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Competitions/super curricular for applying for physics at Oxford

I am planning to apply for physics next year at Oxford but haven’t done much supercurricular activities. Have you got any recommendations on what looks good or and physics competitions that you can do?
British Physics Olympiad looks great for Oxford. Sat in November of Year 13.
You may have missed the boat for this but there’s an easier paper too - the AS challenge (although I think it might be called the Year 12 challenge now).
Also, I’d imagine UKMT challenges are great as well, especially stuff like the BMO.
Original post by Zoqua
Yeah this is pretty good advice from @e^(i*pi) + 1=0. I did the Y12 Physics challenge this year (not applying for Physics though), and it was pretty good but not amazing (feel like I probably got a high bronze or silver) - not sure how much harder the British Physics Olympiad is, but yes that should look good. I would certainly advise doing the UKMT Maths Challenge and trying to make a follow on round or at least get some kind of certificate (Silver and above is respectable, BMO1 and above is very impressive and worth mentioning for the personal statement as evidence of advanced mathematical skill) - the problem is OP is that you really should have done this this year if you're going to apply for Oxford at the end of this year, as you will have applied and written your statement before most of these competitions start :frown:. You could try doing an MOOC for Physics while in lockdown though (I haven't looked into ones for Physics but I'm sure there are a lot of them around) - just make sure you research it first and use reliable websites like Coursera, because there are some rather dodgy MOOCs out there.

Whatever you do, make sure to look at the Oxford course, choose a topic and read around it and discuss it on your personal statement - this will look really good to all your universities you're applying to, while showing Oxford that you are a good fit for their course and committed to studying it further.

Good luck :smile:

British Physics Olympiad is pretty tough, probably harder than the PAT, which is the entrance test you'll have to do, and Round 2 is a whole other level.
Don't enter without doing a fair bit of prep. If you do well though, you might be able to tell them about it at or before your interview, although it will be too late for your PS. But it is a very impressive competition to do well in for Oxford Physics.
As @Zoqua said, BMO1 is definitely worthy of your PS but this has already taken place for this year if you're submitting your application this October so the best way to utilise the summer would probably be to read around your subject, maybe try an online course or two and prepare for the PAT (and the BPhO if you want).
Has anyone here gotten into round 2 or 1 of the Senior Maths Olympiad?
Maybe do some reading? Not sure if this will be helpful for physics but I know it is for Chemistry. A new book was published recently called The World According to Physics, so I have no idea if that's the right sort of thing but it definitely looks interesting! I'm sure there are lots of other books out there that you could look into, or maybe podcasts/news articles/documentaries. Someone let me know if I'm wrong but I hope this helps :smile:
Original post by Student 999
Has anyone here gotten into round 2 or 1 of the Senior Maths Olympiad?

yeah it’s called the British Maths Olympiad. I qualified for Round 1 After the senior maths challenge a couple of years ago. Didn’t do great tho :/ I was only in year 11 so it really kicked my ass.

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