Negatives of Oxbridge

I'm not quite sure whether I quite follow the logic of your argument there. Are you saying they were capable of getting 2.1s and firsts to begin with (because otherwise they wouldn't have got Oxford offers in the first place), yet they wouldn't have been equally capable of getting 2.1s and firsts if they had been taught under a different system?

I'd guess 100% might be theoretically possible in maths, engineering, and physics, maybe a couple of other things.

Yep. I can't speak for Oxford, but you can theoretically get 100% in the maths tripos. Practically speaking, it ain't gonna happen:
4 papers in which you answer as many questions as you can in 3 hours. ~40 questions on each paper. The people who come top of the Tripos usually get 10-12 done on each paper (on average). So yeah, while it is possible, 100% isn't going to happen!

What?! Seriously, how long does one actually take to do one question?

Do the maths.

What?! Seriously, how long does one actually take to do one question?

Cambridge Tripos Paper, Part I, 2008

Question I) 1 + 1 = x. Find x

1 + 1 = 2

.
. . x = 2

took me five seconds to answer Questions I)

Cambridge Tripos Paper, Part I, 2008

Question I) 1 + 1 = x. Find x

1 + 1 = 2

.
. . x = 2

took me five seconds to answer Questions I)

foiled. It's Part IA (first year) or IB (second).
And the question numbers have letters after them to indicate which examiner marks that question.
And 5 seconds is a bit slow for that question.

huh?

edit: Academic, even in the Physics Olympiad second round they expect you to spend about 45 minutes on the first question only.

Tutorial system
College system
Amazing resources/library/research material
High quality of teaching

by heck! how hard are the questions for the average person to answer it in 45 bloody minutes?

what next? takes 3 days to answer one question in cambridge maths finals you must love maths to waste your time answering a question, when the examiner could just give you the answer which takes 2 seconds.

what next? takes 3 days to answer one question in cambridge maths finals you must love maths to waste your time answering a question, when the examiner could just give you the answer which takes 2 seconds.

Erm, ever heard of the concept of proof? It gets pretty important, and means you generally can't just be given the answer - often, you're told the answer anyway.

basically, to sum everyone's post up is that, there are more pros than cons at oxbridge, however the main one we can all agree is that:

basically, to sum everyone's post up is that, there are more pros than cons at oxbridge, however the main one we can all agree is that:

Er, no, to be quite frank I wouldn't care less if I was rejected.

Er, no, to be quite frank I wouldn't care less if I was rejected.