What books should I read? (Applying for Computer Science at Oxbridge)

Hi. Have you seen this? http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ugadmissions/why_oxford/background_reading.html

And from Camb:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/
Specifically
* The new Turing omnibus, A Kee Dewdney, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 978-0805071665.
* How to think like a mathematician, Kevin Houston, Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-71978-0.

Also course details includes recommended reading for each lecture course
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1415/part1a-cst.html

Just what I was looking for, thanks.

Thanks! Useful

Don't do it because you feel you have to to get in. I'm a CS offer holder (churchill, cambridge) and I didn't read any books, just articles here and there. Though if you're looking for some reading to do because you want to then the above are good places to start.

First year Cambridge CompSci, the New Turing Omnibus was very helpful for me, don't worry if you don't understand most of it though! It helps though as a lot of the topics are covered in first year and it helps to have saw them before (especially the discrete maths stuff)

When did you get your reading list? And how much progress are we expected to make on it before October? Or does the list vary between colleges (mine's churchill).

I don't think any colleges give reading lists for CompSci (I certainly didn't at Johns)

i wanna do comp sci in cambridge and i bought 'the new turing omnibus' and the amount i dont understand is pretty concerning tbh
i keep reading on hoping there will be an easy to follow chapter but it's all like mumbo jumbo and im kinda scared tbh especially how all the reviews for it were like pahhh this book is so simple
like idk if it's just my bad vocab or whatever but i swear it randomly throws complex words/phrases at you and expects you to know it like wotttt
and the maths symbols too! i've never seen like 99% of those symbols ahah i keep having to stop reading to google them
and the diagrams are pretty crazy too
so yeah
im scared
rip
help

First year Cambridge CompSci, the New Turing Omnibus was very helpful for me, don't worry if you don't understand most of it though! It helps though as a lot of the topics are covered in first year and it helps to have saw them before (especially the discrete maths stuff)

Don't worry too much about it, as Sparticus515 said:

i'll try not to worry too much haha, just scared that they'll ask me my thoughts on the book when it might as well be in another language and i have no idea what's going on ahah oh well

Don't mention it in your PS then

BTW, you are going to be doing a course where you learn this stuff, there's not much point trying to know/understand everything in advance of the course...

true haha i just thought all the people i'll be up against will be well-read and i was told i should read up on my subject so i was kinda scared when i couldn't understand the book since it's on their reading list hopefully im not the only one

That's for Offer Holders and even then I think you'll find very few actually bother

Read things (or do things) you enjoy, not because you think it will impress Cambridge

Thanks, that's actually really helpful i tried pressing that thumbs up thing but it wouldn't let me rate another post by you or something XD yeah sorry im new to this aahha

No problem at all - I'm glad to help.

One thing would be to have a look at the CSAT
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/admissions-test/

And the tips given here:
"Can you recommend any books or activities to do that would help my application and/or studies?"
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/faq/

And all the other info at https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/