Oxford Applicants 2016 Entry & Interview chat

Is anyone applying for biomedical sciences?

No colchester royal grammar school www.crgs.co.uk

http://www.crgs.co.uk/120/latest-news/article/34/oxbridge-offers

http://www.crgs.co.uk/120/latest-news/article/81/crgs-makes-the-front-page-of-the-daily-telegraph

oh and 180 students roughly in a year group.*around double that in the whole sixth form Y12+13. around 30-40 offers a year.

unfortunately not many economists though

Just practice, I'd say, and make sure you know everything on the specification (not that it's particularly helpful). For interviews, stay calm (even if you make stupid mistakes, I certainly made a fair few!), and talk through what you're doing - also take the opportunity to talk to other applicants/current students and see some of Oxford, the interviews take up a very small amount of time. I wasn't particularly prepared so I'm not the most help sorry! Thanks, St Hugh's do you know which college you're going to apply to?

I MIGHT BE!! I'm torn between biomedical and economics (i know... completely different...) but if I do apply it would be really nice to have someone else from TSR applying!!

Oh right thanks! Not sure at the moment, but I think it's between Keble, Magdelen, St Hughes and St Edmunds! What was your offer for your A Levels?

Aw just have a think about it and look at the different careers it could lead to.
I'm stuck between medicine and biomedical sciences due to my UKCAT and stuff but I was wondering what kind of GCSEs would give me an ok chance to apply for biomed?

We don't have this information - sorry.

There are so many colleges, it's hard to narrow them down! Have you visited any? Everyone gets the standard offer, which for physics is A*AA (A*A in maths and physics with A in a third subject, or A* in further maths if taken with AA in maths and physics).

I was wondering if someone could help me out with whether or not changing uni course this late would be a bad idea.

Over the last two years, I was certain that I wanted to do natural sciences, I just hadn't picked a branch of it yet. I took Physics, Biology, Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry at AS, and got AAAAB respectively. If I do apply to a science course it would be biomedical sciences; I'm genuinely interested in it and have good wider reading and work experience for it, plus lectures and masterclasses.

The problem is that recently I started looking into economics and after reading some books and looking into courses it looks like it really interests me too. I would certainly apply for economics if i had the proper work experience but I have a very weak background in it compared to biomedical sciences...

Is it way too late to change my mind about the course, and will my application be a lot weaker considering how little experience I have?

If I were you I would stick with biomedical sciences as you do the right subjects and you seem to be excelling in them judging by your AS Grades, I presume your B was in further maths? Don't let me put you off! This is just my opinion.

Not yet! Yes I know that but I was wondering how you did with your A Levels! I'm hoping for 3A*s but probs not gonna happen!

My B was in Chemistry, it was one UMS off an A, I really hope the re-mark gets it up. I thought it would be more logical to stick with biomedical sciences as well, yeah... shame

Oops sorry, A*A*A*A (physics, maths, chem, further maths). Eh you never know, good luck!

Dropped chem at AS didn't enjoy it!! But well done! I'm most nervous about FP3 in further maths

Dropped chem at AS didn't enjoy it!! But well done! I'm most nervous about FP3 in further maths

Oh I loved chemistry! Thanks which exam board?

Yep, FP3 is horrible - but doable if you put the time into it!

Agreed. I don't mind the calculus of the hyperbolics that much, it just takes practice - reduction is quite hard though. Vectors and matrices are okay ish but the co-ordinates chapter!! Content is okay but the questions asked are monsterous

Reduction formula questions can indeed be horrific, and so can co-ordinates questions (particularly with loci... ugh). Vectors is long, but fortunately the questions don't tend to be too awful, you've just got to make sure you remember everything. I've got a few things to say about FP3. Firstly, there have now been two exceptionally difficult exams in a row (the A* boundary this year was 78%!) so I would hesitatingly guess that next year will be less brutal, but then again that's what I thought about this year and I was wrong. Secondly, particularly with the co-ordinate geometry questions, do every single question you can get your hands on! The question this year was absolutely disgusting but by some minor miracle I happened to have seen an almost identical question a few days prior to the exam so I could pretty much recite it off by heart - I wouldn't have had a chance if that was the first time I had seen it. Finally, if you can't do a question, still make a start on it. With the tough co-ordinate geometry and reduction formulae questions, you can still get about half the marks or even more just by writing a few lines. This year, I left an entire question out and only half finished a few more yet I still managed to get full UMS in the exam - if I had frozen and not started the questions I couldn't finish, I wouldn't have got an A* probably.

Thanks for the advice. I agree with you that vectors and matrices has the most content to learn but easiest to apply to questions. Unfortunately for co-ordinate systems its the opposite - so little to learn yet so hard to apply!! I'm following your advice, I'm intending on doing about 1000 FP3 questions before next june (half of those being on conics and reduction) so hopefully that will help! Yeh I heard this years FP3 was a monster - at least being ill for that exam saved me from that beast!! Now have to do it this year. What A Levels did you take. How did they go? You at uni now?