Oxford Demystified - Experimental Psychology
Experimental Psychology, New College Oxford
To start this I’ll give some background information about myself - I’m an offer holder for Experimental Psychology, due to start in October 2020, and I went to an all girls state school in South London. At GCSE I got 10 grade 9s and 2 grade 8s, and for my A-Levels (Maths, Psychology, Music and German) I was predicted - and working at - 4A*s. I also completed an EPQ on a certain psychological topic (we’ll get into that later).
The other universities I applied to (and received conditional offers from) are Bath, St Andrews, UCL and Durham.
Experimental Psychology is such an exciting course, and I hope what I’ve written will be helpful.
Why did you want to study your subject?
I’m not the kind of person who always thought “yes, psychology is my calling in life”. I took it at A-Level on a whim because it was something I’d never done before, and I looked at some of the content and thought that it would be fun to learn. It was only when I started learning about the fascinating complexities of the brain and how psychology can be applied in real life that I realised I wanted to study it at university.
Why Oxford?
Counselling and working with people isn’t really for me. I’m not interested in becoming a therapist or dealing with social issues - what I’m interested in is research, statistical analysis and vigorous experimentation. This is exactly what Oxford’s EP course is all about, and some of their professors specialise in the topics I’m personally interested in - such as stuttering and other speech impediments - which is all the more research to go there, in my opinion.
Of course I was a bit influenced by the reputation and prestige of Oxford, but I did find that Oxford is at the top of the league table for Psychology. So that really made me want to go there because I want to do the best course available. (https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/psychology)
Why Oxford over Cambridge? I prefer the course at Oxford, and I also like how you can choose between two different psychology courses (EP and PPL) but the course at Cambridge (Psychological and Behavioural Science) is a lot more broad and even deals with topics such as computer science! I wanted something more specific and entirely psychological.
These two youtube videos helped me make this decision:
EP at Oxford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xAddNpa7Ok
PBS at Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1Bj5qxYsY
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
About this time last year I read a book called Stutter by Marc Shell in which Shell talked about his own experiences as a stutter and the social stigma surrounding speech impediments. I managed to find his email address and I had a skype call with him! This was very inspiring as I felt like we could connect due to our shared experience of stuttering. I learned so much and was challenged on so many of my opinions/preconceptions. If you can contact an author you love, I would highly recommend doing it! There will be someone out there willing to discuss their work with you.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I must admit that I don’t really enjoy reading so I haven’t read that many books. The books that I have read also have a lot to do with stuttering as this is what I’m most interested in.
- Stutter, Marc Shell: This was the book that prompted my interest in stuttering, as it dealt with the social stigma regaridng stuttering and famous peopke who have stutters. It was a difficult read but I got through it, and it was definitely worth reading
- Stammering: Its Nature, History, Causes and Cures, J Compton: I read this book for my EPQ, and it was very informative. Would recommend if you’re interested in stuttering
- The Psychology of Silicon Valley, Katy Cook: Sadly I didn’t get to mentuon this is my personal statement, but
Here’s the psychology reading list for Oxford if you’re interested
https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/EP_PPL_Suggested_Reading_List_June_2013.pdf
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I actually went to a lot of lectures, not all of which were particularly relevant/useful on my application. Here’s a list of some of the lectures I went to.
- Psychology and Mediumship under the Spiritist View: This was at the very beginning of studying psychology, and I don’t think it was that useful as it ended up being pseudoscience. But it got me started in terms of finding lectures to go to.
- Forensic Psychology: This lecture was held by my school, and I learned a lot about the different applications of psychology and the workings of psych-tech such as the polygraph
- School of Psychology MSc Annual Event: This was less of a lecture, but more of a presentation of research by professionals. So I just walked round and learned a lot about loads of different topics. I was too scared to ask any questions - I regret this! Always try and talk to the people at lectures if you can.
- King’s Celebrates World Parkinson’s Day 2019: This was perhaps the most useful lecture I attended, not because of the content of the lecture, but because I got into contact with the lecturers after the event and arranged work experience.
I found most of these lectures by searching “psychology” on EventBrite, and I filtered the search for free events (because you shouldn’t have to pay!)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/
I took part in the Newnham Essay Competition for Behavioural Sciences, in which I wrote about the impact of technology on relationships. This competition is open for girls in year 12 at state schools - so it’s quite a narrow range - but I would recommend if you’re eligible.
https://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduates/newnham-essay-prizes/
Also I didn’t win, but I still put it on my personal statement. You don’t have to win to experience the benefits of taking part in such a competition.
Other competitions I considered taking part in (but ended up not doing) that look useful:
https://www.johnlockeinstitute.com/2020-essay-competition
https://dukeseducation.com/essay-prize/
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I should mention that I had no contacts with anyone to do with psychology/psychiatry so it was challenging to find people to talk to. I’ve emailed about 40 different people asking for work experience and about 4 said yes. So just keep trying! Someone will reply.
My job: I work with young children, teaching them the guitar. This may not sound that applicable to psychology but really you can make any work experience you have relate to the subject, as I’d noticed a lot of things about child psychology during the time I was working there. I got this opportunity by volunteering at the guitar ensemble for a year beforehand, and then after seeing my commitment, the bosses offered me a job.
Volunteering with Singing for the Brain: Singing for the brain is a wonderful branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, and I volunteered with Singing for the Brain with a friend who wanted to study music. We assisted in putting on musical activities for people with Alzheimer’s and their carers and it was so incredibly rewarding. I got this opportunity by finding the branch of Singing for the Brain in my area and emailing, asking if they needed any volunteers with musical skills.
Research with KCL Parkinson’s research: This was definitely the trickiest work experience to get, as I emailed about everyone I could find from the Parkinson’s lecture I went to. I managed to arrange a 2-week work experience placement with the King’s College London Parkinson’s research time. Here my time was divided into helping do small research tasks such as doing spreadsheets but I also got to shadow a lot of the Parkinson’s clinic in which I saw a lot of the real effects that Parkinson’s can have in people’ lives. This was very emotional! But it was also so useful.
UCL experiment: Taking part in an experiment is something I had my heart set on doing from the start, and is something I would highly recommend as it gives you such great insight into the problems with psychological research, and how to construct an experiment - I even got paid to take part! It was very hard to find research to take part in as I was only 17 at the time, but if you search hard enough you’ll probably find something.
https://www.callforparticipants.com/browse
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
My specialist subject is stuttering, and this is because I’ve dealt with a stutter my whole life and it was something that I realised I knew nothing about. I did my EPQ on the social, psychological and biological causes of stuttering, and doing this was so useful. I would definitely recommend doing an EPQ if you can because it lets you explore a topic in great detail, which looks great on your PS, while also giving you an extra qualification.
I honestly didn’t structure my time for the EPQ very well as I was already doing 4 A-levels, so I kind of left everything until the very end. Don’t be like me! Start early and be consistent the whole way through, and make loads and loads of planning documents to show your journey and how you’ve progressed as a “researcher”
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
It was difficult to look back at my PS because of the cringe, but I will break it down for you here.
It is 610 words, and I’ll break down into words how much I wrote about what
- 97: why I want to study Psychology and (what I thought was) a witty introduction
- 98: reading Stutter by Marc Shell and how I contacted him, what I learned from our discussion
- 138: my writing abilities: EPQ, Newnham essay competition and my Independent Research Project for German (which was about the Stasi’s use of psychology_
- 63: what I’ve learned from volunteering: Singing for the Brain & my job
- 101: the value of research in real life: KCL Parkinson’s & UCL experiment
- 41: extra-curricular activities I enjoy
- 72: a very cringe conclusion
A tip that my psychology teacher told me: have an aim that is very clear throughout the PS. I knew I wanted to do research, so he told me to make sure that everything I mentioned related back to how I wanted to do research in the future.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The entrance exam I took was the TSA, and I got about a 68, which isn’t exactly incredible but it was clearly enough to get me in.
For the multiple choice section I bought a TSA book that I found on amazon and I went through the book each day for about 2 months, doing a couple of questions each day. All you can do with these questions is practice. I will link the book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Guide-Practice-Questions-UniAdmissions/dp/0993571115/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=tsa&qid=1586423086&s=books&sr=1-6
When you’ve gone through the book, I would recommend doing timed past papers and reading the examiner’s reports as they’re really good at showing you where you went wrong.
https://www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/thinking-skills-assessment/tsa-oxford/preparing-for-tsa-oxford/
The essay part of the test was the strongest part of my TSA paper in my opinion, and I think this is because of the resources and practice I used. I will link those below, but here’s some tips:
- Take a controversial stance if you can. If you can come up with enough points to do it, go against the grain and take the more difficult side of the argument.
- You only get a very limited amount of space to write your answer. So you need to be concise with your points.
- Stick to only 2 or 3 points. Because of the limited space and time, only use your strongest points.
- You need an introduction and a conclusion. These are key parts of an essay and including them will prove that you can write a decent essay under pressure.
- Read essays and persuasive writing online to get a feel for how you should be forming your arguments
Here’s some resources I used:
https://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/tsa-essay-example.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buxa40ahGV4
And here’s a list of all the TSA questions I could find: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSJrzEh3V-HIIGzk69PEnLEe3CAkfBST8OZOuKxQ7vjlLIVY0Tbckq0h7GoQbuvMWtJ9bqFaAkd3QJL/pub
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
The college I applied for, New College, was also the one I was accepted at. On the open day I went to look around New College and I instantly fell in love with it because it was so beautiful and majestic looking. You shouldn’t just pick your college based on how pretty it is, but it does play a role in my opinion haha. I also considered the proximity of New College to the psychology department, and it’s only a couple minutes away which will save me time in the morning. I also like how it’s quite a large college and has great opportunities in terms of music and choirs.
Go and look around as many colleges as possible, because I’m convinced you’ll find one which you instantly fall in love with too.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I feel strange saying this but I really enjoyed the interview process. Yes it was very stressful, and I found myself on the brink of tears a couple of times (although I managed to stop myself). But it was amazing to have such complex discussions with professionals about a subject I love so much. I learned so many things and was really challenged in my thinking, but I decided beforehand to try and take being challenged positively rather than being threatened in my viewpoint. It actually goes so quickly, and you might come out feeling like you didn’t get to say everything you wanted to say, or at least that’s what I found. Generally it was different to what I expected, but in a good way!
Any interview tips?
Note: Pre Reading can be a thing! Depending on where you are interviewed, you may have to rea
- Get rid of all of your preconceptions. Don’t try to preempt what they’re going to ask you, don’t prepare answers, don’t listen to the scaremongering. Go in with an open mind.
- That being said, know your personal statement very well. What I did was print it out and annotate it, and I brainstormed any possible questions I could be asked based on what I’d written. Other than that, there’s not much you can do to prepare.
- Do some reading before your interview. Something not mentioned on your PS. You need to show that your love for psychology extends beyond your application, and that you’re consistently doing things to do with the subject. Luckily I’d read a few articles on endangered languages which I found quite interesting and managed to come up with links between that and psychology. Be more prepared than I was! Read!
- Don’t give up! (Also don’t cry, I came very close several times). It’s going to be quite difficult and you should feel like you don’t know the answer
- Stay true to yourself. Don’t try and sound overly intelligent. You don’t want to put any more pressure on yourself than you already are, so just stay true to yourself.
- Make sure you’re familiar with your A-Level syllabus. Don’t spend the weeks before your interview committing it to memory (unless you want to) but make sure you’re familiar with the key ideas/key words of each chapter.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. At points, things could get a bit confusing as the interviews would speak in very long, wordy paragraphs and so I had to ask a few times “Excuse me, what is the question you want me to anwer?”. Clarity is very important, and you don’t want to waste time answering a question that was
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
I genuinely felt too terrified to socialise during the interview week, and I’d also been told that people might try and put you off/scare you before the interviews. In hindsight I definitely think I should’ve tried to speak to more people as a way to pass the time, because I was up there for about 3 days and I got a bit bored of being stuck in my room. The JCR (Junior Common Room) puts on events each night if you’re looking to socialise.
But I do believe that you shouldn’t force yourself to socialise if the thought of doing so makes you feel a bit uneasy.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I had 3 interviews, and I felt that the first two were easier than the last. Immediately after the first two interviews, I felt as if I didn’t really have the change to
Immediately after the interviews I texted my friends about how they went, but other than that I pushed them to the back of my mind and tried to move on. There’s no point in dwelling on everything you could have said. What’s done is done and ruminating may damage your performance in your next interview.
In the next week/time until I heard back, I generally felt that I’d done well in all three of my interviews, and that I enjoyed the last one in which I was specially challenged more than the other two. I decided not to think about it until I got my offer, which was probably a good decision. But generally I was happy with my performance and looking back I feel like it was perhaps the strongest part of my application.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
It was the day after I’d finished my mocks, so I was just at home and the only thing I had to think about was this offer. I stayed up very late the night before so that I wouldn’t wake up too early on the day I’d receive the offer. Now this tactic didn’t work, and I was still very nervous.
I’d been checking TSR the whole morning, and I received my offer at about 10am. I’d planned to sit down and properly prepare myself to open the email but I just tapped on the email notification on my phone as soon as I saw it. And when I saw it was the news I was hoping for, I just sighed a sigh of relief. I don’t even think I read the whole email until about 15 minutes after, I just saw “I am pleased” and that was it. I then immediately texted my parents.
Then I decided to see what my TSA score was, because I decided not to check it the day before in case it made me doubt myself, and it wasn’t great. But that didn’t even matter because I had an offer from Oxford!
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited! This has been my dream for over a year, and even though I don’t really know anyone in Oxford, I cannot wait to go up there and make new friends.
To start this I’ll give some background information about myself - I’m an offer holder for Experimental Psychology, due to start in October 2020, and I went to an all girls state school in South London. At GCSE I got 10 grade 9s and 2 grade 8s, and for my A-Levels (Maths, Psychology, Music and German) I was predicted - and working at - 4A*s. I also completed an EPQ on a certain psychological topic (we’ll get into that later).
The other universities I applied to (and received conditional offers from) are Bath, St Andrews, UCL and Durham.
Experimental Psychology is such an exciting course, and I hope what I’ve written will be helpful.
Why did you want to study your subject?
I’m not the kind of person who always thought “yes, psychology is my calling in life”. I took it at A-Level on a whim because it was something I’d never done before, and I looked at some of the content and thought that it would be fun to learn. It was only when I started learning about the fascinating complexities of the brain and how psychology can be applied in real life that I realised I wanted to study it at university.
Why Oxford?
Counselling and working with people isn’t really for me. I’m not interested in becoming a therapist or dealing with social issues - what I’m interested in is research, statistical analysis and vigorous experimentation. This is exactly what Oxford’s EP course is all about, and some of their professors specialise in the topics I’m personally interested in - such as stuttering and other speech impediments - which is all the more research to go there, in my opinion.
Of course I was a bit influenced by the reputation and prestige of Oxford, but I did find that Oxford is at the top of the league table for Psychology. So that really made me want to go there because I want to do the best course available. (https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/psychology)
Why Oxford over Cambridge? I prefer the course at Oxford, and I also like how you can choose between two different psychology courses (EP and PPL) but the course at Cambridge (Psychological and Behavioural Science) is a lot more broad and even deals with topics such as computer science! I wanted something more specific and entirely psychological.
These two youtube videos helped me make this decision:
EP at Oxford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xAddNpa7Ok
PBS at Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1Bj5qxYsY
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
About this time last year I read a book called Stutter by Marc Shell in which Shell talked about his own experiences as a stutter and the social stigma surrounding speech impediments. I managed to find his email address and I had a skype call with him! This was very inspiring as I felt like we could connect due to our shared experience of stuttering. I learned so much and was challenged on so many of my opinions/preconceptions. If you can contact an author you love, I would highly recommend doing it! There will be someone out there willing to discuss their work with you.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I must admit that I don’t really enjoy reading so I haven’t read that many books. The books that I have read also have a lot to do with stuttering as this is what I’m most interested in.
- Stutter, Marc Shell: This was the book that prompted my interest in stuttering, as it dealt with the social stigma regaridng stuttering and famous peopke who have stutters. It was a difficult read but I got through it, and it was definitely worth reading
- Stammering: Its Nature, History, Causes and Cures, J Compton: I read this book for my EPQ, and it was very informative. Would recommend if you’re interested in stuttering
- The Psychology of Silicon Valley, Katy Cook: Sadly I didn’t get to mentuon this is my personal statement, but
Here’s the psychology reading list for Oxford if you’re interested
https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/EP_PPL_Suggested_Reading_List_June_2013.pdf
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I actually went to a lot of lectures, not all of which were particularly relevant/useful on my application. Here’s a list of some of the lectures I went to.
- Psychology and Mediumship under the Spiritist View: This was at the very beginning of studying psychology, and I don’t think it was that useful as it ended up being pseudoscience. But it got me started in terms of finding lectures to go to.
- Forensic Psychology: This lecture was held by my school, and I learned a lot about the different applications of psychology and the workings of psych-tech such as the polygraph
- School of Psychology MSc Annual Event: This was less of a lecture, but more of a presentation of research by professionals. So I just walked round and learned a lot about loads of different topics. I was too scared to ask any questions - I regret this! Always try and talk to the people at lectures if you can.
- King’s Celebrates World Parkinson’s Day 2019: This was perhaps the most useful lecture I attended, not because of the content of the lecture, but because I got into contact with the lecturers after the event and arranged work experience.
I found most of these lectures by searching “psychology” on EventBrite, and I filtered the search for free events (because you shouldn’t have to pay!)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/
I took part in the Newnham Essay Competition for Behavioural Sciences, in which I wrote about the impact of technology on relationships. This competition is open for girls in year 12 at state schools - so it’s quite a narrow range - but I would recommend if you’re eligible.
https://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduates/newnham-essay-prizes/
Also I didn’t win, but I still put it on my personal statement. You don’t have to win to experience the benefits of taking part in such a competition.
Other competitions I considered taking part in (but ended up not doing) that look useful:
https://www.johnlockeinstitute.com/2020-essay-competition
https://dukeseducation.com/essay-prize/
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I should mention that I had no contacts with anyone to do with psychology/psychiatry so it was challenging to find people to talk to. I’ve emailed about 40 different people asking for work experience and about 4 said yes. So just keep trying! Someone will reply.
My job: I work with young children, teaching them the guitar. This may not sound that applicable to psychology but really you can make any work experience you have relate to the subject, as I’d noticed a lot of things about child psychology during the time I was working there. I got this opportunity by volunteering at the guitar ensemble for a year beforehand, and then after seeing my commitment, the bosses offered me a job.
Volunteering with Singing for the Brain: Singing for the brain is a wonderful branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, and I volunteered with Singing for the Brain with a friend who wanted to study music. We assisted in putting on musical activities for people with Alzheimer’s and their carers and it was so incredibly rewarding. I got this opportunity by finding the branch of Singing for the Brain in my area and emailing, asking if they needed any volunteers with musical skills.
Research with KCL Parkinson’s research: This was definitely the trickiest work experience to get, as I emailed about everyone I could find from the Parkinson’s lecture I went to. I managed to arrange a 2-week work experience placement with the King’s College London Parkinson’s research time. Here my time was divided into helping do small research tasks such as doing spreadsheets but I also got to shadow a lot of the Parkinson’s clinic in which I saw a lot of the real effects that Parkinson’s can have in people’ lives. This was very emotional! But it was also so useful.
UCL experiment: Taking part in an experiment is something I had my heart set on doing from the start, and is something I would highly recommend as it gives you such great insight into the problems with psychological research, and how to construct an experiment - I even got paid to take part! It was very hard to find research to take part in as I was only 17 at the time, but if you search hard enough you’ll probably find something.
https://www.callforparticipants.com/browse
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
My specialist subject is stuttering, and this is because I’ve dealt with a stutter my whole life and it was something that I realised I knew nothing about. I did my EPQ on the social, psychological and biological causes of stuttering, and doing this was so useful. I would definitely recommend doing an EPQ if you can because it lets you explore a topic in great detail, which looks great on your PS, while also giving you an extra qualification.
I honestly didn’t structure my time for the EPQ very well as I was already doing 4 A-levels, so I kind of left everything until the very end. Don’t be like me! Start early and be consistent the whole way through, and make loads and loads of planning documents to show your journey and how you’ve progressed as a “researcher”
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
It was difficult to look back at my PS because of the cringe, but I will break it down for you here.
It is 610 words, and I’ll break down into words how much I wrote about what
- 97: why I want to study Psychology and (what I thought was) a witty introduction
- 98: reading Stutter by Marc Shell and how I contacted him, what I learned from our discussion
- 138: my writing abilities: EPQ, Newnham essay competition and my Independent Research Project for German (which was about the Stasi’s use of psychology_
- 63: what I’ve learned from volunteering: Singing for the Brain & my job
- 101: the value of research in real life: KCL Parkinson’s & UCL experiment
- 41: extra-curricular activities I enjoy
- 72: a very cringe conclusion
A tip that my psychology teacher told me: have an aim that is very clear throughout the PS. I knew I wanted to do research, so he told me to make sure that everything I mentioned related back to how I wanted to do research in the future.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The entrance exam I took was the TSA, and I got about a 68, which isn’t exactly incredible but it was clearly enough to get me in.
For the multiple choice section I bought a TSA book that I found on amazon and I went through the book each day for about 2 months, doing a couple of questions each day. All you can do with these questions is practice. I will link the book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Guide-Practice-Questions-UniAdmissions/dp/0993571115/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=tsa&qid=1586423086&s=books&sr=1-6
When you’ve gone through the book, I would recommend doing timed past papers and reading the examiner’s reports as they’re really good at showing you where you went wrong.
https://www.admissionstesting.org/for-test-takers/thinking-skills-assessment/tsa-oxford/preparing-for-tsa-oxford/
The essay part of the test was the strongest part of my TSA paper in my opinion, and I think this is because of the resources and practice I used. I will link those below, but here’s some tips:
- Take a controversial stance if you can. If you can come up with enough points to do it, go against the grain and take the more difficult side of the argument.
- You only get a very limited amount of space to write your answer. So you need to be concise with your points.
- Stick to only 2 or 3 points. Because of the limited space and time, only use your strongest points.
- You need an introduction and a conclusion. These are key parts of an essay and including them will prove that you can write a decent essay under pressure.
- Read essays and persuasive writing online to get a feel for how you should be forming your arguments
Here’s some resources I used:
https://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/tsa-essay-example.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buxa40ahGV4
And here’s a list of all the TSA questions I could find: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSJrzEh3V-HIIGzk69PEnLEe3CAkfBST8OZOuKxQ7vjlLIVY0Tbckq0h7GoQbuvMWtJ9bqFaAkd3QJL/pub
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
The college I applied for, New College, was also the one I was accepted at. On the open day I went to look around New College and I instantly fell in love with it because it was so beautiful and majestic looking. You shouldn’t just pick your college based on how pretty it is, but it does play a role in my opinion haha. I also considered the proximity of New College to the psychology department, and it’s only a couple minutes away which will save me time in the morning. I also like how it’s quite a large college and has great opportunities in terms of music and choirs.
Go and look around as many colleges as possible, because I’m convinced you’ll find one which you instantly fall in love with too.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I feel strange saying this but I really enjoyed the interview process. Yes it was very stressful, and I found myself on the brink of tears a couple of times (although I managed to stop myself). But it was amazing to have such complex discussions with professionals about a subject I love so much. I learned so many things and was really challenged in my thinking, but I decided beforehand to try and take being challenged positively rather than being threatened in my viewpoint. It actually goes so quickly, and you might come out feeling like you didn’t get to say everything you wanted to say, or at least that’s what I found. Generally it was different to what I expected, but in a good way!
Any interview tips?
Note: Pre Reading can be a thing! Depending on where you are interviewed, you may have to rea
- Get rid of all of your preconceptions. Don’t try to preempt what they’re going to ask you, don’t prepare answers, don’t listen to the scaremongering. Go in with an open mind.
- That being said, know your personal statement very well. What I did was print it out and annotate it, and I brainstormed any possible questions I could be asked based on what I’d written. Other than that, there’s not much you can do to prepare.
- Do some reading before your interview. Something not mentioned on your PS. You need to show that your love for psychology extends beyond your application, and that you’re consistently doing things to do with the subject. Luckily I’d read a few articles on endangered languages which I found quite interesting and managed to come up with links between that and psychology. Be more prepared than I was! Read!
- Don’t give up! (Also don’t cry, I came very close several times). It’s going to be quite difficult and you should feel like you don’t know the answer
- Stay true to yourself. Don’t try and sound overly intelligent. You don’t want to put any more pressure on yourself than you already are, so just stay true to yourself.
- Make sure you’re familiar with your A-Level syllabus. Don’t spend the weeks before your interview committing it to memory (unless you want to) but make sure you’re familiar with the key ideas/key words of each chapter.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. At points, things could get a bit confusing as the interviews would speak in very long, wordy paragraphs and so I had to ask a few times “Excuse me, what is the question you want me to anwer?”. Clarity is very important, and you don’t want to waste time answering a question that was
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
I genuinely felt too terrified to socialise during the interview week, and I’d also been told that people might try and put you off/scare you before the interviews. In hindsight I definitely think I should’ve tried to speak to more people as a way to pass the time, because I was up there for about 3 days and I got a bit bored of being stuck in my room. The JCR (Junior Common Room) puts on events each night if you’re looking to socialise.
But I do believe that you shouldn’t force yourself to socialise if the thought of doing so makes you feel a bit uneasy.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I had 3 interviews, and I felt that the first two were easier than the last. Immediately after the first two interviews, I felt as if I didn’t really have the change to
Immediately after the interviews I texted my friends about how they went, but other than that I pushed them to the back of my mind and tried to move on. There’s no point in dwelling on everything you could have said. What’s done is done and ruminating may damage your performance in your next interview.
In the next week/time until I heard back, I generally felt that I’d done well in all three of my interviews, and that I enjoyed the last one in which I was specially challenged more than the other two. I decided not to think about it until I got my offer, which was probably a good decision. But generally I was happy with my performance and looking back I feel like it was perhaps the strongest part of my application.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
It was the day after I’d finished my mocks, so I was just at home and the only thing I had to think about was this offer. I stayed up very late the night before so that I wouldn’t wake up too early on the day I’d receive the offer. Now this tactic didn’t work, and I was still very nervous.
I’d been checking TSR the whole morning, and I received my offer at about 10am. I’d planned to sit down and properly prepare myself to open the email but I just tapped on the email notification on my phone as soon as I saw it. And when I saw it was the news I was hoping for, I just sighed a sigh of relief. I don’t even think I read the whole email until about 15 minutes after, I just saw “I am pleased” and that was it. I then immediately texted my parents.
Then I decided to see what my TSA score was, because I decided not to check it the day before in case it made me doubt myself, and it wasn’t great. But that didn’t even matter because I had an offer from Oxford!
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited! This has been my dream for over a year, and even though I don’t really know anyone in Oxford, I cannot wait to go up there and make new friends.
(edited 4 years ago)
@edgelord123
Thank you so much for a great chapter!
First, some resources that can help prospective candidates:
Sample interview questions:
https://sites.google.com/site/oxbridgeinterviewquestions/experimental-psychology
https://carambalache.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/applying-to-oxford-experimental-psychology/
https://www.studyin-uk.com/study-guide/sample-interview-questions-oxford-university/
https://doxa.co.uk/undergraduateresources/2018/6/14/pploxford
https://www.thatoxfordgirl.com/post/2018/05/29/experimental-psychology-interviews
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/11/five-oxford-interview-questions-and-five-answers
https://www.independent.co.uk/student/how-to-answer-oxford-interview-questions-a6688766.html
YouTube interview videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqX0NNxJKzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQf-qqnNJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJxOPYNnb4A
Thank you so much for a great chapter!
First, some resources that can help prospective candidates:
Sample interview questions:
https://sites.google.com/site/oxbridgeinterviewquestions/experimental-psychology
https://carambalache.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/applying-to-oxford-experimental-psychology/
https://www.studyin-uk.com/study-guide/sample-interview-questions-oxford-university/
https://doxa.co.uk/undergraduateresources/2018/6/14/pploxford
https://www.thatoxfordgirl.com/post/2018/05/29/experimental-psychology-interviews
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/11/five-oxford-interview-questions-and-five-answers
https://www.independent.co.uk/student/how-to-answer-oxford-interview-questions-a6688766.html
YouTube interview videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqX0NNxJKzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQf-qqnNJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJxOPYNnb4A
There is one salient point I need to make about this chapter: the power of persistence.
For example, the OP went from reading a book by Mark Snell, to actually getting a skype call with her hero! Yes, it may be daunting to contact such exalted people, but in this case it paid off, and must have made an impressive addition to your personal statement!
Plus when you were looking for work experience, you had no contacts, but you emailed just about everyone you could find. OK so with most people out of the 40 you contacted the answer was "no", but with 4 it was "yes". And the "singing for the brain" - that was really impressive. You are not only gaining experience, but helping others in a very positive way.
And talking about positive: you are full of optimism aren't you?
You have a stutter, so what do you do?
You devote many hours to studying it, and use this as a focus for your Oxford degree subject. You turn what could have been a disadvantage to an advantage. It wouldn't surprise me if you used your time at Oxford and beyond to research stuttering, and were able to help others considerably.
Plus you say "don't listen to the scaremongering". Again this is such a positive thing to say, and one I constantly repeat to students.
Don't worry if the person in front of you waiting for the interview is a prince, or went to Eton, or both! It doesn't mean that they will automatically get in and you won't. Just be yourself. If you get in, yourself is good enough.
My elder son used to say "Someone's going to get in, and it might as well be me".
For example, the OP went from reading a book by Mark Snell, to actually getting a skype call with her hero! Yes, it may be daunting to contact such exalted people, but in this case it paid off, and must have made an impressive addition to your personal statement!
Plus when you were looking for work experience, you had no contacts, but you emailed just about everyone you could find. OK so with most people out of the 40 you contacted the answer was "no", but with 4 it was "yes". And the "singing for the brain" - that was really impressive. You are not only gaining experience, but helping others in a very positive way.
And talking about positive: you are full of optimism aren't you?
You have a stutter, so what do you do?
You devote many hours to studying it, and use this as a focus for your Oxford degree subject. You turn what could have been a disadvantage to an advantage. It wouldn't surprise me if you used your time at Oxford and beyond to research stuttering, and were able to help others considerably.
Plus you say "don't listen to the scaremongering". Again this is such a positive thing to say, and one I constantly repeat to students.
Don't worry if the person in front of you waiting for the interview is a prince, or went to Eton, or both! It doesn't mean that they will automatically get in and you won't. Just be yourself. If you get in, yourself is good enough.
My elder son used to say "Someone's going to get in, and it might as well be me".
@edgelord123
@El_21
Edgelord, please meet El_21, who also has some interesting points to make about her successful application to Oxford for experimental psychology.
@El_21
Edgelord, please meet El_21, who also has some interesting points to make about her successful application to Oxford for experimental psychology.
I’ll do a briefer description of my own experience
I decided to study psychology because I was interested in a variety of areas (including, astrophysics, artificial intelligence and now aeronautical engineering) but psychology was the one I’d stay consistently interested in, as the human brain just fascinates me. I was also good at maths and science alongside English and social subjects, so this seemed a good fit, rather than doing a physical science with no essays.
Application
I actually decided to apply for Oxford because I wanted to send my application in as fast as possible and my reference would be prioritised if I had a quicker deadline, but then I found out about the admissions test. However then I really looked into Oxford and decided I really wanted to go there so I got ready to do the test. I didn’t study much for the TSA, as I feel it’s something that requires natural skill to an extent, however being familiar with the type of questions was good so I looked over some last papers. The essay part is just unexpected and I don’t know if mine was that good. In the TSA I got 84.5 in critical thinking and 64.7 in problem solving so an overall score of 72.
Grades
I’m from Scotland, so have done national 5s, Highers and then Advanced Highers. My grades were 6 A1s and an A2 at nat5 then 5 A1s at Higher and I was expecting 3 A1s at Advanced higher (A1 is like A* and A2 is regular A) but now I’m not sure as I haven’t really done any proper mocks in 2 of my subjects so am concerned I won’t get the grades. I need AAB though as is standard for all Scottish students at advanced higher. I am currently studying maths, physics and chemistry, and previously also did English and religious, moral and philosophical studies (“RMPS”) at Higher (I wanted to continue the latter as a fourth option to increase likelihood of meeting grades and it was my favourite subject, but it wasn’t on offer at Advanced Higher level in my school).
Interview
I was very lucky that I got interviewed at and an offer from my choice college, Pembroke. The interviewers were all nice and I actually quite enjoyed the tutorial style interview and I loved that it was focused on perception as I’m predominantly interested in cognitive psychology (another reason the college stood out to me, besides the 3 year accommodation and option to say what accommodation you want). I felt the 2 interviews at Pembroke went really well (though initially I left and got annoyed at myself after I thought of things I should have said, but nerves will affect your concentration and that’s okay, they understand).
However my interview at my second college went horrific, firstly it started late so I thought I was in the wrong place and was panicking so much, then I got given this thing to read in a hall before the interview which somebody had written all over (I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be there or not until the interviewer clarified another candidate must have written in it and scribbled over things), and the light kept turning off so I had to keep standing up to turn it back on again (an automatic light) , and for some reason I ignored a part of the article which I later found out was almost fundamental to understanding the passage, and so I misinterpreted the whole thing and pretty sure I confused the interviewer, as he was explaining one thing after I was already interpreting it in another way.
At Pembroke it was very impersonal which I liked, as they were simply evaluating my ability to perform and learn in a tutorial environment but in the second college they asked me a personal interest question and I said the first thing I thought of (ADVICE: take time to think before rushing to answer if it’s a one answer question) and yeah it was just a really awkward interview and I thought I was surely rejected after that since I read that the second college gives feedback to the first one, though I’m not sure if this is true?
Anyway after that train wreck of an interview, by comparison, I realised my previous two interviews actually went quite well.
Due to my school not teaching psychology, nor often sending applicants to Oxbridge I had no support with my interviews (nor the TSA) so didn’t really no how to prepare, but it didn’t matter too much as they don’t expect you to go into it with a deep knowledge of the subject, rather they wanted to see how I learn new things. Though I’m not sure how it works at other colleges, but Pembroke definitely made it doable without having any preparation, and as I already said I actually found the stuff in the interviews quite interesting to think about and getting to personally discuss it with the tutor really highlighted how great the tutorial teaching is, which made me even more desperate to go.
Advice
Don’t be put off for not being an “Oxford type”, I went down there for interviews and didn’t feel uncomfortable at all (although I did get lost due to an archway looking like a dead end and showed up late to the introductory thing, very embarrassing, like I had to knock on the door which was answered by one of the interviewers (who was really nice) and walk in while the room of people stared at me
), and I completely forgot I was at such a prestigious uni as everyone I talked to was friendly and down to earth.
You’ve got nothing to lose by applying, you have 5 choices. I thought that, especially as I was very confident about meeting offers for my other unis (I got unconditionals for Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews and a conditional for Durham, all for Psychology BSc, I selected Edinburgh as insurance as it was my second choice after Oxford).
Oxford made clear it’s a scientific course (the BA is there instead of BSc for historical reasons I believe), which was great for me, and statistics and neurology are taken in year one, both things I really want to do.
I decided to study psychology because I was interested in a variety of areas (including, astrophysics, artificial intelligence and now aeronautical engineering) but psychology was the one I’d stay consistently interested in, as the human brain just fascinates me. I was also good at maths and science alongside English and social subjects, so this seemed a good fit, rather than doing a physical science with no essays.
Application
I actually decided to apply for Oxford because I wanted to send my application in as fast as possible and my reference would be prioritised if I had a quicker deadline, but then I found out about the admissions test. However then I really looked into Oxford and decided I really wanted to go there so I got ready to do the test. I didn’t study much for the TSA, as I feel it’s something that requires natural skill to an extent, however being familiar with the type of questions was good so I looked over some last papers. The essay part is just unexpected and I don’t know if mine was that good. In the TSA I got 84.5 in critical thinking and 64.7 in problem solving so an overall score of 72.
Grades
I’m from Scotland, so have done national 5s, Highers and then Advanced Highers. My grades were 6 A1s and an A2 at nat5 then 5 A1s at Higher and I was expecting 3 A1s at Advanced higher (A1 is like A* and A2 is regular A) but now I’m not sure as I haven’t really done any proper mocks in 2 of my subjects so am concerned I won’t get the grades. I need AAB though as is standard for all Scottish students at advanced higher. I am currently studying maths, physics and chemistry, and previously also did English and religious, moral and philosophical studies (“RMPS”) at Higher (I wanted to continue the latter as a fourth option to increase likelihood of meeting grades and it was my favourite subject, but it wasn’t on offer at Advanced Higher level in my school).
Interview
I was very lucky that I got interviewed at and an offer from my choice college, Pembroke. The interviewers were all nice and I actually quite enjoyed the tutorial style interview and I loved that it was focused on perception as I’m predominantly interested in cognitive psychology (another reason the college stood out to me, besides the 3 year accommodation and option to say what accommodation you want). I felt the 2 interviews at Pembroke went really well (though initially I left and got annoyed at myself after I thought of things I should have said, but nerves will affect your concentration and that’s okay, they understand).
However my interview at my second college went horrific, firstly it started late so I thought I was in the wrong place and was panicking so much, then I got given this thing to read in a hall before the interview which somebody had written all over (I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be there or not until the interviewer clarified another candidate must have written in it and scribbled over things), and the light kept turning off so I had to keep standing up to turn it back on again (an automatic light) , and for some reason I ignored a part of the article which I later found out was almost fundamental to understanding the passage, and so I misinterpreted the whole thing and pretty sure I confused the interviewer, as he was explaining one thing after I was already interpreting it in another way.
At Pembroke it was very impersonal which I liked, as they were simply evaluating my ability to perform and learn in a tutorial environment but in the second college they asked me a personal interest question and I said the first thing I thought of (ADVICE: take time to think before rushing to answer if it’s a one answer question) and yeah it was just a really awkward interview and I thought I was surely rejected after that since I read that the second college gives feedback to the first one, though I’m not sure if this is true?
Anyway after that train wreck of an interview, by comparison, I realised my previous two interviews actually went quite well.
Due to my school not teaching psychology, nor often sending applicants to Oxbridge I had no support with my interviews (nor the TSA) so didn’t really no how to prepare, but it didn’t matter too much as they don’t expect you to go into it with a deep knowledge of the subject, rather they wanted to see how I learn new things. Though I’m not sure how it works at other colleges, but Pembroke definitely made it doable without having any preparation, and as I already said I actually found the stuff in the interviews quite interesting to think about and getting to personally discuss it with the tutor really highlighted how great the tutorial teaching is, which made me even more desperate to go.
Advice
Don’t be put off for not being an “Oxford type”, I went down there for interviews and didn’t feel uncomfortable at all (although I did get lost due to an archway looking like a dead end and showed up late to the introductory thing, very embarrassing, like I had to knock on the door which was answered by one of the interviewers (who was really nice) and walk in while the room of people stared at me
), and I completely forgot I was at such a prestigious uni as everyone I talked to was friendly and down to earth.You’ve got nothing to lose by applying, you have 5 choices. I thought that, especially as I was very confident about meeting offers for my other unis (I got unconditionals for Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews and a conditional for Durham, all for Psychology BSc, I selected Edinburgh as insurance as it was my second choice after Oxford).
Oxford made clear it’s a scientific course (the BA is there instead of BSc for historical reasons I believe), which was great for me, and statistics and neurology are taken in year one, both things I really want to do.
(edited 4 years ago)
@El_21
Thank you for this very interesting account of your road to Oxford.
There are many telling points here:
It's very hard to prepare for the interviews. This is because the tutors want to see how you will cope with unfamiliar material. They want to see how you think (even if your answer is incorrect, it doesn't matter!) You said that the tutors were nice (also many people tell me this as well), who expect you to be nervous (ditto).
You were up to the challenge "I actually found the stuff in the interviews quite interesting to think about". The one thing that interviewees should not do, and that is to give up, or mentally cut off half way through the interview. That wrong answer you have just given may not make any difference to the outcome. And let's face it, every Oxford candidate will make several mistakes. It's how you handle it that matters.
I am sure that when you have your tutorials and they give you an essay, you will love rushing to the library to find out more about it. That's what Oxford is about, being keen to find out more, and discussing this afterwards with your tute partner(s) and a world expert! What they don't want is someone who just sits there like a lemon in tutorials and does not want to develop their learning.
Finally, I note that you arrived late for a meeting. Nobody minded, either the tutors or the prospective students.
These same students you describe as "friendly" and "down to earth". This is my experience with the students I have met. Everyone is welcome, no matter what your background is.
To be honest, these friendly students are what makes Oxford, even more than the grand buildings and stunning achievements.
Enjoy.
Thank you for this very interesting account of your road to Oxford.
There are many telling points here:
It's very hard to prepare for the interviews. This is because the tutors want to see how you will cope with unfamiliar material. They want to see how you think (even if your answer is incorrect, it doesn't matter!) You said that the tutors were nice (also many people tell me this as well), who expect you to be nervous (ditto).
You were up to the challenge "I actually found the stuff in the interviews quite interesting to think about". The one thing that interviewees should not do, and that is to give up, or mentally cut off half way through the interview. That wrong answer you have just given may not make any difference to the outcome. And let's face it, every Oxford candidate will make several mistakes. It's how you handle it that matters.
I am sure that when you have your tutorials and they give you an essay, you will love rushing to the library to find out more about it. That's what Oxford is about, being keen to find out more, and discussing this afterwards with your tute partner(s) and a world expert! What they don't want is someone who just sits there like a lemon in tutorials and does not want to develop their learning.
Finally, I note that you arrived late for a meeting. Nobody minded, either the tutors or the prospective students.
These same students you describe as "friendly" and "down to earth". This is my experience with the students I have met. Everyone is welcome, no matter what your background is.
To be honest, these friendly students are what makes Oxford, even more than the grand buildings and stunning achievements.
Enjoy.
@Oxford Mum
I thought it would be useful to give my perspective as I’m quite different from the OP. I’m holding an offer for EP at St Catz. I went to a mixed state sixth form in East London. At GCSE’s I got 4 grade 8s, 4 grade 9s and a grade 6. For my A-levels I did Biology, Maths and Psychology and my UCAS predicted grades were 3 A*s, and my requirements were A*AA. Similar to OP I did an EPQ which I will expand on later. In addition to Oxford, I got offers from Bath, Lancaster, Surrey and Warwick.
Why did you want to study your subject?
From a really young age I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, I really liked helping people and giving advice. My interest in psychology became more scientific during my Biology GCSE when I began to find the links between the workings of the endocrine system and behaviour. This was all furthered when I took Psychology A-Level and realised I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of psychology and the research methods needed for it.
Why Oxford?
I enjoyed the emphasis that the course put on scientific methods and research. The course also involves a lot of neurophysiology and as I was also considering applying for a neuroscience degree, the course seemed like the perfect match for me. But of course, similar to the OP the prestige played a great factor in why I chose Oxford. However, I had thought for quite some times before my application, I was convinced that I was going to apply to Cambridge’s PBS (because I had already visited so many times before due to access events) but I realised I preferred Oxford’s environment (as it’s more similar to London) and the PBS course seemed less focussed on Psychology as they only do 2 PBS papers each year. I also used the exact two videos that OP did to make this decision.
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
As mentioned before, I was interested in psychology for quite some time and I wouldn’t say that there were any singular people that contributed to my decision. However, my mum is a nurse in a stroke ward and being exposed to the knowledge of the effects of changes to the brain in behaviour when someone has a stroke probably inspired me to look more into psychology.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I would say I quite enjoy reading and if you do too, this is the best way to gain more knowledge on a topic, although with sixth form, I found it difficult to read so many books. I also listened to podcasts as they are an easy way to gain information whilst being able to do everyday things, they acted as a starting point for furthering my research.
The two main books I read were Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley and Incognito by David Eagleman.
I read Nature via Nurture after seeing it on the Oxford EP reading list, but I had always been interested in the extent that behaviour is due to our upbringing or our genetics. Though I found the book quite difficult to get through, I did enjoy it. I mentioned it in my personal statement and it also helped me during my A-levels.
Incognito was a book I decided to read because I was very interested in the brain and how it controlled our actions and how changes to it could affect our behaviour. As a neuroscientist, David Eagleman very effectively conveyed this through case studies and examples. It was a very interesting read and I got through it much more quickly.
The main podcast I listened to was Hidden Brain by NPR, as you may have noticed, my favourite area of psychology is learning about the effect of the brain on behaviour and this podcast was an easy listen. I researched further on the topics I was most interested in. I also listened to Say Why to Drugs, a podcast on the effects of drugs on the brain.
I also took a few FutureLearn courses with a basis in psychology. For example, I took one on the psychology of music as I always wondered why music makes people so happy and after work experience in a daycentre, I realised that music has such a positive effect on behaviour.
I would say that my favourite resources were podcasts and books.
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I didn’t get the chance to directly go to any lectures, but I went to Experience Cambridge (got in after being rejected from Sutton Trust Cambridge) and on this event there were a few taster lectures that I found very interesting such as one on Perception, one on attachment styles and one on the autism. I mentioned one of these in my personal statement.
I didn’t take part in any competitions, mainly because I wasn’t really aware of them.
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I completed psychology related work experience twice. My first one was working in a stroke ward, mental health unit and a rehabilitation unit. I got it because as mentioned before, my mum is a nurse and the NHS has a scheme where if you know someone working in the NHS, you can complete work experience once for a few weeks. My second one was fortunately arranged by my school in year 12 as we had a work experience week. I worked in a daycentre with patients with dementia. However, I would recommend emailing a bunch of people as OP suggested. I personally think you can relate any type of work experience to psychology.
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
I did an EPQ on whether the prison situation in the UK is suitable for males with mental health disorders. To undertake my research I mainly used JSTOR courtesy of my school. But many of the research I used was also from general articles and from government reports which are readily available. I also mentioned the knowledge I had gained from the two books I read as I found there were such interesting links. I think an EPQ is such a great way to show your passion for psychology, I talked about it in my PS and it was a great talking point in my interview.
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
I’ll do a paragraph by paragraph description.
I started with two lines giving an overview of what I liked most about psychology and this acted as a precursor for what I would talk about in the rest of my statement.
In my second paragraph I talked about the first book (Nature via nurture), linked it with my EPQ and talked about how my A-level choices made me good candidate for psychology at higher education. This link allowed me to reduce my characters (4000 is less than you think) but also illustrated the fact that I could see psychology in so many aspects of my educational life which ultimately showed my passion for the subject.
In my third paragraph, I focussed on my interest in the brain, I talked about the lecture I went to, reading Incognito and I put my own input into what I learned. I think this is important as talking about too many books in a PS may often seem as if you are reciting what the tutors may already know, discussing your standpoint shows that you can think critically and you aren’t just reading for the sake of it.
In my fourth paragraph, I talked about my favourite episode in the podcast that I’d listened to and showed that I had researched beyond what I’d heard, once again showing that I actually have a passion for psychology. I was also able to make links with this, my work experience, the FutureLearn course I did and my hobbies. As I wasn’t just applying to oxford I wanted to show the other universities that I did have extracurriculars so linking my hobbies to psychology allowed me to not waste any characters talking about unnecessary things.
My last two sentences were an overview of why everything I had previously talked about made me enjoy the subject so much.
My main tips for personal statements is to not be afraid of redoing and redoing (I had about 17 drafts), to take to a teacher that you know will be harsh and to make sure that every sentence conveys your love for the subject without you saying “I am passionate”. Also, try to link psychology to things that my not seem to blatantly link.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The TSA was probably the aspect of the application that I was most worried about. The first time I did a full one, I think I got a score of 30. The thing that helped me the most was choosing what to focus on. I knew that there was really no actual way of improving my problem solving, so I decided to work on my critical thinking. To do this, I used the TSA question guide (https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/47832-tsa-question-guide.pdf) to identify the 7 main question types and defined what each included. https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TSA-Preparation-Guide-2018.pdf (this is a good resource) I then began to do practice questions where I would know the answer and work through why the other options were incorrect. I then progressed to just doing as many as I could in timed conditions. As timing plays a really big part, this is probably one of the most important things. Always mark, because otherwise there is no use in doing it. I also wouldn’t get too discouraged if you don’t get that great of a score in practice because the highest score I ever got was in the actual test. Overall, I got a 67.3 with a 60.7 in problem solving and a 76 in critical thinking. You can find the averages for acceptances of both EP and PPL at https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EP-PPL-Admissions-Stats-for-applicants-2019.pdf . I was actually below the mean which shows that the TSA isn’t everything.
For the essay, always plan your answer and include an introduction and conclusion. After speaking to a lot of other people who got interviews, I think choosing the least obvious question makes you stand out. I didn’t really have any other method for practicing the essay as marking is quite objective.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
I’d never actually ever been to oxford before my interviews which made choosing my college quite hard. I used TSR and online quizzes as well as overall info on each college. I think it’s important to know what you want in a college (and if you don’t know then 100% visit). I wanted a more modern college and one that was quite big. St Catz pretty much fulfilled all of these. Other things that played into it was the likelihood of getting an en-suite, having accommodation for all three years, kitchen facilities and having a free gym. St Catz also had most of these but no college is perfect. When I actually got to the interviews, I knew I’d made the right decision because the people were so down to earth and the JCR was amazing.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I really liked the interview process as a whole. I had 4 interviews in total, two at St Catz and two at St Hugh’s. I had 3 on the first day. My first interview was my favourite, the interviewers were so nice and she’d brought us all into the room for a briefing minutes before my interview (I was the first interviewer) which put me at such ease. This was the only interview I has pre-reading for. My second wasn’t as great and I wish I’d actually thought out my answers fully before speaking. My third interview was probably the worst one, it was at St Hugh’s and one of the interviewers was quite harsh. My last interview was okay and was the first one that I was able to talk about my personal statement. But I enjoyed the whole process because it was more of an intellectual discussion as opposed to people trying to grill you and find your weakest areas.
Any interview tips?
Top tips would be:
1. Don’t overthink about it the night before (easy to say but not to do, I know), so I would recommend going to the JCR to take your mind off of things, I also watched a few films. You’re brain (usually) doesn’t work well when you are overthinking.
2. Don’t be afraid to think about your answer for a while before speaking
3. You can ask for clarification in you aren’t sure
4. Treat it like a discussion
5. Speak through your thoughts
6. Play to your strengths. For example, answer questions so any follow up questions are of things you actually know about.
7. A psychology specific tip would be to make sure you know about research methods, finding flaws in research and knowing about statistics.
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
Yes I did. On the first night, we did a quiz and there was a movie on most nights. After most of my interviews I would just sit in the JCR and talk to people or watch the Chase. I also went with a few people to visit the Catz music room which was fun. I think it’s really important to do this because it really eased my worries and made my interview experience so much better, but also take some time for yourself. I don’t consider myself really outgoing and everyone was really welcoming. Luckily, I didn’t meet any people who were trying to psyche me out (or if they were, it didn’t work). I do think that everyone is literally in the same position.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I felt okay after my interviews, not overly confident but also not devastated. I was quite surprised because I am an avid overthinker. Overall, I felt that I did my best and that any outcome would be okay, to be honest, my main goal in applying was to just reach the interview because I didn’t think I could get in. I checked my TSA score the day before decisions and I think it put me at ease a little.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
Decisions day was on the day of one my mocks (which was actually quite a good distraction). I didn’t want to open the email in school but just before I was about to go home after my mock, my careers advisor smiled quite widely at me so I has a feeling it was good news. I finally opened track in Starbucks on a revision break (I had two papers the next day) and I was so shocked. I still can’t really believe it.
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Yes! I’m really excited (and really scared). I hope we’ll be able to start on time!
I hope this was helpful and gives a different perspective on applying to Oxford, no applicant is the same and the best thing you can do is play to your strengths.
I thought it would be useful to give my perspective as I’m quite different from the OP. I’m holding an offer for EP at St Catz. I went to a mixed state sixth form in East London. At GCSE’s I got 4 grade 8s, 4 grade 9s and a grade 6. For my A-levels I did Biology, Maths and Psychology and my UCAS predicted grades were 3 A*s, and my requirements were A*AA. Similar to OP I did an EPQ which I will expand on later. In addition to Oxford, I got offers from Bath, Lancaster, Surrey and Warwick.
Why did you want to study your subject?
From a really young age I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, I really liked helping people and giving advice. My interest in psychology became more scientific during my Biology GCSE when I began to find the links between the workings of the endocrine system and behaviour. This was all furthered when I took Psychology A-Level and realised I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of psychology and the research methods needed for it.
Why Oxford?
I enjoyed the emphasis that the course put on scientific methods and research. The course also involves a lot of neurophysiology and as I was also considering applying for a neuroscience degree, the course seemed like the perfect match for me. But of course, similar to the OP the prestige played a great factor in why I chose Oxford. However, I had thought for quite some times before my application, I was convinced that I was going to apply to Cambridge’s PBS (because I had already visited so many times before due to access events) but I realised I preferred Oxford’s environment (as it’s more similar to London) and the PBS course seemed less focussed on Psychology as they only do 2 PBS papers each year. I also used the exact two videos that OP did to make this decision.
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
As mentioned before, I was interested in psychology for quite some time and I wouldn’t say that there were any singular people that contributed to my decision. However, my mum is a nurse in a stroke ward and being exposed to the knowledge of the effects of changes to the brain in behaviour when someone has a stroke probably inspired me to look more into psychology.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I would say I quite enjoy reading and if you do too, this is the best way to gain more knowledge on a topic, although with sixth form, I found it difficult to read so many books. I also listened to podcasts as they are an easy way to gain information whilst being able to do everyday things, they acted as a starting point for furthering my research.
The two main books I read were Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley and Incognito by David Eagleman.
I read Nature via Nurture after seeing it on the Oxford EP reading list, but I had always been interested in the extent that behaviour is due to our upbringing or our genetics. Though I found the book quite difficult to get through, I did enjoy it. I mentioned it in my personal statement and it also helped me during my A-levels.
Incognito was a book I decided to read because I was very interested in the brain and how it controlled our actions and how changes to it could affect our behaviour. As a neuroscientist, David Eagleman very effectively conveyed this through case studies and examples. It was a very interesting read and I got through it much more quickly.
The main podcast I listened to was Hidden Brain by NPR, as you may have noticed, my favourite area of psychology is learning about the effect of the brain on behaviour and this podcast was an easy listen. I researched further on the topics I was most interested in. I also listened to Say Why to Drugs, a podcast on the effects of drugs on the brain.
I also took a few FutureLearn courses with a basis in psychology. For example, I took one on the psychology of music as I always wondered why music makes people so happy and after work experience in a daycentre, I realised that music has such a positive effect on behaviour.
I would say that my favourite resources were podcasts and books.
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I didn’t get the chance to directly go to any lectures, but I went to Experience Cambridge (got in after being rejected from Sutton Trust Cambridge) and on this event there were a few taster lectures that I found very interesting such as one on Perception, one on attachment styles and one on the autism. I mentioned one of these in my personal statement.
I didn’t take part in any competitions, mainly because I wasn’t really aware of them.
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I completed psychology related work experience twice. My first one was working in a stroke ward, mental health unit and a rehabilitation unit. I got it because as mentioned before, my mum is a nurse and the NHS has a scheme where if you know someone working in the NHS, you can complete work experience once for a few weeks. My second one was fortunately arranged by my school in year 12 as we had a work experience week. I worked in a daycentre with patients with dementia. However, I would recommend emailing a bunch of people as OP suggested. I personally think you can relate any type of work experience to psychology.
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
I did an EPQ on whether the prison situation in the UK is suitable for males with mental health disorders. To undertake my research I mainly used JSTOR courtesy of my school. But many of the research I used was also from general articles and from government reports which are readily available. I also mentioned the knowledge I had gained from the two books I read as I found there were such interesting links. I think an EPQ is such a great way to show your passion for psychology, I talked about it in my PS and it was a great talking point in my interview.
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
I’ll do a paragraph by paragraph description.
I started with two lines giving an overview of what I liked most about psychology and this acted as a precursor for what I would talk about in the rest of my statement.
In my second paragraph I talked about the first book (Nature via nurture), linked it with my EPQ and talked about how my A-level choices made me good candidate for psychology at higher education. This link allowed me to reduce my characters (4000 is less than you think) but also illustrated the fact that I could see psychology in so many aspects of my educational life which ultimately showed my passion for the subject.
In my third paragraph, I focussed on my interest in the brain, I talked about the lecture I went to, reading Incognito and I put my own input into what I learned. I think this is important as talking about too many books in a PS may often seem as if you are reciting what the tutors may already know, discussing your standpoint shows that you can think critically and you aren’t just reading for the sake of it.
In my fourth paragraph, I talked about my favourite episode in the podcast that I’d listened to and showed that I had researched beyond what I’d heard, once again showing that I actually have a passion for psychology. I was also able to make links with this, my work experience, the FutureLearn course I did and my hobbies. As I wasn’t just applying to oxford I wanted to show the other universities that I did have extracurriculars so linking my hobbies to psychology allowed me to not waste any characters talking about unnecessary things.
My last two sentences were an overview of why everything I had previously talked about made me enjoy the subject so much.
My main tips for personal statements is to not be afraid of redoing and redoing (I had about 17 drafts), to take to a teacher that you know will be harsh and to make sure that every sentence conveys your love for the subject without you saying “I am passionate”. Also, try to link psychology to things that my not seem to blatantly link.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The TSA was probably the aspect of the application that I was most worried about. The first time I did a full one, I think I got a score of 30. The thing that helped me the most was choosing what to focus on. I knew that there was really no actual way of improving my problem solving, so I decided to work on my critical thinking. To do this, I used the TSA question guide (https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/47832-tsa-question-guide.pdf) to identify the 7 main question types and defined what each included. https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TSA-Preparation-Guide-2018.pdf (this is a good resource) I then began to do practice questions where I would know the answer and work through why the other options were incorrect. I then progressed to just doing as many as I could in timed conditions. As timing plays a really big part, this is probably one of the most important things. Always mark, because otherwise there is no use in doing it. I also wouldn’t get too discouraged if you don’t get that great of a score in practice because the highest score I ever got was in the actual test. Overall, I got a 67.3 with a 60.7 in problem solving and a 76 in critical thinking. You can find the averages for acceptances of both EP and PPL at https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EP-PPL-Admissions-Stats-for-applicants-2019.pdf . I was actually below the mean which shows that the TSA isn’t everything.
For the essay, always plan your answer and include an introduction and conclusion. After speaking to a lot of other people who got interviews, I think choosing the least obvious question makes you stand out. I didn’t really have any other method for practicing the essay as marking is quite objective.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
I’d never actually ever been to oxford before my interviews which made choosing my college quite hard. I used TSR and online quizzes as well as overall info on each college. I think it’s important to know what you want in a college (and if you don’t know then 100% visit). I wanted a more modern college and one that was quite big. St Catz pretty much fulfilled all of these. Other things that played into it was the likelihood of getting an en-suite, having accommodation for all three years, kitchen facilities and having a free gym. St Catz also had most of these but no college is perfect. When I actually got to the interviews, I knew I’d made the right decision because the people were so down to earth and the JCR was amazing.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I really liked the interview process as a whole. I had 4 interviews in total, two at St Catz and two at St Hugh’s. I had 3 on the first day. My first interview was my favourite, the interviewers were so nice and she’d brought us all into the room for a briefing minutes before my interview (I was the first interviewer) which put me at such ease. This was the only interview I has pre-reading for. My second wasn’t as great and I wish I’d actually thought out my answers fully before speaking. My third interview was probably the worst one, it was at St Hugh’s and one of the interviewers was quite harsh. My last interview was okay and was the first one that I was able to talk about my personal statement. But I enjoyed the whole process because it was more of an intellectual discussion as opposed to people trying to grill you and find your weakest areas.
Any interview tips?
Top tips would be:
1. Don’t overthink about it the night before (easy to say but not to do, I know), so I would recommend going to the JCR to take your mind off of things, I also watched a few films. You’re brain (usually) doesn’t work well when you are overthinking.
2. Don’t be afraid to think about your answer for a while before speaking
3. You can ask for clarification in you aren’t sure
4. Treat it like a discussion
5. Speak through your thoughts
6. Play to your strengths. For example, answer questions so any follow up questions are of things you actually know about.
7. A psychology specific tip would be to make sure you know about research methods, finding flaws in research and knowing about statistics.
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
Yes I did. On the first night, we did a quiz and there was a movie on most nights. After most of my interviews I would just sit in the JCR and talk to people or watch the Chase. I also went with a few people to visit the Catz music room which was fun. I think it’s really important to do this because it really eased my worries and made my interview experience so much better, but also take some time for yourself. I don’t consider myself really outgoing and everyone was really welcoming. Luckily, I didn’t meet any people who were trying to psyche me out (or if they were, it didn’t work). I do think that everyone is literally in the same position.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I felt okay after my interviews, not overly confident but also not devastated. I was quite surprised because I am an avid overthinker. Overall, I felt that I did my best and that any outcome would be okay, to be honest, my main goal in applying was to just reach the interview because I didn’t think I could get in. I checked my TSA score the day before decisions and I think it put me at ease a little.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
Decisions day was on the day of one my mocks (which was actually quite a good distraction). I didn’t want to open the email in school but just before I was about to go home after my mock, my careers advisor smiled quite widely at me so I has a feeling it was good news. I finally opened track in Starbucks on a revision break (I had two papers the next day) and I was so shocked. I still can’t really believe it.
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Yes! I’m really excited (and really scared). I hope we’ll be able to start on time!
I hope this was helpful and gives a different perspective on applying to Oxford, no applicant is the same and the best thing you can do is play to your strengths.
Original post by eaaa
@Oxford Mum
I thought it would be useful to give my perspective as I’m quite different from the OP. I’m holding an offer for EP at St Catz. I went to a mixed state sixth form in East London. At GCSE’s I got 4 grade 8s, 4 grade 9s and a grade 6. For my A-levels I did Biology, Maths and Psychology and my UCAS predicted grades were 3 A*s, and my requirements were A*AA. Similar to OP I did an EPQ which I will expand on later. In addition to Oxford, I got offers from Bath, Lancaster, Surrey and Warwick.
Why did you want to study your subject?
From a really young age I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, I really liked helping people and giving advice. My interest in psychology became more scientific during my Biology GCSE when I began to find the links between the workings of the endocrine system and behaviour. This was all furthered when I took Psychology A-Level and realised I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of psychology and the research methods needed for it.
Why Oxford?
I enjoyed the emphasis that the course put on scientific methods and research. The course also involves a lot of neurophysiology and as I was also considering applying for a neuroscience degree, the course seemed like the perfect match for me. But of course, similar to the OP the prestige played a great factor in why I chose Oxford. However, I had thought for quite some times before my application, I was convinced that I was going to apply to Cambridge’s PBS (because I had already visited so many times before due to access events) but I realised I preferred Oxford’s environment (as it’s more similar to London) and the PBS course seemed less focussed on Psychology as they only do 2 PBS papers each year. I also used the exact two videos that OP did to make this decision.
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
As mentioned before, I was interested in psychology for quite some time and I wouldn’t say that there were any singular people that contributed to my decision. However, my mum is a nurse in a stroke ward and being exposed to the knowledge of the effects of changes to the brain in behaviour when someone has a stroke probably inspired me to look more into psychology.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I would say I quite enjoy reading and if you do too, this is the best way to gain more knowledge on a topic, although with sixth form, I found it difficult to read so many books. I also listened to podcasts as they are an easy way to gain information whilst being able to do everyday things, they acted as a starting point for furthering my research.
The two main books I read were Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley and Incognito by David Eagleman.
I read Nature via Nurture after seeing it on the Oxford EP reading list, but I had always been interested in the extent that behaviour is due to our upbringing or our genetics. Though I found the book quite difficult to get through, I did enjoy it. I mentioned it in my personal statement and it also helped me during my A-levels.
Incognito was a book I decided to read because I was very interested in the brain and how it controlled our actions and how changes to it could affect our behaviour. As a neuroscientist, David Eagleman very effectively conveyed this through case studies and examples. It was a very interesting read and I got through it much more quickly.
The main podcast I listened to was Hidden Brain by NPR, as you may have noticed, my favourite area of psychology is learning about the effect of the brain on behaviour and this podcast was an easy listen. I researched further on the topics I was most interested in. I also listened to Say Why to Drugs, a podcast on the effects of drugs on the brain.
I also took a few FutureLearn courses with a basis in psychology. For example, I took one on the psychology of music as I always wondered why music makes people so happy and after work experience in a daycentre, I realised that music has such a positive effect on behaviour.
I would say that my favourite resources were podcasts and books.
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I didn’t get the chance to directly go to any lectures, but I went to Experience Cambridge (got in after being rejected from Sutton Trust Cambridge) and on this event there were a few taster lectures that I found very interesting such as one on Perception, one on attachment styles and one on the autism. I mentioned one of these in my personal statement.
I didn’t take part in any competitions, mainly because I wasn’t really aware of them.
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I completed psychology related work experience twice. My first one was working in a stroke ward, mental health unit and a rehabilitation unit. I got it because as mentioned before, my mum is a nurse and the NHS has a scheme where if you know someone working in the NHS, you can complete work experience once for a few weeks. My second one was fortunately arranged by my school in year 12 as we had a work experience week. I worked in a daycentre with patients with dementia. However, I would recommend emailing a bunch of people as OP suggested. I personally think you can relate any type of work experience to psychology.
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
I did an EPQ on whether the prison situation in the UK is suitable for males with mental health disorders. To undertake my research I mainly used JSTOR courtesy of my school. But many of the research I used was also from general articles and from government reports which are readily available. I also mentioned the knowledge I had gained from the two books I read as I found there were such interesting links. I think an EPQ is such a great way to show your passion for psychology, I talked about it in my PS and it was a great talking point in my interview.
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
I’ll do a paragraph by paragraph description.
I started with two lines giving an overview of what I liked most about psychology and this acted as a precursor for what I would talk about in the rest of my statement.
In my second paragraph I talked about the first book (Nature via nurture), linked it with my EPQ and talked about how my A-level choices made me good candidate for psychology at higher education. This link allowed me to reduce my characters (4000 is less than you think) but also illustrated the fact that I could see psychology in so many aspects of my educational life which ultimately showed my passion for the subject.
In my third paragraph, I focussed on my interest in the brain, I talked about the lecture I went to, reading Incognito and I put my own input into what I learned. I think this is important as talking about too many books in a PS may often seem as if you are reciting what the tutors may already know, discussing your standpoint shows that you can think critically and you aren’t just reading for the sake of it.
In my fourth paragraph, I talked about my favourite episode in the podcast that I’d listened to and showed that I had researched beyond what I’d heard, once again showing that I actually have a passion for psychology. I was also able to make links with this, my work experience, the FutureLearn course I did and my hobbies. As I wasn’t just applying to oxford I wanted to show the other universities that I did have extracurriculars so linking my hobbies to psychology allowed me to not waste any characters talking about unnecessary things.
My last two sentences were an overview of why everything I had previously talked about made me enjoy the subject so much.
My main tips for personal statements is to not be afraid of redoing and redoing (I had about 17 drafts), to take to a teacher that you know will be harsh and to make sure that every sentence conveys your love for the subject without you saying “I am passionate”. Also, try to link psychology to things that my not seem to blatantly link.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The TSA was probably the aspect of the application that I was most worried about. The first time I did a full one, I think I got a score of 30. The thing that helped me the most was choosing what to focus on. I knew that there was really no actual way of improving my problem solving, so I decided to work on my critical thinking. To do this, I used the TSA question guide (https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/47832-tsa-question-guide.pdf) to identify the 7 main question types and defined what each included. https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TSA-Preparation-Guide-2018.pdf (this is a good resource) I then began to do practice questions where I would know the answer and work through why the other options were incorrect. I then progressed to just doing as many as I could in timed conditions. As timing plays a really big part, this is probably one of the most important things. Always mark, because otherwise there is no use in doing it. I also wouldn’t get too discouraged if you don’t get that great of a score in practice because the highest score I ever got was in the actual test. Overall, I got a 67.3 with a 60.7 in problem solving and a 76 in critical thinking. You can find the averages for acceptances of both EP and PPL at https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EP-PPL-Admissions-Stats-for-applicants-2019.pdf . I was actually below the mean which shows that the TSA isn’t everything.
For the essay, always plan your answer and include an introduction and conclusion. After speaking to a lot of other people who got interviews, I think choosing the least obvious question makes you stand out. I didn’t really have any other method for practicing the essay as marking is quite objective.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
I’d never actually ever been to oxford before my interviews which made choosing my college quite hard. I used TSR and online quizzes as well as overall info on each college. I think it’s important to know what you want in a college (and if you don’t know then 100% visit). I wanted a more modern college and one that was quite big. St Catz pretty much fulfilled all of these. Other things that played into it was the likelihood of getting an en-suite, having accommodation for all three years, kitchen facilities and having a free gym. St Catz also had most of these but no college is perfect. When I actually got to the interviews, I knew I’d made the right decision because the people were so down to earth and the JCR was amazing.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I really liked the interview process as a whole. I had 4 interviews in total, two at St Catz and two at St Hugh’s. I had 3 on the first day. My first interview was my favourite, the interviewers were so nice and she’d brought us all into the room for a briefing minutes before my interview (I was the first interviewer) which put me at such ease. This was the only interview I has pre-reading for. My second wasn’t as great and I wish I’d actually thought out my answers fully before speaking. My third interview was probably the worst one, it was at St Hugh’s and one of the interviewers was quite harsh. My last interview was okay and was the first one that I was able to talk about my personal statement. But I enjoyed the whole process because it was more of an intellectual discussion as opposed to people trying to grill you and find your weakest areas.
Any interview tips?
Top tips would be:
1. Don’t overthink about it the night before (easy to say but not to do, I know), so I would recommend going to the JCR to take your mind off of things, I also watched a few films. You’re brain (usually) doesn’t work well when you are overthinking.
2. Don’t be afraid to think about your answer for a while before speaking
3. You can ask for clarification in you aren’t sure
4. Treat it like a discussion
5. Speak through your thoughts
6. Play to your strengths. For example, answer questions so any follow up questions are of things you actually know about.
7. A psychology specific tip would be to make sure you know about research methods, finding flaws in research and knowing about statistics.
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
Yes I did. On the first night, we did a quiz and there was a movie on most nights. After most of my interviews I would just sit in the JCR and talk to people or watch the Chase. I also went with a few people to visit the Catz music room which was fun. I think it’s really important to do this because it really eased my worries and made my interview experience so much better, but also take some time for yourself. I don’t consider myself really outgoing and everyone was really welcoming. Luckily, I didn’t meet any people who were trying to psyche me out (or if they were, it didn’t work). I do think that everyone is literally in the same position.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I felt okay after my interviews, not overly confident but also not devastated. I was quite surprised because I am an avid overthinker. Overall, I felt that I did my best and that any outcome would be okay, to be honest, my main goal in applying was to just reach the interview because I didn’t think I could get in. I checked my TSA score the day before decisions and I think it put me at ease a little.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
Decisions day was on the day of one my mocks (which was actually quite a good distraction). I didn’t want to open the email in school but just before I was about to go home after my mock, my careers advisor smiled quite widely at me so I has a feeling it was good news. I finally opened track in Starbucks on a revision break (I had two papers the next day) and I was so shocked. I still can’t really believe it.
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Yes! I’m really excited (and really scared). I hope we’ll be able to start on time!
I hope this was helpful and gives a different perspective on applying to Oxford, no applicant is the same and the best thing you can do is play to your strengths.
I thought it would be useful to give my perspective as I’m quite different from the OP. I’m holding an offer for EP at St Catz. I went to a mixed state sixth form in East London. At GCSE’s I got 4 grade 8s, 4 grade 9s and a grade 6. For my A-levels I did Biology, Maths and Psychology and my UCAS predicted grades were 3 A*s, and my requirements were A*AA. Similar to OP I did an EPQ which I will expand on later. In addition to Oxford, I got offers from Bath, Lancaster, Surrey and Warwick.
Why did you want to study your subject?
From a really young age I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, I really liked helping people and giving advice. My interest in psychology became more scientific during my Biology GCSE when I began to find the links between the workings of the endocrine system and behaviour. This was all furthered when I took Psychology A-Level and realised I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of psychology and the research methods needed for it.
Why Oxford?
I enjoyed the emphasis that the course put on scientific methods and research. The course also involves a lot of neurophysiology and as I was also considering applying for a neuroscience degree, the course seemed like the perfect match for me. But of course, similar to the OP the prestige played a great factor in why I chose Oxford. However, I had thought for quite some times before my application, I was convinced that I was going to apply to Cambridge’s PBS (because I had already visited so many times before due to access events) but I realised I preferred Oxford’s environment (as it’s more similar to London) and the PBS course seemed less focussed on Psychology as they only do 2 PBS papers each year. I also used the exact two videos that OP did to make this decision.
Did any of your teachers inspire you? Or any other expert (TV presenter etc)
As mentioned before, I was interested in psychology for quite some time and I wouldn’t say that there were any singular people that contributed to my decision. However, my mum is a nurse in a stroke ward and being exposed to the knowledge of the effects of changes to the brain in behaviour when someone has a stroke probably inspired me to look more into psychology.
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I would say I quite enjoy reading and if you do too, this is the best way to gain more knowledge on a topic, although with sixth form, I found it difficult to read so many books. I also listened to podcasts as they are an easy way to gain information whilst being able to do everyday things, they acted as a starting point for furthering my research.
The two main books I read were Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley and Incognito by David Eagleman.
I read Nature via Nurture after seeing it on the Oxford EP reading list, but I had always been interested in the extent that behaviour is due to our upbringing or our genetics. Though I found the book quite difficult to get through, I did enjoy it. I mentioned it in my personal statement and it also helped me during my A-levels.
Incognito was a book I decided to read because I was very interested in the brain and how it controlled our actions and how changes to it could affect our behaviour. As a neuroscientist, David Eagleman very effectively conveyed this through case studies and examples. It was a very interesting read and I got through it much more quickly.
The main podcast I listened to was Hidden Brain by NPR, as you may have noticed, my favourite area of psychology is learning about the effect of the brain on behaviour and this podcast was an easy listen. I researched further on the topics I was most interested in. I also listened to Say Why to Drugs, a podcast on the effects of drugs on the brain.
I also took a few FutureLearn courses with a basis in psychology. For example, I took one on the psychology of music as I always wondered why music makes people so happy and after work experience in a daycentre, I realised that music has such a positive effect on behaviour.
I would say that my favourite resources were podcasts and books.
Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
I didn’t get the chance to directly go to any lectures, but I went to Experience Cambridge (got in after being rejected from Sutton Trust Cambridge) and on this event there were a few taster lectures that I found very interesting such as one on Perception, one on attachment styles and one on the autism. I mentioned one of these in my personal statement.
I didn’t take part in any competitions, mainly because I wasn’t really aware of them.
Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
I completed psychology related work experience twice. My first one was working in a stroke ward, mental health unit and a rehabilitation unit. I got it because as mentioned before, my mum is a nurse and the NHS has a scheme where if you know someone working in the NHS, you can complete work experience once for a few weeks. My second one was fortunately arranged by my school in year 12 as we had a work experience week. I worked in a daycentre with patients with dementia. However, I would recommend emailing a bunch of people as OP suggested. I personally think you can relate any type of work experience to psychology.
Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
I did an EPQ on whether the prison situation in the UK is suitable for males with mental health disorders. To undertake my research I mainly used JSTOR courtesy of my school. But many of the research I used was also from general articles and from government reports which are readily available. I also mentioned the knowledge I had gained from the two books I read as I found there were such interesting links. I think an EPQ is such a great way to show your passion for psychology, I talked about it in my PS and it was a great talking point in my interview.
What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
I’ll do a paragraph by paragraph description.
I started with two lines giving an overview of what I liked most about psychology and this acted as a precursor for what I would talk about in the rest of my statement.
In my second paragraph I talked about the first book (Nature via nurture), linked it with my EPQ and talked about how my A-level choices made me good candidate for psychology at higher education. This link allowed me to reduce my characters (4000 is less than you think) but also illustrated the fact that I could see psychology in so many aspects of my educational life which ultimately showed my passion for the subject.
In my third paragraph, I focussed on my interest in the brain, I talked about the lecture I went to, reading Incognito and I put my own input into what I learned. I think this is important as talking about too many books in a PS may often seem as if you are reciting what the tutors may already know, discussing your standpoint shows that you can think critically and you aren’t just reading for the sake of it.
In my fourth paragraph, I talked about my favourite episode in the podcast that I’d listened to and showed that I had researched beyond what I’d heard, once again showing that I actually have a passion for psychology. I was also able to make links with this, my work experience, the FutureLearn course I did and my hobbies. As I wasn’t just applying to oxford I wanted to show the other universities that I did have extracurriculars so linking my hobbies to psychology allowed me to not waste any characters talking about unnecessary things.
My last two sentences were an overview of why everything I had previously talked about made me enjoy the subject so much.
My main tips for personal statements is to not be afraid of redoing and redoing (I had about 17 drafts), to take to a teacher that you know will be harsh and to make sure that every sentence conveys your love for the subject without you saying “I am passionate”. Also, try to link psychology to things that my not seem to blatantly link.
Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
The TSA was probably the aspect of the application that I was most worried about. The first time I did a full one, I think I got a score of 30. The thing that helped me the most was choosing what to focus on. I knew that there was really no actual way of improving my problem solving, so I decided to work on my critical thinking. To do this, I used the TSA question guide (https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/47832-tsa-question-guide.pdf) to identify the 7 main question types and defined what each included. https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TSA-Preparation-Guide-2018.pdf (this is a good resource) I then began to do practice questions where I would know the answer and work through why the other options were incorrect. I then progressed to just doing as many as I could in timed conditions. As timing plays a really big part, this is probably one of the most important things. Always mark, because otherwise there is no use in doing it. I also wouldn’t get too discouraged if you don’t get that great of a score in practice because the highest score I ever got was in the actual test. Overall, I got a 67.3 with a 60.7 in problem solving and a 76 in critical thinking. You can find the averages for acceptances of both EP and PPL at https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EP-PPL-Admissions-Stats-for-applicants-2019.pdf . I was actually below the mean which shows that the TSA isn’t everything.
For the essay, always plan your answer and include an introduction and conclusion. After speaking to a lot of other people who got interviews, I think choosing the least obvious question makes you stand out. I didn’t really have any other method for practicing the essay as marking is quite objective.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
I’d never actually ever been to oxford before my interviews which made choosing my college quite hard. I used TSR and online quizzes as well as overall info on each college. I think it’s important to know what you want in a college (and if you don’t know then 100% visit). I wanted a more modern college and one that was quite big. St Catz pretty much fulfilled all of these. Other things that played into it was the likelihood of getting an en-suite, having accommodation for all three years, kitchen facilities and having a free gym. St Catz also had most of these but no college is perfect. When I actually got to the interviews, I knew I’d made the right decision because the people were so down to earth and the JCR was amazing.
How did you find the interview process? (NO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PLEASE - this is against TSR guidelines)
I really liked the interview process as a whole. I had 4 interviews in total, two at St Catz and two at St Hugh’s. I had 3 on the first day. My first interview was my favourite, the interviewers were so nice and she’d brought us all into the room for a briefing minutes before my interview (I was the first interviewer) which put me at such ease. This was the only interview I has pre-reading for. My second wasn’t as great and I wish I’d actually thought out my answers fully before speaking. My third interview was probably the worst one, it was at St Hugh’s and one of the interviewers was quite harsh. My last interview was okay and was the first one that I was able to talk about my personal statement. But I enjoyed the whole process because it was more of an intellectual discussion as opposed to people trying to grill you and find your weakest areas.
Any interview tips?
Top tips would be:
1. Don’t overthink about it the night before (easy to say but not to do, I know), so I would recommend going to the JCR to take your mind off of things, I also watched a few films. You’re brain (usually) doesn’t work well when you are overthinking.
2. Don’t be afraid to think about your answer for a while before speaking
3. You can ask for clarification in you aren’t sure
4. Treat it like a discussion
5. Speak through your thoughts
6. Play to your strengths. For example, answer questions so any follow up questions are of things you actually know about.
7. A psychology specific tip would be to make sure you know about research methods, finding flaws in research and knowing about statistics.
Did you socialise during interview week? If so, what did you do?
Yes I did. On the first night, we did a quiz and there was a movie on most nights. After most of my interviews I would just sit in the JCR and talk to people or watch the Chase. I also went with a few people to visit the Catz music room which was fun. I think it’s really important to do this because it really eased my worries and made my interview experience so much better, but also take some time for yourself. I don’t consider myself really outgoing and everyone was really welcoming. Luckily, I didn’t meet any people who were trying to psyche me out (or if they were, it didn’t work). I do think that everyone is literally in the same position.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I felt okay after my interviews, not overly confident but also not devastated. I was quite surprised because I am an avid overthinker. Overall, I felt that I did my best and that any outcome would be okay, to be honest, my main goal in applying was to just reach the interview because I didn’t think I could get in. I checked my TSA score the day before decisions and I think it put me at ease a little.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
Decisions day was on the day of one my mocks (which was actually quite a good distraction). I didn’t want to open the email in school but just before I was about to go home after my mock, my careers advisor smiled quite widely at me so I has a feeling it was good news. I finally opened track in Starbucks on a revision break (I had two papers the next day) and I was so shocked. I still can’t really believe it.
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Yes! I’m really excited (and really scared). I hope we’ll be able to start on time!
I hope this was helpful and gives a different perspective on applying to Oxford, no applicant is the same and the best thing you can do is play to your strengths.
I am so very proud that we have not one, but three different accounts on how you can get in for this course. Usually I stop at one person, but the other two insisted on helping us by giving us their versions as well. As eaaa says, no applicant is the same, so their assistance is to our advantage!
I see from your account that you like helping people and giving advice (sounds like me!!). Also like me, you are fascinated by how people behave and what makes people behave as they do. I can see how your people watching skills can be applied to this interesting course. How wonderful that you were able to take your mother's work and use it as inspiration to pursue your subject. The work experience must have provided even further impetus for you. The nature vs nurture argument is something that is useful to observe. You mother works with stroke victims, and you also seem to inherit these skills. I studied French and German, my elder son studied German. My doctor ex-husband walked out when my younger son was 18 months and never saw him again, but he still ended up being a medical student.
You are one of the only people to mention podcasts as well as books and articles. This is a very important consideration when you are thinking of the types of resources you can use. Podcasts can be listened to whilst out walking, in the car etc (excessive reading in the car tends to make me sick).
Look at all these Oxford podcasts
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/units
I see there are 19 podcasts for your subject!
Let's have a look at the Future Learn courses, as well
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses
Nobody has mentioned those either, so that's another very useful resource.
You learned about why music makes people happy. That's such an Oxford question: why? why? Why does X lead to Y?
I think in lockdown, music has taken on such importance, because listening to it is one of the few things we are actually allowed to do! When we are feeling stressed, it brings back happy memories of people we know, or places we have been. Doing your housework whilst dancing round the house (and yes, I have done this) can keep you fit.
I see you have taken part in the Experience Cambridge programme
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/events/summer-schools/experience-cambridge
I know these events have been unfortunately cancelled this year, however in future years I would urge you all (if you qualify) to apply for as many of these schemes as possible. Even if you are applying to Oxford, you can still apply to a Cambridge scheme. This can particularly help if you are torn between the two unis.
Your EPQ, about whether prison is suitable for males with mental health disorders is an issue of great interest with those involved in or working in the penal system. Again, you are motivated by how people think and why they think as they do.
JSTOR - I never knew this existed!
https://www.jstor.org/subjects
This is basically a treasure trove of online articles for all kinds of subjects. Perfect for lockdown, when you can't get to a library.
I note that you used government reports as sources for your EPQ. This is the second time I have seen government reports mentioned in an Oxford Demystified chapter and they are well worthwhile for up to date information and statistics.
You have ably demonstrated to me that there is more to research than just books.
About your PS: it's a usual technique amongst offer holders to link back different points to their theories and observations, to make it flow nicely. And those 17 drafts... I thought my younger son's 9 drafts was a lot! Still, it was worth taking time over it, not just for Oxford but all 5 unis. Also you only mentioned two books. An admissions tutor told me it's better to list just a couple of books or interests, but go into a bit more detail. One definitely doesn't want to just list the books you've read, with no context.
Like many other offer holders you enjoyed the interviews. Another similarity is that you have a "glass half full" approach to them "it's an intellectual discussion, not a grilling and trying to find your weakest areas". That's a winning approach, if ever I heard one.
When you were in Oxford for the interviews, you wisely socialised with the other students. It's a good idea to meet other people in the same situation and see that Oxford students (the kind of people you will be living with next year) are down to earth and approachable.
Thank you for bringing us the benefit of your wisdom @eaaa, and giving me a very enjoyable half hour reading and thinking about your journey to Oxford.
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Experimental Psychology at Oxford Uni
- oxford experimental psychology interviews offers
- Oxford super/extracurricals
- Oxford: If my main interest is Neuroscience, is biology BA my best shot?
- Oxford University: Your Guide to Oxford Interviews
- Do I have a good/ ok shot at Oxford?
- Oxford PPL vs Cambridge PBS?
- Cambridge Demystified - Psychological and Behaviourial Sciences (PBS)
- Oxford Colleges En-suite room
- PPL or EP?
- Cambridge Demystified - Philosophy
- Oxford Law GCSE Grades
- Oxford Demystified chapter for Ancient and Modern History?
- What is the workload like for psychology at Oxford?
- Oxford MSc Neuroscience vs MSc Clinical and Therapeutic Neuroscience
- grades for oxbridge?
- Cambridge Demystified
- Oxford vs Cambridge Psychology
- Oxford Demystified – Physics and Philosophy
- Oxford Demystified - Biomedical Sciences
Latest
Posted 1 minute ago
Uni of York didn't acknowledge my EPQ in my offer?Posted 2 minutes ago
King’s College London - Private Studio Tenancy Takeover ☎️Last reply 2 minutes ago
Inlaks, Commonwealth, and Other Scholarships for Indian Students 2024: ThreadLast reply 3 minutes ago
Woodhouse College applicants 2024Last reply 3 minutes ago
Official UCL Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryLast reply 3 minutes ago
Is there a way to get old school qualificationsLast reply 4 minutes ago
Accenture Degree Apprenticeship 2024Posted 4 minutes ago
Dissertation Survey- participants needed quickly! Will fill out surveys in exchangeLast reply 5 minutes ago
Official: Imperial College London A100 2024 Entry ApplicantsLast reply 5 minutes ago
Official: University of Manchester A106 2024 Entry ApplicantsMedical Schools
1285
Last reply 8 minutes ago
Official Cambridge Postgraduate Applicants 2024 ThreadLast reply 9 minutes ago
Official London School of Economics and Political Science 2024 Applicant ThreadLast reply 9 minutes ago
Civil service - location allocations and preference DWPLast reply 9 minutes ago
Did Cambridge maths students find maths and further maths a level very easy?Last reply 11 minutes ago
Help with student finance after living abroad for one yearLast reply 11 minutes ago
Bath vs Durham vs Leeds vs Nottingham vs LiverpoolLast reply 12 minutes ago
Official: King's College London A100 2024 Entry ApplicantsMedical Schools
1019
Last reply 12 minutes ago
Official University of St Andrews Applicant Thread for 2024Trending
Last reply 1 day ago
Weidenfeld Hoffmann Trust (WHT) Scholarship Notification (2024-2025)Last reply 1 day ago
Oxbridge applicants for modern languages - 2025 entry (applying in 2024)Last reply 3 days ago
Will I get into Oxford with my GCSE results? - EngineeringLast reply 2 weeks ago
will 5 a levels give me a better chance at getting into oxford?Trending
Last reply 1 day ago
Weidenfeld Hoffmann Trust (WHT) Scholarship Notification (2024-2025)Last reply 1 day ago
Oxbridge applicants for modern languages - 2025 entry (applying in 2024)Last reply 3 days ago
Will I get into Oxford with my GCSE results? - EngineeringLast reply 2 weeks ago
will 5 a levels give me a better chance at getting into oxford?Articles for you
What do I need to get into Oxford or Cambridge?
Getting a teacher to write your Ucas reference? Here’s how to help them boost your application
Mathematics degree personal statement example (1e) Oxford offer
Computer science degree personal statement example (1z) with philosophy, Oxford offer, international applicant