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PPL or EP?

Hello! I'm really interested in studying psychology at the University of Oxford, but I'm not sure whether to choose PPL or EP. I'm very interested in science, but I am also very drawn to the philosophy aspect of PPL. I was wondering if anybody could give me some insight about PPL; is there still a lot of science work that you do in PPL, or if I want to do science should I pick EP? Thank you so much for your help.
What a levels are you doing rn, cause that would help you decide
Original post by Ariichu
What a levels are you doing rn, cause that would help you decide


Tank you so much Ariichu! I'm actually an international student and am studying AP (advanced placement) subjects. So far, I'm taking or have taken AP biology, AP chemistry, AP English language, AP English literature, AP calculus, and AP European History.
Thank you again for your reply!
I think that the PPL course in oxford, allows you to choose the modules that you want to study, so you can have a more scientific approach whilst still doing some philosophy. The psychology in oxford is a science degree, so there will definitely be science in the PPL course. The best thing would be to just talk to someone who has done the PPL degree and see what they say about it vs EP
Thank you so so much Ariichu! This will help me out a lot. Thank you :smile:
Original post by Anonymous
Hello! I'm really interested in studying psychology at the University of Oxford, but I'm not sure whether to choose PPL or EP. I'm very interested in science, but I am also very drawn to the philosophy aspect of PPL. I was wondering if anybody could give me some insight about PPL; is there still a lot of science work that you do in PPL, or if I want to do science should I pick EP? Thank you so much for your help.

hiya! the way EP/PPL works is as such:

there are 5 different modules you can choose for 1st year - Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Linguistics, Neurophysiology and Probability Theory & Statistics.

you choose your combination of these when choosing the course on your UCAS application. everyone doing Psychology also does stats. these are the combinations you can do:

Experimental Psychology: Intro to Psych, Neurophysiology, Stats
Psychology and Philosophy: Intro to Psych, Intro to Phil, Stats
Psychology and Linguistics: Intro to Psych, Intro to Ling, Stats
Philosophy and Linguistics: Intro to Phil, Intro to Ling

so for any combination including Psychology, you will still have the same teaching for the Intro to Psych module, which is a mainly scientific course. however only EP does Neurophysiology, which is a very Biology-based module.

hope this helps! let me know if you have any more questions about it (i take psychology + linguistics)
oh and in case this helps-

the topics covered in Intro to Psych are:
- Social and Developmental Psychology
- Sensory Processes and Perception
- Psychobiology
- Cognitive Psychology.
Original post by lyalucy
oh and in case this helps-

the topics covered in Intro to Psych are:
- Social and Developmental Psychology
- Sensory Processes and Perception
- Psychobiology
- Cognitive Psychology.

Hello! so sorry about my late response!
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the detailed message! This truly helps a lot :smile: I hope you have a good day! :smile:
Original post by Anonymous
Hello! so sorry about my late response!
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the detailed message! This truly helps a lot :smile: I hope you have a good day! :smile:


No worries at all! Good luck with your application, let me know if there's anything else I can help with
Reply 9
Original post by lyalucy
hiya! the way EP/PPL works is as such:
there are 5 different modules you can choose for 1st year - Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Linguistics, Neurophysiology and Probability Theory & Statistics.
you choose your combination of these when choosing the course on your UCAS application. everyone doing Psychology also does stats. these are the combinations you can do:
Experimental Psychology: Intro to Psych, Neurophysiology, Stats
Psychology and Philosophy: Intro to Psych, Intro to Phil, Stats
Psychology and Linguistics: Intro to Psych, Intro to Ling, Stats
Philosophy and Linguistics: Intro to Phil, Intro to Ling
so for any combination including Psychology, you will still have the same teaching for the Intro to Psych module, which is a mainly scientific course. however only EP does Neurophysiology, which is a very Biology-based module.
hope this helps! let me know if you have any more questions about it (i take psychology + linguistics)

Hi there! i recently posted a question regarding PPL, if you could provide some advice it would be much appreciated!
i might want to add that the workload in PPL is a bit higher than that of EP, especially in first year
first year philosophy (especially in the first term) is a bit hectic since you need to do logic moral and gen phil all within the same year
another reason is that the skills required for psychology and philosophy are quite different, especially when it comes to reading scientific papers/readings and writing essays. focusing solely on psychology (and neuroscience perhaps) in EP might be easier to pick up these skills
but I absolutely agree that PPL provides you with a broader skillset that might give you more transferable skills for the modern job market, and the flexibility to choose courses (mainly in 2nd year) is awesome

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