GCSEs: 5A*s ( including a 9 ing English Lit and 8 in Maths) 4As (including 7 in English Language) 1B
A level Predicitons: A* (Sociology) A* (Politics) A (English Literature)
Work Experience: nothing really academic tbh - worked at Pret, for a week (learning customer service, engaging with different people; it was for my own personal development), 2 summer schools, a couple of lectures, did a scheme at Cambridge and visited it a couple of times afterwards (courtesy of programmes Iβm on called The Social Mobility Foundation and Target Oxbridge)
I know Iβm a month late into this conversation but since itβs relevant to me I thought it would be good to share my thoughts about preparation, and engage in other peopleβs. Plus thereβs still a bit of time before the deadline.
Personally, I recently did a mock interview and test for HSPS, thanks to Target Oxbridge, Which was a real eye opener into the process, I would definitely recommend it. [Mod edited: please don't advertise commercial companies]
- for the test, thereβs quite a bit of reading and I definitely had to read things more than a few times to answer the multiple choice questions
- the mock interview was not at all what I expected. I was given an article about fashion being a wasteful industryπΆ Got very useful feedback though
- one piece of advice I got was to look into schools of thought to do with politics, sociology and social anthropology, which is especially useful as HSPS is multidisciplinary
- I was also told to get to know the first year of the course, so itβs like you already belong there. If you go on the website, you can see the papers on offer, they havenβt seemed to change from last year and look at what theorists come up eg Durkheim, Weber
- Also, one thing I want to work on is holding my argument strongly and not being too agreeable. Luckily, my parents and I tend to have discussions about political/ social issues (but I definetley need to become more confident in sharing my opinions). So, maybe in this forum one could pose political, sociological or anthropolical questions and we all approach it in different ways and share our thoughts???
Writing this I realise it may sound like I go to a private school, but honeslty Iβm just a fortunate state school student who goes to a sixth form where teachers have a lot of contacts and opportunities.
Sorry for the long messageπ