why are oxbridge terms so short & without a break?

No they expect badly written, poorly researched essays. Half my essays were unreadable the other half made sexually suggestive comments about the supervisors partner
The essays are expected to be well researched. My essays often cited 10-15 works. I didn't read 15 books an essay obviously, sometimes it was just chapters or articles but the amount of reading for humanities and social sciences is pretty immense. You are also expected to construct an argument that is well-written, logical and also innovative/original.

well I meant that for a-level, we generally did 4hrs worth of reasearch/ planning and a further maximum 2hrs on writing- this is for english literature. but the idea was, you do what you can (as an A-grade student) in 5-6hrs

do you think they will understand people doing their best and still producing less-than-impressive essays at the start? I'm really worried this will happen- especially as it will be my first time in 15 months writing an essay

To induce suicidal tendancies in their students.

Oxbridge people get like, one essay a week though, as far as I know.

It's not that bad... and before you ask, I'm not going on Skype tonight; I had badminton training this morning and slept for a few hours this afternoon so have tonnes of politics reading to catch up on.


It depends on the subject, in Economics, every two weeks we get a politics essay, a history essay, some maths and stats questions, some microeconomics problems, and some macroeconomics problems and essay questions. Only one essay a week would be very nice.

No they expect badly written, poorly researched essays. Half my essays were unreadable the other half made sexually suggestive comments about the supervisors partner
The essays are expected to be well researched. My essays often cited 10-15 works. I didn't read 15 books an essay obviously, sometimes it was just chapters or articles but the amount of reading for humanities and social sciences is pretty immense. You are also expected to construct an argument that is well-written, logical and also innovative/original.

ooh out of curiosity wwhere was it held / it is college organised? I don't know aabout the sports stuff

So you have to do that amount of work in a week or so, possibly with other committments in the background.

Is there much time for social or sports stuff? How do you balance work with a social life? I mean it sounds as if the work takes virtually all of your time, and in 'your' I mean the Oxbridge students in general.

There is a lot of work, but that doesn't stop anyone from being active society members, doing lots of sports or getting drunk and having a good time! It's all about time management, accepting that not everything will be perfect and doing a few all-nighters when necessary

So you have to do that amount of work in a week or so, possibly with other committments in the background.

Is there much time for social or sports stuff? How do you balance work with a social life? I mean it sounds as if the work takes virtually all of your time, and in 'your' I mean the Oxbridge students in general.

This impacts directly on the undergraduates too, it means that the people teaching you are active researchers, in touch with the latest research in their field and constantly updating the teaching material.

You are also expected to construct an argument that is well-written, logical and also innovative/original.

... I had around 1-2 a week for english alone at a-level
why is that a lot? do they expect it to be thoroughly researched and planned and perfectly written??

Not only that, the first thing they do on return from vacation each is exams.

So you have to do that amount of work in a week or so, possibly with other committments in the background.

Is there much time for social or sports stuff? How do you balance work with a social life? I mean it sounds as if the work takes virtually all of your time, and in 'your' I mean the Oxbridge students in general.

Um, at Cambridge we - generally speaking - don't have exams after the vacations. Just the usual exams in Easter term, at the end of the academic year.

Are there any Oxbridge Law students here? I applied to Cambridge for Law and frankly I don't think I have any clue about the absurd amounts of work I'm going to be expected to complete - hence I need a reality check. 3 papers a week?