Oxford PPE Applicants 2021 Entry

HL Philosophy, Econ, Eng Lang and SL Physics, German B and Maths AA! What college are you looking at?

I'm applying to Jesus. Which one are you thinking?

ah lovely! yep haha hopefully so! my other options are KCL, Warwick, Machester, and York. I was very passionate about LSE as well as Oxford, but I didn't achieve the mandatory predicted grade of 7 in HL Maths — and I really can't see me achieving it either unfortunately your other options similar?

Finally find the right place!!! Hi amazing people here!!
I am a candidate from Australia and I am applying to PPE in Merton College Oxford, LSE, UCL, KCL and Warwick. However I will only go to the UK if I receive offers from Oxford and LSE, if not I will just stay in Australia.
I am taking the Australian qualification so maybe there's no need to know my predicted score (anyway, I don't know it myself as my school kept it a secret). The subjects except English which is compulsory are Chinese, Japanese, Math Methods (similar to Maths in Alevel I think), Specialist Maths (similar to Further Maths in Alevel) and Economics.
I have already paid for my application but I am really worried at my TSA now as well!!! For the old past papers I did really bad, ending in 67-73, but yesterday I tried the 2019 paper on computer and it appeared to be well. I also got above 80 but I guess it was just a bit of luck... I find section 2 especially hard as I have no idea on what kind of essay they would like. I could only write like 3 to 4 paragraphs in half an hour and really wanna make that effective. How do you guys manage section 2?
Also I had a look at the average shortlisted TSA score of Merton and it is the third highest across the university. Feeling so stressed... I couldn't find any information about Merton PPE candidates on The Student Room so if you know anyone applying to Merton PPE can you share some information with me please? Or just anything you know. Thanks guys!

Hey- just so you know (maybe you do already, and if so I apologise)- 67-73s in section 1 are really not as bad as you think as scores (even as percentages they're still workable with practice); if you look at the freedom of information documents floating around online which disclose the scores of those who have been offered interviews in recent years, it appears as though scores above 68-69 tend to secure interviews (it's somewhat rare that scores exceed 80) and the average of those offered interviews seem to be in the early to mid 70s.

Could you possibly let me know how you tried the 2019/any TSA paper(s) on the computer (with the tests online, I am quite anxious to see how I'd actually fare without paper copies to annotate or highlight etc.)?

We love to hear it! What have you been doing as prep for your PS? And where are you applying?

Hey- just so you know (maybe you do already, and if so I apologise)- 67-73s in section 1 are really not as bad as you think as scores (even as percentages they're still workable with practice); if you look at the freedom of information documents floating around online which disclose the scores of those who have been offered interviews in recent years, it appears as though scores above 68-69 tend to secure interviews (it's somewhat rare that scores exceed 80) and the average of those offered interviews seem to be in the early to mid 70s.

Could you possibly let me know how you tried the 2019/any TSA paper(s) on the computer (with the tests online, I am quite anxious to see how I'd actually fare without paper copies to annotate or highlight etc.)?

Hi! Thanks for your reply! I guess I was just shocked by the average TSA score of Australian students. (How can they get an average of 77 last year???) Also, the official report by Oxford said that students with a TSA score lower than 68 will be probably deselected. I believe this score is even getting higher this year as more people are taking TSA.

I think it is pretty hard to do it on the computer - For the critical thinking part, the only thing I can do is just to try my best to focus on reading, highlighting key words in my brain, maybe by repeating the word for several times. Basically, I have a look at the question first and try to make up my own answer first. (I think if you just read the passage like how you read a normal article it is much easier to understand, as the passages are usually just like what you will see in the newspaper) Then I read all the choices to find one that matches my own one best.

For the problem solving questions, I have done some calculation on paper. I did not meet a question that is difficult enough for me to copy the diagram down in the 2019 paper, but I guess that may happen. I generated ways to solve in my brain first and wrote the equation down, then did all the following steps on paper. Indeed, that might be the reason I did not finish, as it wastes so much time.

Besides, I wrote all the answers on a piece of paper, although I think at the actual test we will be able to answer on the online system, it is good to practise like this. Hope these tips will help you! Btw, have you tried any part 2 questions? I find it really difficult to write an essay within 30 minutes! Especially when I found the sample essays online are so different from what I came out with...

I just did the TSA 2019 on paper and got a 77, but I got questions wrong where I can't understand the correct answer? is that possible? For example the question where you had to calculate the theatre cost for the school class. I swear it's 530$!

I can't help with this one I'm afraid; I've tried to save a couple of the later papers to practice at a closer date to the exam. I don't know if Angelina Z (also on this thread) will reply to your question, but she mentioned that she actually did that paper recently and got a score above 80, so maybe you would have better luck messaging her? Sorry I couldn't be of any more help

Thanks nevertheless! I hope
that we can chat someday in person in Oxford hahaha

@Angelina Z I just did the TSA 2019 on paper and got a 77, but I got questions wrong where I can't understand the correct answer? is that possible? For example the question where you had to calculate the theatre cost for the school class. I swear it's 530$!

Below 68 definitely corresponds with the scores on the documents (although I saw a small number of people did get interviews with scores lower than 68- but they may have had some extenuating circumstances). Increasing averages are quite worrying, but, really, there is little we can do but try our best with the time we have (and we should still be trying to prioritise our overall wellbeing). 77 is so high- perhaps that is something to do with higher stakes and a highly competitive pool as international students (those assumptions are maybe too generalised though)?

I didn't really clarify- so this is on me- but I meant to ask whether there were online versions of the TSA to practice? However, from your answer, I'm presuming that you just did the normal practice papers but looked at the docs online instead of printing out (which is a great idea- thank you for sharing ). I've been somewhat avoiding part 2 as well because I have similar worries- exacerbated by doing the paper online now, because I find the adrenaline of pen on paper under time pressure normally forces me to churn an essay out and progress fluidly with sentences, whereas typing encourages me to redraft until it's perfect. It's just another practice thing I guess.

I say don't worry about the sample essays- take their advice or structures if you prefer them to your own- but, really, they are more interested in your individual thoughts and how you create coherency in structure.

Yes some of the questions are tricky, but I think I can explain the theatre one for you.
Firstly, from common sense we know that group tickets are definitely cheaper than the individual tickets - and both for 8 people, the group ticket is cheaper than the supergroup ticket.
Secondly, there are 24 people in total and 8 of them are 15 years old, which is under 16 years old. 24 people can be divided into 3 groups exactly, and the group ticket asks for at least 2 children under 16 years old, so there must be at least 6 children to be allocated into different groups. Indeed, there are 8 of them - so that would just be 3 group ticket. 175*3=525 so the final answer is A, $525.
Hope that makes sense to you.

yaaaaaaaa that's right damn.... thank you so much, now I got it

Hi all, I'm planning on creating a peer marking system for the essay especially for those who are unable to get external help, be it from their schools or tuition etc. The idea is to firstly form a group of interested students, have them paste their essays into the document and have other applicants within the group comment, critic and praise the essays. Is anyone here interested?