Anyone applied for law with French law? (2024)
Just wondering if there is anyone else who applied for this course or doing this course currently. Curious to know what it's actually like to study it and why others chose it? 
(edited 4 months ago)
Original post by sdlien
Hi! I will apply to this course (kcl,ucl, queen mary, exeter) as I think it be beneficial to me in the future but also because I am french and adding the fact that I would have studied in England and have a double degree would make me attractive in terms of employment.
Hi! Are you applying this year or taking a gap year? Applying to kcl and ucl as well, seems to be becoming a more popular course !!
Original post by golden_salad
Hi! Are you applying this year or taking a gap year? Applying to kcl and ucl as well, seems to be becoming a more popular course !!
I am applying this year, will you apply to this course too?
I’m in second year of law with french law (at Oxford) currently and tbh there has been way less french than I expected, one two hour class a week and the expectation we’ll just practice french in our own time which is kinda sad lol but I’m looking forward to the year in France
Original post by Username123ab
I’m in second year of law with french law (at Oxford) currently and tbh there has been way less french than I expected, one two hour class a week and the expectation we’ll just practice french in our own time which is kinda sad lol but I’m looking forward to the year in France
oh wow, that’s really cool, I, unfortunately, missed the deadline to apply to Oxford (I didn’t have any time because of school) what’s the uni Oxford is partnered with for the year in France? May see you next year if I study in France (Paris) haha
Original post by sdlien
I am applying this year, will you apply to this course too?
Yep applying for all of them this year, so far have gotten two offers from Exeter for the Maitrise and Warwick!
Original post by Username123ab
I’m in second year of law with french law (at Oxford) currently and tbh there has been way less french than I expected, one two hour class a week and the expectation we’ll just practice french in our own time which is kinda sad lol but I’m looking forward to the year in France
Oh wow! How are you finding it so far? How high of a level of French should we have (currently I'm at a C1)? I had my interviews and during my french assessment, it didn't seem that high (like I assume a B2)
Original post by sdlien
oh wow, that’s really cool, I, unfortunately, missed the deadline to apply to Oxford (I didn’t have any time because of school) what’s the uni Oxford is partnered with for the year in France? May see you next year if I study in France (Paris) haha
I believe its at Panthéon - Assas (same as KCL)
Original post by golden_salad
Oh wow! How are you finding it so far? How high of a level of French should we have (currently I'm at a C1)? I had my interviews and during my french assessment, it didn't seem that high (like I assume a B2)
C1 should be good, I completely messed up my french interview and they still let me in lol. I’d say I’m about C1 as well, as long as you can follow the course your french will be fine, they’re not expecting native proficiency
Original post by golden_salad
Yep applying for all of them this year, so far have gotten two offers from Exeter for the Maitrise and Warwick!
that's good! i will also be applying to exeter, where else did you apply?
i’ve got offers for law w/french law at birmingham and exeter!
@Username123ab is it true that you can transfer from the normal law course onto the law w/ french law course after mods at oxford??
@Username123ab is it true that you can transfer from the normal law course onto the law w/ french law course after mods at oxford??
Original post by jklaww
i’ve got offers for law w/french law at birmingham and exeter!
@Username123ab is it true that you can transfer from the normal law course onto the law w/ french law course after mods at oxford??
@Username123ab is it true that you can transfer from the normal law course onto the law w/ french law course after mods at oxford??
Yes it is, there were a few people who transferred into law with french law after mods, the only requirements were getting at least 60 average across all three papers and doing a short french interview
Original post by golden_salad
Just wondering if there is anyone else who applied for this course or doing this course currently. Curious to know what it's actually like to study it and why others chose it?
Hello! I'm not a uni applicant but alumni of english law/ french law in exeter! Since then i've done a bar course in london and starting soon to practice as a pupil barrister 🙂
To begin with, I think the teaching style in Exeter (and in any non-Oxbridge unis) is relatively relaxed, typically (at least for me 6 years ago), your week would look like: 5 1x hour lecture (with 300 other students) + 3-4 2x hours seminars/ tutorials (with maybe 10 of your classmates as a small group) + occasional termly summative essays/ presentations that would take up a certain percentage of your final grade + the final exams which could be oral presentation or essay (take-home or timed in an exam hall).
Law is one of the things that you'll either find it interesting or absolutely hate it, I personally liked English Law, although the teaching could've been improved, this especially applies to the Maitrise I did in Rennes 1 (EU Law), you either love it or find it super boring, luckily i was the former, as in Rennes (at least when i was there) you get to do a bunch of modules in WTO trade law as well as pure french law like droit sociale or droit de la concurrence...
I am a native speaker myself (grew up in a french speaking country - then was educated in france and then in London) I think thinking back now Rennes must have been one of the most challenging experiences in my academic life (5 years of law!), it was extremely demanding when it comes to your level of french but also the french higher education system is very old school, meaning that you could have 8 hours of lectures (with 10 min to 2 hours of gap in between) a day, consisting of multiple 2-4 hours lectures, where you would sit in the amphitheatre and type down word by word what the professor say. At least for law, given that Rennes is one of the more prestigious universities for EU law in france (after SciencePo and Assas of course), local french students have to compete very hard to get into the masters programme, whereas students like me from Exeter just get automatic admission as long as I pass the Exeter part of the degree (the first three years: english law + french law), this all in all makes the programme very competitive and difficult, even for local french students, let alone students from Exeter whose mother tongue isn't french in most of the cases. Mental health wise I struggled quite a bit especially during exam seasons, as I think personally there was less personal opinion and critical thinking involved in the exams/ teaching compared to the british way of teaching, so 70% of the time in exams they expect you to just remember and retain whatever that was taught. There was a girl in the year before me (before I went to Rennes) on the same programme who even committed suicide during the course, because she couldn't meet the grade requirements in order to be sent to an exchange programme to another EU country, and to be completely candid, I am not surprised. Rennes is quiet/ medium sized city - so the best advice I can give to survive and hopefully pass the Maitrise is:
•
Learn how to cook (as restaurants are more expensive in france, even McDonald's)
•
Be prepared to speak as much french as possible (this is the only way to integrate fully and facilitate the french law oral exams)
•
Be prepared to make french friends! Otherwise one of the most common thing is for students (non-native speakers of french) to be speaking their own language most of the time with people from their home country, which is sort of a big no no to integration.
In terms of language barriers, it's not a straightaway answer. Although native speakers will most definitely benefit from their language skills (i.e. understanding the lectures etc and the dissertations/ commentaire d'arrêts will be easier to write with better french), do bear in mind that the highest achievers in my class (in the history of the english law and french law programmes) are usually non-native speakers, and I have even known many many native speakers (french students) failing their exams in rennes and/ or just dropping out of the french law programme straightaway, because although they are more than competent in the french language, there's a tendency for them to underestimate the workload. So the most important thing is not the nationality or french language, it's more like the ability to work hard/smart.
Finally, I can't speak for everyone but employability wise it doesn't really make you "stand out" exactly, perhaps you will get more of an advantage applying for a training contract in a solicitors' firm with an international/ WTO trade outlook, but not exactly in every case, this is because getting a job in law is very competitive, and unfortunately employers still do look at 75% university reputation (where you went for uni, i.e. oxbridge, LSE) and the rest the scholarships/ internships/ your grades during university. But as I said an extra degree in foreign law will never bring any harm, and will be useful in the long run, i know people who ended up working for the EU commission etc.
I can write a book on my experience in Rennes, if you have any questions, I don't mind answering them!
Original post by sdlien
that's good! i will also be applying to exeter, where else did you apply?
Applied to Oxford UCL and KCL
Original post by Heal
Hello! I'm not a uni applicant but alumni of english law/ french law in exeter! Since then i've done a bar course in london and starting soon to practice as a pupil barrister 🙂
To begin with, I think the teaching style in Exeter (and in any non-Oxbridge unis) is relatively relaxed, typically (at least for me 6 years ago), your week would look like: 5 1x hour lecture (with 300 other students) + 3-4 2x hours seminars/ tutorials (with maybe 10 of your classmates as a small group) + occasional termly summative essays/ presentations that would take up a certain percentage of your final grade + the final exams which could be oral presentation or essay (take-home or timed in an exam hall).
Law is one of the things that you'll either find it interesting or absolutely hate it, I personally liked English Law, although the teaching could've been improved, this especially applies to the Maitrise I did in Rennes 1 (EU Law), you either love it or find it super boring, luckily i was the former, as in Rennes (at least when i was there) you get to do a bunch of modules in WTO trade law as well as pure french law like droit sociale or droit de la concurrence...
I am a native speaker myself (grew up in a french speaking country - then was educated in france and then in London) I think thinking back now Rennes must have been one of the most challenging experiences in my academic life (5 years of law!), it was extremely demanding when it comes to your level of french but also the french higher education system is very old school, meaning that you could have 8 hours of lectures (with 10 min to 2 hours of gap in between) a day, consisting of multiple 2-4 hours lectures, where you would sit in the amphitheatre and type down word by word what the professor say. At least for law, given that Rennes is one of the more prestigious universities for EU law in france (after SciencePo and Assas of course), local french students have to compete very hard to get into the masters programme, whereas students like me from Exeter just get automatic admission as long as I pass the Exeter part of the degree (the first three years: english law + french law), this all in all makes the programme very competitive and difficult, even for local french students, let alone students from Exeter whose mother tongue isn't french in most of the cases. Mental health wise I struggled quite a bit especially during exam seasons, as I think personally there was less personal opinion and critical thinking involved in the exams/ teaching compared to the british way of teaching, so 70% of the time in exams they expect you to just remember and retain whatever that was taught. There was a girl in the year before me (before I went to Rennes) on the same programme who even committed suicide during the course, because she couldn't meet the grade requirements in order to be sent to an exchange programme to another EU country, and to be completely candid, I am not surprised. Rennes is quiet/ medium sized city - so the best advice I can give to survive and hopefully pass the Maitrise is:
In terms of language barriers, it's not a straightaway answer. Although native speakers will most definitely benefit from their language skills (i.e. understanding the lectures etc and the dissertations/ commentaire d'arrêts will be easier to write with better french), do bear in mind that the highest achievers in my class (in the history of the english law and french law programmes) are usually non-native speakers, and I have even known many many native speakers (french students) failing their exams in rennes and/ or just dropping out of the french law programme straightaway, because although they are more than competent in the french language, there's a tendency for them to underestimate the workload. So the most important thing is not the nationality or french language, it's more like the ability to work hard/smart.
Finally, I can't speak for everyone but employability wise it doesn't really make you "stand out" exactly, perhaps you will get more of an advantage applying for a training contract in a solicitors' firm with an international/ WTO trade outlook, but not exactly in every case, this is because getting a job in law is very competitive, and unfortunately employers still do look at 75% university reputation (where you went for uni, i.e. oxbridge, LSE) and the rest the scholarships/ internships/ your grades during university. But as I said an extra degree in foreign law will never bring any harm, and will be useful in the long run, i know people who ended up working for the EU commission etc.
I can write a book on my experience in Rennes, if you have any questions, I don't mind answering them!
To begin with, I think the teaching style in Exeter (and in any non-Oxbridge unis) is relatively relaxed, typically (at least for me 6 years ago), your week would look like: 5 1x hour lecture (with 300 other students) + 3-4 2x hours seminars/ tutorials (with maybe 10 of your classmates as a small group) + occasional termly summative essays/ presentations that would take up a certain percentage of your final grade + the final exams which could be oral presentation or essay (take-home or timed in an exam hall).
Law is one of the things that you'll either find it interesting or absolutely hate it, I personally liked English Law, although the teaching could've been improved, this especially applies to the Maitrise I did in Rennes 1 (EU Law), you either love it or find it super boring, luckily i was the former, as in Rennes (at least when i was there) you get to do a bunch of modules in WTO trade law as well as pure french law like droit sociale or droit de la concurrence...
I am a native speaker myself (grew up in a french speaking country - then was educated in france and then in London) I think thinking back now Rennes must have been one of the most challenging experiences in my academic life (5 years of law!), it was extremely demanding when it comes to your level of french but also the french higher education system is very old school, meaning that you could have 8 hours of lectures (with 10 min to 2 hours of gap in between) a day, consisting of multiple 2-4 hours lectures, where you would sit in the amphitheatre and type down word by word what the professor say. At least for law, given that Rennes is one of the more prestigious universities for EU law in france (after SciencePo and Assas of course), local french students have to compete very hard to get into the masters programme, whereas students like me from Exeter just get automatic admission as long as I pass the Exeter part of the degree (the first three years: english law + french law), this all in all makes the programme very competitive and difficult, even for local french students, let alone students from Exeter whose mother tongue isn't french in most of the cases. Mental health wise I struggled quite a bit especially during exam seasons, as I think personally there was less personal opinion and critical thinking involved in the exams/ teaching compared to the british way of teaching, so 70% of the time in exams they expect you to just remember and retain whatever that was taught. There was a girl in the year before me (before I went to Rennes) on the same programme who even committed suicide during the course, because she couldn't meet the grade requirements in order to be sent to an exchange programme to another EU country, and to be completely candid, I am not surprised. Rennes is quiet/ medium sized city - so the best advice I can give to survive and hopefully pass the Maitrise is:
•
Learn how to cook (as restaurants are more expensive in france, even McDonald's)
•
Be prepared to speak as much french as possible (this is the only way to integrate fully and facilitate the french law oral exams)
•
Be prepared to make french friends! Otherwise one of the most common thing is for students (non-native speakers of french) to be speaking their own language most of the time with people from their home country, which is sort of a big no no to integration.
In terms of language barriers, it's not a straightaway answer. Although native speakers will most definitely benefit from their language skills (i.e. understanding the lectures etc and the dissertations/ commentaire d'arrêts will be easier to write with better french), do bear in mind that the highest achievers in my class (in the history of the english law and french law programmes) are usually non-native speakers, and I have even known many many native speakers (french students) failing their exams in rennes and/ or just dropping out of the french law programme straightaway, because although they are more than competent in the french language, there's a tendency for them to underestimate the workload. So the most important thing is not the nationality or french language, it's more like the ability to work hard/smart.
Finally, I can't speak for everyone but employability wise it doesn't really make you "stand out" exactly, perhaps you will get more of an advantage applying for a training contract in a solicitors' firm with an international/ WTO trade outlook, but not exactly in every case, this is because getting a job in law is very competitive, and unfortunately employers still do look at 75% university reputation (where you went for uni, i.e. oxbridge, LSE) and the rest the scholarships/ internships/ your grades during university. But as I said an extra degree in foreign law will never bring any harm, and will be useful in the long run, i know people who ended up working for the EU commission etc.
I can write a book on my experience in Rennes, if you have any questions, I don't mind answering them!
wow!!! this sounds so interesting , thank you so much! (the language part is definetely a bit of a boost as a non-native speaker) , I was wondering more about your experience in Rennes? What was it like?
Original post by golden_salad
wow!!! this sounds so interesting , thank you so much! (the language part is definetely a bit of a boost as a non-native speaker) , I was wondering more about your experience in Rennes? What was it like?
Rennes is your typical medium-sized french city..like any other cities of similar size such as Rouen or Évreux or Nantes (as the most obvious option as it's one of the other important cities in Bretagne), you've got the town centre with everything from a medium sized-shopping mall (in Rennes you've got Columbia shopping centre) + post office + train station + a bus stop that's called République 🤣 (like almost every other french cities) and all the restaurants (mostly centred in St Anne and around marché de la Criée, which is a semi-posh old-fashioned local market that sells fresh produce/fish/ cheeses). In the suburb area you've got the other departments of the University of Rennes, and also the other University of Rennes called "Rennes 2", which i think focuses on different majors than Rennes 1... In the suburb you've also got a larger shopping centre (with Sephora, big Carrefour which is the french version of Tesco etc) called Alma + places like IKEA/ Decathlon/ larger and cheaper supermarkets like Cora. Students social wise in all fairness I was never a party person so couldn't tell you very much.
Otherwise the Law faculty has got its own little cafés and canteen (which is half-decent but very cheap most of all, almost cheaper than cooking yourself) and its own bus stop (it's literally called "Fac de droit"), and you'd see a lot of tired and stressed yet elegantly dressed french students walking in and out. The faculty building (located about 5-10 minutes walk from the city centre) is grey and ugly, a bit like The Barbican estate building in London but a lot worse, faculty itself is for both law and political science, with the Master 1 being split into very different majors, but you could somehow end up sharing classes with someone even if they're not "majoring" in the same Master 1. I might be bias but the admission stats at least according to the french students is that the Master 1 in EU law is the most well-known and competitive in Rennes 1, which is one of the reasons why in Exeter the french law prof is most definitely going to advise you to take the EU law Master 1, at least for when I was there this was for two reasons: one being that by the time we get to Rennes (year 4) we would've already done at least one semester of EU law in English, making it not too Difficult to understand the beginning 5% of the French material, as it's mostly about the same thing (Simmenthal, Van Gend en Loos, Costa etc) - the other reason being the EU law module in Rennes has got more of an 'international' touch to it as we had optional modules not just in french law but also some taught in English, and other one where professor from different jurisdictions would travel to Rennes 1 and teach us about an area of their research every fortnight, which I thought was a really really cool aspect of the studies.
Living wise be warned that it is going to be difficult to get used to first (even if i went to boarding school my whole life i found it hard to almost cook everything myself), as food (at least when i got there) was expensive, especially meat, and restaurants are out of the question if you live like me (I got the erasmus grant which was about 2,800 pounds from the EU x UK collab but had to save most of it for the future) and only got about +/- 300 euros to live on every month - which if you turn into pound, might seem like a lot but isn't (especially if you enjoy an occasional restaurant dinner with mate every fortnight etc). Also none of the accommodations by the uni offered to me were catered, so everything food-related was almost pure DIY. One thing that saved me from going broke was going to frozen food supermarkets (the french take their food seriously, and so even frozen don't taste half as bad as the stuff from Iceland) like Picard, where I would stock up bunch of frozen broccoli (steamed) and lasagna etc from the beginning of the week, so I won't have to worry about food at the end of a long day - this turned out to be so much cheaper than making stuff from scratch, especially when you get the ingredients from the small local Carrefour near the uni (bit like the price difference between Tesco express and Tesco Extra).
Finally a very typical day in my life in Rennes was like this: getting up at 7am (unless my first tutorial was at 8am, which means waking up at 6 ish) DIY some breakfast and then have lectures until early afternoon, would usually grab a sandwich from the uni café (government subsidised so cheaper than supermarkets) and rest for an hour until the next lectures, which could end in early afternoon or until 8pm latest. Then ofc you'd have 5% social battery/ energy left at the end of the day but you've got to study a little more. This is not to make you feel stressed... this is just reality for absolutely everyone on the course including french students, and my routine got me a pass at the end (so i got two degrees at the end of 4 years), but some people may be a lot more chill, although mind you a lot those chill people who would not put in the work (or some did) ended up failing the entire degree in Rennes, so realistically speaking if you do end up in Rennes (which I believe course structure wise is going to be similar to Assas, which is where you'd be going with Kings) you need to have a hard-working mind-set.
Best of luck! Hope this helps 🙂
Original post by Username123ab
I’m in second year of law with french law (at Oxford) currently and tbh there has been way less french than I expected, one two hour class a week and the expectation we’ll just practice french in our own time which is kinda sad lol but I’m looking forward to the year in France
this is my dream course, could you possibly give me some more details about your application/interviews/experience etc?
Original post by hanstudies
this is my dream course, could you possibly give me some more details about your application/interviews/experience etc?
Hi
The application process wasn't too bad, things I included on my personal statement were law looks I'd read off Oxford's reading list, French novels I'd read for fun (my favourite book is L'Etranger which I mentioned because it has legal themes), a French translation competition I'd entered, my EPQ on immigration law, and an Open University online course I'd done on EU Law (those are great because they only take a few hours and you can massively big them up on your personal statement). You'll also have to sit the LNAT before the October application deadline. My grades were 999999998 for GCSEs, A*A*A (French, maths and history) for A levels and I got 27 on the LNAT.
The interviews were a lot less scary than I imagined they would be, you'll probably have two twenty minute law interviews and a ten minute French interview. For the law interviews they gave me a contract law case to read before one of them then asked me questions about it; the questions weren't ones that required any specific legal knowledge to answer, for example one of them was about what type of things you'd take into consideration when judging the case (e.g. that the civil law isn't intended to punish the defendant and the damages shouldn't be out of proportion to the breach). For the other law interview they asked me questions such as what I like to read for fun/how my favourite book has impacted me and what my most controversial view is. I felt kind of unprepared for those type of questions but they're not looking to catch you out, they're just looking at the way you think and reason. And for my French interview I was asked which French books I had read and what I would look forward to or find difficult about studying abroad. I was really nervous for that one and made quite a few mistakes but they're expecting that and are again looking for interest/potential rather than already having native proficiency.
My experience with the course and Oxford so far has been in a way exactly what I was expecting and in a way completely different from my expectations. One thing I was worried about was how combative the tutorials would be and if I would just get completely drowned out by a much stronger debater/public speaker but that hasn't been the case at all. Everyone gets a chance to speak and tutorials (in my college at least) are usually in groups of 3 or 4 so it's not like you're being constantly pitted against one person and forced to debate. One thing I've been disappointed with here though is the lectures. They aren't overly relevant to the course content and because every college teaches things in a different order, they will rarely correspond to the work/reading you are doing at that time. But some people absolutely swear by them so I guess it's just a matter of opinion.
I, and a lot of other students here, also initially found it quite difficult to adapt to having gone from always being top of my class and receiving praise and academic validation from teachers to just being average and routinely encountering people who are much smarter than I am. It's rare that you will receive a "well done" or a "good job" from Oxford tutors, which, if you're someone who thrives on academic validation like I am, can be quite difficult at first but you learn to motivate yourself and to not take things tutors say to heart too much and to take on/accept the criticism without letting it affect you too much.
And like I said in my original comment, there hasn't been a lot of French in my course so far and I've only just started receiving French law assignments. The language is quite a step up from A level though, especially when you start looking at judgements, so it's important to keep practicing your French even though it's easy to put it on the back burner with all the law assignments.
Good luck with your Oxford application!
Original post by Username123ab
Hi
The application process wasn't too bad, things I included on my personal statement were law looks I'd read off Oxford's reading list, French novels I'd read for fun (my favourite book is L'Etranger which I mentioned because it has legal themes), a French translation competition I'd entered, my EPQ on immigration law, and an Open University online course I'd done on EU Law (those are great because they only take a few hours and you can massively big them up on your personal statement). You'll also have to sit the LNAT before the October application deadline. My grades were 999999998 for GCSEs, A*A*A (French, maths and history) for A levels and I got 27 on the LNAT.
The interviews were a lot less scary than I imagined they would be, you'll probably have two twenty minute law interviews and a ten minute French interview. For the law interviews they gave me a contract law case to read before one of them then asked me questions about it; the questions weren't ones that required any specific legal knowledge to answer, for example one of them was about what type of things you'd take into consideration when judging the case (e.g. that the civil law isn't intended to punish the defendant and the damages shouldn't be out of proportion to the breach). For the other law interview they asked me questions such as what I like to read for fun/how my favourite book has impacted me and what my most controversial view is. I felt kind of unprepared for those type of questions but they're not looking to catch you out, they're just looking at the way you think and reason. And for my French interview I was asked which French books I had read and what I would look forward to or find difficult about studying abroad. I was really nervous for that one and made quite a few mistakes but they're expecting that and are again looking for interest/potential rather than already having native proficiency.
My experience with the course and Oxford so far has been in a way exactly what I was expecting and in a way completely different from my expectations. One thing I was worried about was how combative the tutorials would be and if I would just get completely drowned out by a much stronger debater/public speaker but that hasn't been the case at all. Everyone gets a chance to speak and tutorials (in my college at least) are usually in groups of 3 or 4 so it's not like you're being constantly pitted against one person and forced to debate. One thing I've been disappointed with here though is the lectures. They aren't overly relevant to the course content and because every college teaches things in a different order, they will rarely correspond to the work/reading you are doing at that time. But some people absolutely swear by them so I guess it's just a matter of opinion.
I, and a lot of other students here, also initially found it quite difficult to adapt to having gone from always being top of my class and receiving praise and academic validation from teachers to just being average and routinely encountering people who are much smarter than I am. It's rare that you will receive a "well done" or a "good job" from Oxford tutors, which, if you're someone who thrives on academic validation like I am, can be quite difficult at first but you learn to motivate yourself and to not take things tutors say to heart too much and to take on/accept the criticism without letting it affect you too much.
And like I said in my original comment, there hasn't been a lot of French in my course so far and I've only just started receiving French law assignments. The language is quite a step up from A level though, especially when you start looking at judgements, so it's important to keep practicing your French even though it's easy to put it on the back burner with all the law assignments.
Good luck with your Oxford application!
The application process wasn't too bad, things I included on my personal statement were law looks I'd read off Oxford's reading list, French novels I'd read for fun (my favourite book is L'Etranger which I mentioned because it has legal themes), a French translation competition I'd entered, my EPQ on immigration law, and an Open University online course I'd done on EU Law (those are great because they only take a few hours and you can massively big them up on your personal statement). You'll also have to sit the LNAT before the October application deadline. My grades were 999999998 for GCSEs, A*A*A (French, maths and history) for A levels and I got 27 on the LNAT.
The interviews were a lot less scary than I imagined they would be, you'll probably have two twenty minute law interviews and a ten minute French interview. For the law interviews they gave me a contract law case to read before one of them then asked me questions about it; the questions weren't ones that required any specific legal knowledge to answer, for example one of them was about what type of things you'd take into consideration when judging the case (e.g. that the civil law isn't intended to punish the defendant and the damages shouldn't be out of proportion to the breach). For the other law interview they asked me questions such as what I like to read for fun/how my favourite book has impacted me and what my most controversial view is. I felt kind of unprepared for those type of questions but they're not looking to catch you out, they're just looking at the way you think and reason. And for my French interview I was asked which French books I had read and what I would look forward to or find difficult about studying abroad. I was really nervous for that one and made quite a few mistakes but they're expecting that and are again looking for interest/potential rather than already having native proficiency.
My experience with the course and Oxford so far has been in a way exactly what I was expecting and in a way completely different from my expectations. One thing I was worried about was how combative the tutorials would be and if I would just get completely drowned out by a much stronger debater/public speaker but that hasn't been the case at all. Everyone gets a chance to speak and tutorials (in my college at least) are usually in groups of 3 or 4 so it's not like you're being constantly pitted against one person and forced to debate. One thing I've been disappointed with here though is the lectures. They aren't overly relevant to the course content and because every college teaches things in a different order, they will rarely correspond to the work/reading you are doing at that time. But some people absolutely swear by them so I guess it's just a matter of opinion.
I, and a lot of other students here, also initially found it quite difficult to adapt to having gone from always being top of my class and receiving praise and academic validation from teachers to just being average and routinely encountering people who are much smarter than I am. It's rare that you will receive a "well done" or a "good job" from Oxford tutors, which, if you're someone who thrives on academic validation like I am, can be quite difficult at first but you learn to motivate yourself and to not take things tutors say to heart too much and to take on/accept the criticism without letting it affect you too much.
And like I said in my original comment, there hasn't been a lot of French in my course so far and I've only just started receiving French law assignments. The language is quite a step up from A level though, especially when you start looking at judgements, so it's important to keep practicing your French even though it's easy to put it on the back burner with all the law assignments.
Good luck with your Oxford application!
thank you for this detailed response, since the thread wasn't that new I honestly wasn't expecting it. your GCSE grades are super impressive + I do need to get on that reading list LOL, and also pick up some french books. I'm going to start one or two MOOCs asap - thanks for the shout on EU law since I was just going to do a wales one. also: french translation competitons? had no idea they existed. I'm also doing an EPQ on landmark cases and obscenity law
I'm now a bit worried about my french level , but the mindset is how hard can it be? I guess, I just have to keep working on it.
feels so crazy to me that I'm now the next round of university applications...
I take economics, french, history, english lit + EPQ btw. hoping that economics will help me a lot with logical thinking
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