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How long did you study before Oxford?

How long did you study for your AS/A2 levels every weekend/weekday of your own time before you went to Oxford University? Honest please! :smile:

I'm curious as to how hard people studied before they went to Oxford, since it was probably a university many offer-holders/current students aimed to go to and so studied hard to try and make it.

Just wondering as to how much time everyone who managed to get a place at Oxford spent revising or learning - I suppose I'm asking for advice!

For example did you just do the homework? Did you do outside work from other sources which wasn't particularly needed? Did you revise what you had learnt on the same day or perhaps you just revised like mad before the exams? :p:

Thanks!

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Reply 1

alecangeltess

With all these questions, I think it depends on the person. Without sounding brusque, the best strategy is to do the work until you feel you have a personal mastery of the material, rather than thinking about doing the work.

Reply 2

gimmeshelter

ha! i don't think you need to worry about anything as grandiose as a "personal mastery" at a level...
i worked at the minimum until about a month before the exam and then crammed! i.e 1 hr homework a day max, not that much! then up to the exam about 7/8 hrs a day.
don't worry - but add extra reading for ps etc on to that x

Reply 3

Bezzler

Basically none. I did enough to stop my teachers getting mad at me (though they liked me, so I could get away with more than most) and that was about it. I did some reading around my subject for PS/interview, but that was about it.

Reply 4

didgeridoo12uk

at cambridge but similar enough.

i rarely bothered with the homework, and only ever learnt stuff in the month or so before the exams. in hindsight probably not the best idea as it means last term i was a little shaky on maths. but i imagine the vast majority of people that got into oxbridge didn't have to work very hard at a'level to get the grades required

Reply 5

shebelongs

literally nothing at all. actually bothering to go to school was my challenge...

Reply 6

Teebs

Very little. I had a lot of free time despite doing 5 A levels.

Reply 7

madima

Teebs

Very little. I had a lot of free time despite doing 5 A levels.

wow.

Reply 8

little.miss.vicki

Not an awful lot (I did paid work for 16 hours a week on top of my A levels, so I didn't get an awful lot done outside of college). When I did my homework (which was rarely) I tended to get most of it done during lunchbreaks, (the only exception was coursework, which I actually did properly).
I did go to ALL my classes though (about 25-30 hrs a week) and I was really interested in my subjects which helped. I chose subjects that I didn't find particularly difficult (and because they were related it made things easier).
I'm also really lucky that I have a good short term memory and could get away with revising the day/morning before the exam-this strategy definitely doesn't work for everyone!

Good luck. But remember you will be expected to work fairly hard once you get here (this is my 3rd all nighter this week), so if you want to do the bare minimum this might not be the place for you.

Reply 9

orca92

I know a guy who has a Cambridge offer who hasnt done much homework at all since GCSE and has attendence of less than 60%. Some people are just naturally genius's; im not and have had to work hard doing all homework and going to all lessons to get to unis slightly worse than Oxbridge

Reply 10

username196545

Teebs

Very little. I had a lot of free time despite doing 5 A levels.

Erm, isn't the OP talking about Oxford uni rather than Oxford Brookes?

Reply 11

Teebs

Bubbles*de*Milo

Erm, isn't the OP talking about Oxford uni rather than Oxford Brookes?

Thank you for your helpful comment. Since I did my undergraduate degree at Oxford, I think my contribution remains relevant.

Reply 12

username196545

Teebs

Thank you for your helpful comment. Since I did my undergraduate degree at Oxford, I think my contribution remains relevant.

You would be correct. :p:

Reply 13

Undulipodium

Cambridge applicant, but it's fairly similar.

I don't work particularly hard in term, and then revise equally poorly (I have two exams tomorrow and am still trying to finish reading the textbook for the first time :sigh:

). A-levels don't take a huge amount of time it you organize yourself well. My work ethic will change dramatically next year though.

I did do extra reading for my PS/interview, as this actually interested me.

Reply 14

Bezzler

Teebs

Thank you for your helpful comment. Since I did my undergraduate degree at Oxford, I think my contribution remains relevant.

Have you not got pissed off about that enough to change your sig yet? :p:

Reply 15

StandingOnAir

I think it depends on the quality of your education, to be honest. In the subject where my teachers were good and I was taught the material well enough in class, I didn't have to do much more than a bit revision before the actual exams. In the subjects where my teachers were awful and I had to learn the material by myself (i.e. 3 out of 4 of my A-levels), I had to work pretty hard, although again that wasn't long before the exams.

Also bear in mind that when people here say they did no work, that's in comparison to the amount of work you have to do for an Oxford degree.

Reply 16

Richard12

it varies to be honest.

I dont work that hard throughout the year before exams, i do some of the homeworks and when we get mocks i do very very minimal revision.

When it gets to like a month before exams i start working. I start at 3h a day... then move to 4. Then for like the 2 weeks before exams i do 5h a day, the last week i do upto 7-9 (but thats worse case like when my 3 most important exams all fell within 3 days of each other)

Otherwise it can be quite relaxed.

TBH Oxford offers are easy to meet, consdering you needed a few A* predicted to get the offer you should have a few AS levels at 90%+ meaning since the offer is only 3A's you can get away with just getting B's this year, which is doable if your clever with not so much revision

Reply 17

Teebs

Bezzler

Have you not got pissed off about that enough to change your sig yet? :p:

Not really. I keep it as an excuse to be rude to someone if I don't like them and then they try to be snobby at me. I think it's educational for people who like university snobbery.

Reply 18

mf2004

I did not know what work was until MT09 hit, it hit hard XD.

Reply 19

shebelongs

Teebs

Not really. I keep it as an excuse to be rude to someone if I don't like them and then they try to be snobby at me. I think it's educational for people who like university snobbery.