Oxford Demystified - English and Italian

Why did you want to study your subject?
I'd known for quite a few years in advance that English was my thing, as I'd always loved reading and creative writing, and to me writing essays just seemed like a slightly different form of creative writing. However, the Italian part came along a lot later! I studied Spanish for five years in secondary school, and then for two years at A-Level, but it never really occurred to me to carry on with it to degree level; that would have meant giving up English, or doing joint honours, which didn't really appeal to me then. Fast forward to January 2021, and I'd just been rejected from Magdalen College for sole English. When I eventually took the decision to reapply, I'd just spent my final two terms of sixth form studying Shakespeare's Richard III and Webster's Duchess of Malfi, both Renaissance plays heavily influenced by Italian political theory. This made me realise that English and Italian seemed more like two sides of the same coin than English and Spanish did, and my growing enthusiasm was helped along by a pre-existing love for all things Italy. Fast forward to January 2022, and I have an offer for a course that I know suits me the best!

Why Oxford?
Initially, I was drawn in by the beautiful architecture, and also Oxford's high ranking, but my reasons now are that accommodation is within college for three years of your degree (solves house-hunting in your first term of first year!), and also that Oxford's language degrees are very literature-heavy. As a book-lover first and foremost, this was a deal-breaker for me.

Did any of your teachers inspire you?
My English teacher from Y9-Y11 was incredible. She was amazing at encouraging exploration beyond the GCSE mark scheme, even though this would never be credited in an exam, because she knew that this was the best way to create passion, rather than just trying to push people through the exams. Though all my English teachers from Y7-Y13 have been great, she was the one I thought of first when I received my offer.

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 took out a subscription to the Times Literary Supplement for a while, which taught me that most academic writing focuses on a very particular niche. When I was writing my personal statement, this helped me to link together my ideas, rather than just setting them down in no apparent order. I also read Shakespearen Tragedy by A.C. Bradley, Shakespeare's History Plays by E.M.W. Tillyard, This is Shakespeare by Emma Smith, and a book about early 20th-century Italian poetry. The first three started out as reading for interest, but quickly became key texts for me to reference in essays, which I think is a great way to find critical analysis you can really engage with and enjoy. The Italian poetry book was a way for me to learn more about a topic I was completely clueless on, and also to attempt some blind translations to see how well my Spanish knowledge supplemented my Italian guesswork.

Did you attend any lectures, or take part in any competitions? If so, would you recommend them, and why?
Competitions aren't really my thing, and if there were any (online) lectures to attend I wasn't aware of them.

Did you have any work experience? If so, how did you find it?
Nothing to do with my subject, although I was (and still am) working in a cafe during my application.

Did you have a specialist subject/EPQ? What was it? How did you go about your research?
I didn't do an EPQ, but I did go into my application with a niche in mind, which was the relationship between Italian political theory and English Renaissance drama. This was a topic I referenced in both my submitted written work and personal statement.

What did you mention in your personal statement and why?
In my first application, when I read back my personal statement it feels a lot like a random mix of texts , a lot of which were mentioned because I didn't want to focus too much on one thing. In contrast, my personal statement this time mentioned far fewer texts - Henry IV, Hamlet, The Waste Land, Toto Merumeni, Waiting for Godot. I was not only able to discuss these texts in more depth, thereby demonstrating my passion more effectively, but was also able to link them, showing that I already knew where my subject interests lay. (Obviously it's fine if you don't know which specific subject area is your favourite yet, so I'd just say you should focus on your favourite works of literature in general, and that in itself will convey your passion).

Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
I'm not very good at sitting and doing something for ninety minutes when it's not 'the real thing', so the first time I did the ELAT in full was in the actual exam. However, I did prepare by looking at past papers and making a plan for the essay I would have written for the relevant topic.
In contrast, I did a lot more preparation for the section of the MLAT that I had to do, which was the LAT (Language Aptitude Test). I started off by doing two or three past papers without timing myself, just to get a feel for the type of questions and how they progressed in difficulty, as well as to gather techniques to improve efficiency. Then I progressed to timing myself, and then to setting a thirty-minute limit. I ended up completing every past paper available, which I can definitely say was a huge help in the real exam. I would say for the LAT, having even a very rudimentary plan beforehand can help - mine was to identify differences in parts of words, such as how nouns differed in terms of gender, number, and whether they were the subject or object of the sentence.

How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
The first time I applied, my sixth form arranged a trip to visit Magdalen College, which is the outreach college assigned to our region. For this reason I decided to apply there (as well as its incredible beauty). I didn't know at the time that it was a very popular college, and whilst this makes no difference to your overall application, it does make the chances of being reallocated a lot higher; I was interviewed at Corpus Christi as well, which is a very small college.
The second time, my research was far more extensive. I wrote down every college in a notebook, then included facts such as whether they had accommodation for three years of the course, the research interests of the tutors, and the number of formal dinners a week. A lot of these criteria were simply to find easy ways of cutting down my list. By the time I visited Oxford, two or so weeks before the UCAS deadline, I had a shortlist of around seven colleges to visit. Pembroke College was not very high on this list, but I fell in love as soon as I walked through the doors. I then found out from Pembroke's personal prospectus that they have a strong focus on languages and joint honours, and it was this fact that set them above any other college for me. I will also point out that although I looked at tutor research interests, the interests of the tutors at Pembroke did not really match mine, and this ultimately made no difference in terms of reallocation to another college, contrary to what I had worried about.

How did you find the interview process?
I didn't have the best experience, to be honest. When I turned up for my English interview, my school had forgotten to book a room, so they had to find a free one and set up all the relevant technology, which was quite stressful considering the time pressure. In the interview itself, I was asked about three poems, which took up most of the time, and my personal statement and written work weren't really discussed.
In my Italian interview, the situation was even worse! School had left a room open for me (it was past lesson hours), but when I arrived there was no camera or microphone at the computer. I therefore had to do the interview on my phone, which resulted in the battery dying and cutting me off mid-sentence about five minutes from the end of the allotted time. I emailed the tutors afterwards to apologise, and they were extremely nice about it all. I was asked at first about a specific Italian word I'd mentioned in my personal statement, which opened up a more general discussion about translating between different languages and the problems encountered. I was then given an English prose text, which I found a lot more difficult to dig deep into than in my other interview, so perhaps it was a good thing that my phone stopped me talking when it did!

Any interview tips?
Something I struggled with in my interviews the first time I applied was reading conversational cues - I was approaching it more like a Q&A session, rather than a conversation. I would make my point in response to a question, then the tutor would make a point of their own, but I wasn't sure how I was supposed to respond to this. In contrast, in my second application I seized upon the tutors' comments and used them to expand on the discussion, which led to us broaching topics a lot further away from the initial question. My advice from this experience would be to seize the initiative - I sometimes felt like I was talking too much in contrast to the tutors, but with hindsight this is probably what they want!

How did you feel after the interviews?
Overwhelmed - I couldn't evaluate whether they'd gone terribly or brilliantly, so I decided they were probably just average. As decisions date crept closer I found myself remembering bits of what I'd said and feeling embarrassed, but in my opinion there isnt really any point in thinking a lot about your interviews once they're over, as it only causes you unnecessary stress about something you can't control. Accepting it's out of your hands now can be freeing!

Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
I was sat on the settee at home at about 10am, having been awake since 3am in one of the worst night's sleep I've ever had. I'd got so bored of waiting to see if I had a UCAS or college email, that it actually removed most of my stress. When the college email came through, my mind was blank - it was essentially a one-line message that read 'Congratulations!', and I had to open the attached letter to properly find out that I'd received an offer. I leapt up and said 'I think I got in??', and celebrated with my family once the news had sunk in.

Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Coming down in my case, as I'm a northerner! (Though I do know this is the official term ). Yes, I'm extremely excited, though the news has made me more conscious that I should really take the time to enjoy the next nine months or so, whereas before I knew the outcome of my application it was all I could think about.

Thank you so much to the legend that is @Oxford Mum for letting me write this.

@Oxford Mum adding some more details based on your questions

Why do you love Italy so much? Did you ever go on holiday there/were inspired by a film/poem etc? Did it just seem romantic or glamorous? Did you like how Italian sounded when it was spoken?

I had a few family holidays there when I was younger and I loved it, especially the food. And yes, looking back, I did always think that the language itself had a very lyrical and romantic sound to it. It had a little something 'extra' that drew me to it in a stronger way than Spain and Spanish did, even though I studied Spanish for seven years, and to be honest I think in my first application I simply wasn't brave enough to choose an ab initio language whose literature I hadn't explored much at that point.
I learnt Spanish way back in 1990 (GCSE) and studied Italian in 1991. I was really confused between the two, because they sounded so similar! Was it the same with you?
To be honest, not really! When I studied French and Spanish at school, despite the fact they're from the same language family, they always felt very separate in my head, which I think is due to my more mathematical side. (I've always felt that learning languages is a lot like learning maths, because both subjects have so many repeating patterns to identify). The case is the same for the little bits of Italian I've picked up so far, though Italian and Spanish are more similar than French and Spanish, especially in terms of pronunciation, so I'm anticipating having some confusion!

Were you self taught with your Italian, or did you follow a language course? If so, which one? Which text book did you use? How did you learn enough vocabulary and where did you get your vocabulary from? Did you have favourite Italian films? Where did you start with Italian literature? Can you recommend easy readers/fairly simple Italian texts?

Because I applied for the ab initio course, I don't have too much Italian knowledge. Everything I know is from the little but essential phrases you need on holiday, such as general manners, and mainly vocabulary relating to food. I've dipped in and out of the Duolingo Italian course, whose primary strength lies in the accumulation of vocabulary. I have also recently come across a brilliant site called onlineitalianclub.com, which provides a huge range of grammar and vocabulary exercises, as well as helpful progress sheets you can print off to keep track of where you're at. In terms of texts to recommend, everything I've read by an Italian author has been in English! (The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Prince by Machiavelli). I did read a poem called Toto Merumeni alongside an English translation completed by Martin Bennett, which won him the Stephen Spender Poetry Prize, so I would recommend searching for that. For films, I'm afraid that I haven't seen any Italian ones yet - just The Godfather (Pt I. and II.) and Goodfellas, though these are definitely worth seeking out as interesting explorations of modern Italian identity clashing with tradition.

Please tell us more details about the LAT (language aptitude test). Is it a test in a made up language, for ab initio language courses?

For ab initio courses, the LAT always takes the same format - you have to translate phrases from and into a created language. At the beginning of the paper you will be given some brief information about this created language, such as whether it has a strict word order, and whether it differentiates between the meaning of 'he goes' and 'he is going', for example. The test itself is split into three sections, and at the beginning of each one, you're provided with a short list of phrases, which you are supposed to analyse to help you to answer the questions. The questions are always an even mixture of translations from the language into English, and the other way round. Each section is progressively harder than the last, adding in new sentence structures, tenses, and noun relationships. If you have studied a language such as Latin or German, you will be at a slight advantage, as the created language always uses cases. I hadn't studied either of these, so doing the past papers was a huge help for me. Familiarising yourself with the definitions of 'subject' and 'object' in a sentence is also essential. Don't panic if you haven't studied any of this before - I only knew about subject and object from my Spanish studies, and definitely would have struggled with the cases if I hadn't done all of the past papers.

At interview, did they ask you anything about Italy, or expect you to speak Italian? Is there some expectation that you have engaged with the Italian language and culture before the interviews?

I'd read that in some ab initio interviews, a text can be given in the target language with an English translation alongside it, but this didn't happen in my case. I was asked why I chose Italian rather than Spanish, as the latter was one of my A-Levels, and any and all cultural questions were focused upon concepts or texts I'd mentioned in my personal statement. Obviously you could be asked about aspects of culture that you haven't mentioned, but this wasn't the case for me, and the only Italian spoken in the entire interview was a single word that I'd put in my personal statement to discuss the difficulties in translating between different languages.