here giving the TSA?

Reply 34

groovyd97

Original post by kashagupta

Q28 2013 paper-what is the best way to answer these questions?

Go to page 14 of this document, it explains the structure of those questions.
http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/images/47832-tsa-specification.pdf

Reply 35

Kerpal

Original post by LeJennifleur

Generally I'd agree with you by my friend had 10A* at GCSE and 4 A's at AS including 200/200 in AS Econ and think worst was 190/200. Retrospectively he should've applied to Cambridge where they seem more fussed about specific module scores at AS.

Reply 36

1144876

I think this will likely be the a strong point of my application for PPE- so does anyone have any idea how important this is overall? I'm applying with 4A* at A2, would a good score in this and those result give me a lot of leeway in the interview for messing up? :P

(I got 46/50 in the 2008 one with no practice- 76.1 in the score. Apparently that is in the top 5%ish)

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 37

Kerpal

Original post by nich01as

I think the harsh truth is that there isn't much room for messing up A LOT at interview.

I don't think it's unfair to say that pretty much everyone who gets an interview at Oxford is smart enough to go there. Ultimately when tutors meet you they are assessing whether or not they want to tutor you 1 on 1 for two or three years. That means that you've got to come across as vaguely bright and enthusiastic.

In my opinion the point of the interview is to see how you handle new information or ideas, so don't be totally resistant to suggestions they make and show you have the capacity to think intelligently about topics and you'll have a great shot at getting in!