Oxford History Students and Applicants

Original post by Tyrone Slothrop

Just called the History office up, turns out I got 68 on the HAT, which is "good" according to the incredibley vague feedback I recieved from my college.
Well I still got an offer (Open, underwritten by Balliol, my first choice college) so im happy :smile:

Out of interest, does anyone know if there are colleges where Open Offerees are more likely to end up in? It is realistic that I could end up at Balliol after all, as I LOVED it there, and being international have been telling people who ask that im at Balliol simply because I cant be bothered explaining what an open offer is; people seem to think im just on an Oxford waiting list and dont actually have a guaranteed place

I don't actually know anyone who had an open offer and ended up at a different college to the one that underwrote them; I presume it does happen, but in all the cases I've known people just end up at their original college. Obviously don't rely on this, but I think it is more likely you'll be at Balliol than elsewhere. It does just depend on who misses their offer, though, so there's not a correlation between that and college choice that I know of.

Reply 604

Jairaj

i'm surprised all of you are still blabbering on about HAT scores. After I got my offer I started working hard for the summer exams.

Reply 605

Those of us still 'blabbering on about HAT scores' may be interested to note that the 2010 question paper and examiners' marking instructions have now been uploaded to

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/prosundergrad/applying/hat_introduction.htm

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 606

Lumi Nous

Original post by Jairaj

i'm surprised all of you are still blabbering on about HAT scores. After I got my offer I started working hard for the summer exams.

Yet you couldn't resist the allure of coming on tsr to tell us that...

Reply 607

Niksput

I'll keep this as succinct as possible.

I want to apply for Hist+Pol. I will be completing my A2's and if my grades are high enough (3-4A*'s) I will be turning down current offers and returning to sixth form to do a history and psychology AS+A2 in one year (don't ask - long story involving being a year younger and on all sorts of benefits which require me to remain at school in order for me to feasibly live at home in relative financial safety :frown:

).

The written work required is due in before I will have even scratched the surface of the syllabus (2 months of AS and A2)... presumably I won't have had any particularly strenuous assignments in this period of time, nor will I have a particularly oxbridge worthy grasp of the syllabus so could somebody please advise me on a course of action to take regarding written work for someone in annoyingly unique circumstances.

Also, the HAT seems to be concurrent with how my brain works: paraphrasing, interpretation, extracting things from and expanding on passages. Presumably as the test is centered around potential I won't be disadvantages having had no academic experience of history previously?

Sorry for the annoyingly probing questions. I've basically done a U-turn in my plans and I'm stupidly enthusiastic about doing this after 4 years of basically being a miserable old soak with no direction. Therefore I want to get it right first time.
Ta.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 608

marieparis22

Original post by Niksput

I'll keep this as succinct as possible.

I want to apply for Hist+Pol. I will be completing my A2's and if my grades are high enough (3-4A*'s) I will be returning to sixth form to do a history and psychology AS+A2 in one year (long story involving being a year younger and on all sorts of benefits which require me to remain at school in order for me to feasibly live at home is relative financial safety).

The written work required is due in before I will have even scratched the surface of the syllabus (2 months of AS and A2)... presumably I won't have had any particularly strenuous assignments in this period of time, nor will I have a particularly oxbridge worthy grasp of the syllabus so could somebody please advise me on a course of action to take due to my annoyingly unique circumstances.

Also, the HAT seems to be concurrent with how my brain works: paraphrasing, interpretation, extracting things from and expanding on passages. Presumably as the test is centered around potential I won't be disadvantages having had no academic experience of history previously?

Sorry for the annoyingly probing questions. I've basically done a U-turn in my plans and I'm stupidly enthusiastic about doing this after 4 years of basically being a miserable old soak with no direction. Therefore I want to get it right first time.
Ta.

Hey, I got an offer for History this year so hopefully I can help :smile:

For the written work, the normal exam technique etc doesn't really matter as much as quality of writing, so you should be fine. I'd just begun my Russia course which is the topic of the essay I sent in. Also, you send your work off with a cover letter in which your teacher writes the circumstances of the work so I'm sure the tutors will bear your situation in mind.

On the HAT front, I don't think you'll be strongly disadvantaged except in terms of knowledge of a period of history which only applies to one of the questions anyway. The knowledge needn't be particularly deep, I don't think, so if you've done GCSE History you should probably be alright. Plus, the HAT (I think) is mostly used pre-interview so it's not of massive importance.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 609

Niksput

Original post by marieparis22

Hey, I got an offer for History this year so hopefully I can help :smile:

For the written work, the normal exam technique etc doesn't really matter as much as quality of writing, so you should be fine. I'd just begun my Russia course which is the topic of the essay I sent in. Also, you send your work off with a cover letter in which your teacher writes the circumstances of the work so I'm sure the tutors will bear your situation in mind.

On the HAT front, I don't think you'll be strongly disadvantaged except in terms of knowledge of a period of history which only applies to one of the questions anyway. The knowledge needn't be particularly deep, I don't think, so if you've done GCSE History you should probably be alright. Plus, the HAT (I think) is mostly used pre-interview so it's not of massive importance.

Hope that helps :smile:

Great, thanks :smile:

I'd better start reading.. :wink:

Reply 610

Eric Arthur

8

Original post by marieparis22

Hey, I got an offer for History this year so hopefully I can help :smile:

For the written work, the normal exam technique etc doesn't really matter as much as quality of writing, so you should be fine. I'd just begun my Russia course which is the topic of the essay I sent in. Also, you send your work off with a cover letter in which your teacher writes the circumstances of the work so I'm sure the tutors will bear your situation in mind.

On the HAT front, I don't think you'll be strongly disadvantaged except in terms of knowledge of a period of history which only applies to one of the questions anyway. The knowledge needn't be particularly deep, I don't think, so if you've done GCSE History you should probably be alright. Plus, the HAT (I think) is mostly used pre-interview so it's not of massive importance.

Hope that helps :smile:

You'll need a bit more than just quality of writing for the written work, you'll need to be able to make a decent argument using relevant facts and figures too. You can write as well as you want but if you're talking crap then it doesn't matter how beautifully written it is.

And you might need a bit more knowledge than GCSE for the HAT. I'd advise looking over the old HAT papers to get an idea of what the last essay question is like and then picking a fairly broad topic that could be adaptable to most of those questions. I used the Russian Revolution and ensuing civil war for mine as after doing so as I thought it would work okay, which it seemingly did.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 611

Original post by marieparis22

Hey, I got an offer for History this year...the HAT (I think) is mostly used pre-interview so it's not of massive importance.

Hi, I also have a History offer this year and am surprised that you have this impression of the HAT. Not sure if you have requested your HAT score? If so, the reply will have come from Dr. Andrea Hopkins. Here is her advice (from a couple of years ago) regarding its relative importance:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13710093&postcount=28

Reply 612

marieparis22

Original post by shoshin

Hi, I also have a History offer this year and am surprised that you have this impression of the HAT. Not sure if you have requested your HAT score? If so, the reply will have come from Dr. Andrea Hopkins. Here is her advice (from a couple of years ago) regarding its relative importance:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13710093&postcount=28

Yeah, I got my HAT score back (78) :smile:

. Sorry, I think I was being really unclear! I just meant that it is very important before interview but when I was taking it I was under the impression that if you didn't score magnificently highly you wouldn't be considered (which is clearly wrong).

Reply 613

Original post by marieparis22

Yeah, I got my HAT score back (78) :smile:

. Sorry, I think I was being really unclear! I just meant that it is very important before interview but when I was taking it I was under the impression that if you didn't score magnificently highly you wouldn't be considered (which is clearly wrong).

Ah, I'm with you now :smile:

Yes, as you point out, everyone called to interview is still in with a fighting chance and a mediocre HAT can be rescued by other factors, not least of which would be a super interview.

However, I remember that when we were doing the HAT, some of the TSR posts seemed to be along the lines of 'I just need to get more than the cut-off score [55 or whatever] and then I've got my interview and I'm on a level playing field with everyone else.' But the 55 and the 78 (well done :smile:

) isn't then just scrubbed out once the interviewees have been chosen. It weighs quite heavily in the decision process; certainly more so than the raw number of GCSE A*s achieved, which everyone gets so worked up about on TSR.

Reply 614

ader

Original post by shoshin

Ah, I'm with you now :smile:

Yes, as you point out, everyone called to interview is still in with a fighting chance and a mediocre HAT can be rescued by other factors, not least of which would be a super interview.

However, I remember that when we were doing the HAT, some of the TSR posts seemed to be along the lines of 'I just need to get more than the cut-off score [55 or whatever] and then I've got my interview and I'm on a level playing field with everyone else.' But the 55 and the 78 (well done :smile:

) isn't then just scrubbed out once the interviewees have been chosen. It weighs quite heavily in the decision process; certainly more so than the raw number of GCSE A*s achieved, which everyone gets so worked up about on TSR.

I'd tend to disagree. I got 60 on the HAT and got an offer, so I'm more under the impression that the HAT is used more to decide who will be attending interview and who will not and not as an integral part of the decision-making process post-interview.

Reply 615

Original post by ader

I'd tend to disagree. I got 60 on the HAT and got an offer, so I'm more under the impression that the HAT is used more to decide who will be attending interview and who will not and not as an integral part of the decision-making process post-interview.

I don't understand what there is in my post to disagree with. As I stated, '...everyone called to interview is still in with a fighting chance and a mediocre HAT can be rescued by other factors, not least of which would be a super interview...' Not that 60 is all that mediocre; you didn't just scrape into the interview stage.

But you are then using your own situation to make the general assumption that the HAT is not considered at all post-interview. If you take a look at my post #617, there's a link to Andrea Hopkins' comments (she should know) which are very clear on this point.

Edit:

(Sorry to harp on about this but it's important that future applicants bear it in mind )

See also Oxford's own website:

'The HAT will not be discussed in the interview, but – together with school qualifications, interview performance, UCAS/Oxford forms and written work – it will count towards the final and overall assessment of each candidate.' (my bold)

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/prosundergrad/applying/hat_further_information.htm

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 616

Eric Arthur

8

The best thing to do is not ask what you got afterwards and not worry about it.

Reply 617

Original post by Eric Arthur

The best thing to do is not ask what you got afterwards and not worry about it.

I completely agree that nobody with an offer should be worrying about their HAT score. My point was only of relevance to future candidates, not past ones. The HAT score is not just disregarded once the interviewees have been chosen, and future applicants sitting the test may not be in the best frame of mind for it if they are doing so under this common misapprehension.

Reply 618

Eric Arthur

8

Original post by shoshin

I completely agree that nobody with an offer should be worrying about their HAT score. My point was only of relevance to future candidates, not past ones. The HAT score is not just disregarded once the interviewees have been chosen, and future applicants sitting the test may not be in the best frame of mind for it if they are doing so under this common misapprehension.

What? Why would what it's used for impact on how they do it on? Surely they'd be aiming to do their best on it regardless?

Reply 619