oxford uni requirements

why are there no 3 year courses for physics and chemistry and why is physics only A*AA not A*A*A like in chemistry.

The chemistry course at Oxford has had a year long research based element for nearly 100 years, and it's an extremely effective way of giving students a taste of research, something which oxford wants to do, it's looking for the next generation of academics! That's why it maintains the four year masters and not a three year bachelors degree (i imagine similarly for physics)

The grade requirements for chemistry have risen to A*A*A relatively recently, this is more or less to keep them in line with the Natural Sciences course at Cambridge, for whatever reason the Physics department have decided not to raise the grade requirement (yet). In reality a very large proportion of Physics and Chemistry students at Oxford will achieve A level grades well above the entry requirement!

cheers for replying,do you know why physics stopped doing 3 year courses? Also, maths at oxford says you need A*A*A in Maths,F.Maths and whatever. but i also saw that if you don't take further maths like myself, they accept A*AA, with A* in normal maths. Is this true?

cheers for replying,do you know why physics stopped doing 3 year courses? Also, maths at oxford says you need A*A*A in Maths,F.Maths and whatever. but i also saw that if you don't take further maths like myself, they accept A*AA, with A* in normal maths. Is this true?

Can't speak for the physics course, but I imagine they decided that to get the best physicists who could go on to do PhD or DPhil the four year masters was better.

I think realistically you'd be quite lucky to get a maths offer without further maths, not because they'd discriminate against you, but because you would have a lot less maths knowledge than you peers at interview. The oxford maths website says the standard offer is A*AA with A* in maths if you aren't doing further maths. But getting an offer in these circumstances would be tough.

cheers for replying,do you know why physics stopped doing 3 year courses? Also, maths at oxford says you need A*A*A in Maths,F.Maths and whatever. but i also saw that if you don't take further maths like myself, they accept A*AA, with A* in normal maths. Is this true?

They do still do the 3-year BA but everyone applies initially for the MPhys - see
http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduates/the-courses.

I guess that's designed to make it clear that there is no difference in the selection process between the two degrees.