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Oxford English Students and Applicants

Reply 180

11

i miss paper one. although i'm finding fhs paper one surprisingly enjoyable too (don't tell anyone).

i have more vac work than i've ever had, but can barely contemplate even starting it yet. it's barely the vac!

what's the essay that you're planning going to be on?

Reply 181

Dionysia

12

Um. Reader-response, basically. Iser and all that; what the role of the reader is/should be. I know pretty much in my head what I want to say, it's just how to say it clearly that is going to be difficult. Still, all good fun. I've got another essay on Beowulf, and I want to have finished the P1 and the reading for the Beowulf one by Saturday, then take my old english to Vienna with me and revise Maldon/The Wanderer like crazy, and do my Beowulf translation. Hopefully when I get back, all I'll have to do is write the P3 essay and revise P2...which is frightening me somewhat - if any one could offer any tips regarding VicLit revision, I'd be eternally grateful...it's been playing on my mind a lot lately.

Reply 182

MSB

17

I did quite badly on Victorian, so no tips here. (Probably because most of my revision consisted on reading The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. My tip: don't do that.)

Reply 183

tigrrmilk

11

victorian revision for me consisted of making flexible essay plans for a few topics, learning them, then learning quotations that could be used in them by writing them out a million times, sticking them on my walls, etc. i did that for modernism too, but was more successful for victorians.

Reply 184

Dionysia

12

Hmm. I guess it's also a case of just seeing what topics are likely to come up. Having looked at previous exam papers, I haven't been terribly inspired - more panicked by the whole thing. What sort of topics did you pick? *seriously desperate here*. OE I'm planning on just learning the poems, to be honest. My grasp of the language is so awful...

Reply 185

MSB

17

Dionysia

Hmm. I guess it's also a case of just seeing what topics are likely to come up. Having looked at previous exam papers, I haven't been terribly inspired - more panicked by the whole thing. What sort of topics did you pick? *seriously desperate here*. OE I'm planning on just learning the poems, to be honest. My grasp of the language is so awful...

I thought they were changing the exams to stop the 'learn essays' revision plan? Not that I want to make you panic even more.

As for OE: the more translations you do, the easier it will become.

Reply 186

tigrrmilk

11

i think it'd be hard to stop the 'learn essays' way of doing it - well, how i did it, which was learn a lot of quotes/ basic points for a broad topic, so that i could make it fit any relevant question well.

topics... i did darwin/gothic, some london vs nature thing (richard jeffries's 'after london' is well good, i mostly wrote on him i think), and... form in christina rossetti and hopkins? maybe?

Reply 187

Dionysia

12

Hmm. Well I've studied Conan Doyle, Wilde and Browning, so looks like aestheticism will be in there somewhere, am madly hoping for a popular lit question but can't bank on that, and dramatic monologue. It's Browning that needs the most work, I think.

Still in bed. Not going to get anything done this way.

Reply 188

Orwell

3

With those GCSE's you'll get an interview, assuming that you're other things are fine, and then its all good, assuming everything else is in order, they won't reject you on the basis of your GCSE's (and besides, they're not that bad.)

Reply 189

chebanana

1

I have very similar (if slightly worse) GCSEs and I've yet to come across anyone in the know who hasn't encouraged me to apply (in good faith). Obviously, we're different people, but if I have a chance then you should too.

Reply 190

kuntimagee

2

I have no GCSEs and an Oxford offer. :proud:

(I was too lazy to do them)

But anyway: at interview with me there were individuals with between one and fifteen A*s. If the course looks to your liking and you could see yourself happy there, then apply.

Reply 191

kuntimagee

2

jamieraser

Did anyone on here do the IB? It's hard not to feel as if I've been cast adrift in a sea of A level-ers :biggrin:

I ask because I'm currently giving some thought to my extended essay topic, because I'll probably end up mentioning it on my personal statement. So far I'm at something along the lines of 'Discussions of colonialism in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea' - anyone have any slightly less pathetic ideas? It just feels very cliched... :frown:

EDIT: I'm also aware there's a thread for EE stuff, but I figured where better to go for advice than some Oxford English bods?

I just saw this. Please PM me if you want to talk English EEs. :colone:

.

Reply 192

CuriousGeorgie

7

jamieraser

Did anyone on here do the IB? It's hard not to feel as if I've been cast adrift in a sea of A level-ers :biggrin:

I ask because I'm currently giving some thought to my extended essay topic, because I'll probably end up mentioning it on my personal statement. So far I'm at something along the lines of 'Discussions of colonialism in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea' - anyone have any slightly less pathetic ideas? It just feels very cliched... :frown:

EDIT: I'm also aware there's a thread for EE stuff, but I figured where better to go for advice than some Oxford English bods?

I be IB

I'm afraid I'm on the Bronte bandwagon too - my EE is (the stupendously) named 'The Haunting of Hamlet and Heathcliff'. I'm looking at the relationship between the ghost and the infantile unconscious in Hamlet and Wuthering Heights. and I don't even like psychoanalysis, but I do know Wuthering like the back of my hand so it seemed an obvious choice as I knew, satan willing, I'd probably end up talking about my EE at Oxford at some point.

I like your idea. But don't you find it bloody awful knowing you're writing a proper research essay and can't send it in as your example of written work though :mute:

Reply 193

jamieraser

1

CuriousGeorgie

I be IB

I'm afraid I'm on the Bronte bandwagon too - my EE is (the stupendously) named 'The Haunting of Hamlet and Heathcliff'. I'm looking at the relationship between the ghost and the infantile unconscious in Hamlet and Wuthering Heights. and I don't even like psychoanalysis, but I do know Wuthering like the back of my hand so it seemed an obvious choice as I knew, satan willing, I'd probably end up talking about my EE at Oxford at some point.

I like your idea. But don't you find it bloody awful knowing you're writing a proper research essay and can't send it in as your example of written work though :mute:

It's nice to find some other IB applicants :smile:

(but your sig also terrified me because it reminds this time next year we'll be sitting exams haha).
Actually since I posted that, I've changed my question - I decided my idea was too obvious so I'm talking about cultural identity in some of Salman Rushdie's books. Not exactly ground-breaking either i know, but I figured Midnight's Children is dense enough to allow me to yammer on for 4000 words :p:

Anyway, your topic sounds interesting and Wuthering Heights is a terrific book. Although I might agree with you about psychoanalysis - I've been reading Eagleton's introduction to Lit. Theory and I'm not sure if I 'buy' it haha. But I definitely did also think about being able to mention my EE on my PS as a factor in my choosing.

Do you know where else you want to apply? And how's your IB going? I'm on break and already working on History coursework... :mad:

Reply 194

josilaphina

I applied to Merton and after (stupidly) mentioning that I'd read Midnights Children (I didn't really get it) they spent 30 minutes quizzing me about colonialism and why rushdie felt the need to include magic in Midnight's Children

Reply 195

MSB

17

Oxford tutors have the ability to turn any book you thought you understood into something you don't recognise or understand.

Reply 196

kuntimagee

2

Today I met someone who will do English at Oxford and she was nice. That is all.

Reply 197

bysshe

12

Tomorrow I'm back in Oxford and forcing myself to revise. Ugh, collections. And it's Old English so I have to work...It'll be nice being back, though.

Also, it would be nice if this thread was more active. I don't know whether to lurk in the English 09 thread or the English 10 thread, and if this was busier, it might be a good alternative.

Reply 198

tigrrmilk

11

and we've totally lost the english '08 thread now. gutted.

i have 3 essays to do and a collection to revise for, but i'm like totally shattered and am just wasting my time on the internet. oxford's nice at the moment though, it was very sunny and that today. and filled with morris dancers.

Reply 199

Dionysia

12

I've got an essay to do and oe to revise for AND have to learn a load of silly quotations. Not silly, but argh. I am totally going to fail this.

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