The Student Room Group
Reply 1
La Gioconda
I am not sure how similar the reading list for PPE is across colleges but mine from Balliol was mightily long and quite intimidating. I don't quite know where to begin. I am writing to see what other future PPE-ists are doing in terms of preparatory reading.


Hopefully, you should get a letter from your college subject parents advising you on what you should read once ur place is confirmed...

as i am not feelin sleepy yet, lets see if i can make myself helpful...

Ok,

For economics, best thing to do is attempt to work through Varian...
Philosophy, work your way through Hodges
Politics, actually, i wouldn't..

that should prepare you for your first term .. also, it should give you an idea whether or not u should do logic, some people find it too hard, varies...

Most the other books you will get time to read and learn over the year.. so chill...

I wouldn't stress myself out with going through the reading list to be honest... do a bit of the above... maybe if you didn't do maths HL or Alevel you should have a look at the economics for illiterate mathematicians or somethin like that book...

anyfurther queries, pm me..
Reply 2
I wouldn't even recommend that much to be honest. The important thing is probably to read the start of Hodges properly rather than trying to take the lot in, but you can get away with absolutely nothing if that's what you feel like.
Reply 3
Any chance of posting this list up?
Reply 4
Maybe Russell's 'The Problems of Philosophy' if you think you're doing General Philosophy, and Mill's Utilitarianism if you're doing Mill.

I didn't do A-level Politics and I found it quite hard going to start with because I had no detailed knowledge of any political institution in either the UK or the US. So if you haven't done 20th century british history or politics i would recommend skimming through some A-level Politics textbooks. It's taken me a very long time (due to lack of dedicated note-taking this year) to learn what a filibuster is, what a select committee is and does, how much of a majority it takes to pass legislation in Congress etc. And it might just be my tutor, but all of the key books on my reading list for each essay took all this as assumed knowledge. So, I apparently missed the academic debate, did not set up the criteria appropriately and so my essays were average rather than good.

But....enjoy the summer. If you feel a bit guilty for not doing anything, then read something, but there's an awful lot of reading to do once you get here and you might as well make the most of the last free summer ever.
Reply 5
you might as well make the most of the last free summer ever.

scary ..... :eek:
Reply 6
Jessie
Maybe Russell's 'The Problems of Philosophy' if you think you're doing General Philosophy, and Mill's Utilitarianism if you're doing Mill.

I didn't do A-level Politics and I found it quite hard going to start with because I had no detailed knowledge of any political institution in either the UK or the US. So if you haven't done 20th century british history or politics i would recommend skimming through some A-level Politics textbooks. It's taken me a very long time (due to lack of dedicated note-taking this year) to learn what a filibuster is, what a select committee is and does, how much of a majority it takes to pass legislation in Congress etc. And it might just be my tutor, but all of the key books on my reading list for each essay took all this as assumed knowledge. So, I apparently missed the academic debate, did not set up the criteria appropriately and so my essays were average rather than good.

But....enjoy the summer. If you feel a bit guilty for not doing anything, then read something, but there's an awful lot of reading to do once you get here and you might as well make the most of the last free summer ever.


If you havnt done A Level politics (which I'm revising at the moment, and is quite straightforward and useful) - a good outline of US political processes can be obtained from watching a few series of 'The West Wing' - its also very enjoyable so is well worth the time...... :cool:
Reply 7
Similarly "Yes, Minister" for British politics.
Reply 8
I went to my local library with my reading list for PPE and they had a total of none! So i dont know where to get books etc.
My list is from Univ. and is as folows:
The Making of Modern British Politics, 1867-1945
The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II
Democracy (Issues in Political Theory S.)
How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
The Decline of the Public: The Hollowing Out of Citizenship
An Introduction to Political Philosophy (OPUS S.)
Britain Since 1945: The People's Peace
Free Will (Oxford Readings in Philosophy)
Personal Identity (Blackwell Readings in Philosophy)
Epistemology: Contemporary Readings (Routledge Contemporary Readings in Philosophy S.
Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology
Logic
Economic Way of Thinking
Microeconomics and Behaviour
Macroeconomics
Mathematics for Economics and Business

I didnt do maths at A-level so should i get some of those?
Same goes for Phil.....if i do need to get them wheres my best bet?
Reply 9
Amazon. But don't get any of them. You're unlikely to need to
Except Logic, which you should buy. It's not expensive, and you should be able to find it everywhere (it's a very standard text), and it's important at the start of the year.

But don't do it now. August at the earliest.
HELLO ECONOMISTS!

...if anyone has a copy of Varian they no longer want, I'd be happy to take it off you for a fair price? :smile: (drop a PM or email: scrupulous at gmail.com)
Reply 11
I've got a 5th edition you can have - it's not the most up to date but I've not had problems with it.. You can have it for a donation to charity (I bought it from Oxfam, so it wouldn't be fair for me to make money off it...)
RxB
I've got a 5th edition you can have - it's not the most up to date but I've not had problems with it.. You can have it for a donation to charity (I bought it from Oxfam, so it wouldn't be fair for me to make money off it...)
Oooh, that would be great :smile: Any particular charity preferences?

It's just I wanted to sort this out early as I'm going away in 2 weeks and not coming back until nearly September. And as awful as this sounds...omgsqueehalvarian! Also, postage...I could send you a bunch of stamps?
I did my calculation about my reading list - I have 9 German and 11 French books/plays to read, plus 30 poems in each, plus I want to work through two mammoth grammar books that were reccommended at interview, and according to my calculation, if i'm going to start with them all read, i need to average one book in each langauge every week (which is hard because i've never read a book in a foreign language before on my own!) as well as roungly 2 hours of grammar per day - including the days during my three (!) holidays, days travelling etc. I am never going to manage to be prepared in time!
I wouldn't bother reading anything. You can do it when you get there!
(I'm a PPEist and didn't read anything, most people didn't, those who did wasted their summer)
Reply 15
Tom Holder
I wouldn't bother reading anything. You can do it when you get there!
(I'm a PPEist and didn't read anything, most people didn't, those who did wasted their summer)


word