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Oxford PPE

I'm interested in applying for Oxford's PPE course and I'm in year 11 now and I'm struggling to find any work experience and supercurriculars currently. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Reply 1
Original post by Anonymous
I'm interested in applying for Oxford's PPE course and I'm in year 11 now and I'm struggling to find any work experience and supercurriculars currently. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've gotten an offer to study PPE this year.

You don't need to have any particular work experience/ extra curriculars. Main things are to have solid GCSEs + predicted grades, to ace the TSA, and perform well at interview.

My personal statement was mainly focused on politics and economics, since those are the two topics I've traditionally been most interested in. What it is definitely worth doing is reading around the topics, which I'd hope you'd be wanting to do anyways! :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by Slider64
I've gotten an offer to study PPE this year.
You don't need to have any particular work experience/ extra curriculars. Main things are to have solid GCSEs + predicted grades, to ace the TSA, and perform well at interview.
My personal statement was mainly focused on politics and economics, since those are the two topics I've traditionally been most interested in. What it is definitely worth doing is reading around the topics, which I'd hope you'd be wanting to do anyways! :smile:


For GCSES what type of grades did you get because I’m predicted a 6 for one of my subjects so I’m unsure if I will be let in, thank you
Reply 3
Original post by Anonymous
For GCSES what type of grades did you get because I’m predicted a 6 for one of my subjects so I’m unsure if I will be let in, thank you

I did mine in a covid year and got all 9s. Definitely helps to have high GCSEs, but if you have strong predicted grades and do well on the entrance test you can still be in with a shot!
Original post by Slider64
I've gotten an offer to study PPE this year.
You don't need to have any particular work experience/ extra curriculars. Main things are to have solid GCSEs + predicted grades, to ace the TSA, and perform well at interview.
My personal statement was mainly focused on politics and economics, since those are the two topics I've traditionally been most interested in. What it is definitely worth doing is reading around the topics, which I'd hope you'd be wanting to do anyways! :smile:

Hi I’m in year 12 and want to apply for PPE for Oxford as well. I’m really struggling with personal statement and supercurriculars. Whilst I read a lot and listen to a lot of podcasts / audiobooks, I’m struggling to make my own opinion about things, which is what they specify they want. Do you have any suggestions? Or any other help? Thanks so much!!
Reply 5
Original post by Anonymous
Hi I’m in year 12 and want to apply for PPE for Oxford as well. I’m really struggling with personal statement and supercurriculars. Whilst I read a lot and listen to a lot of podcasts / audiobooks, I’m struggling to make my own opinion about things, which is what they specify they want. Do you have any suggestions? Or any other help? Thanks so much!!

That's good you're reading/ listening to a lot in the field! For forming your own opinions I'd definitely suggest just talking about stuff you read about with friends/ family and getting used to distilling down what the main ideas are.

Oxford says very clearly the personal statement isn't what they are focused on. If anything you want to be writing it with your 2nd best uni in mind. Far more important is the TSA (I suggest starting in summer, and doing all the past papers along with anything else online you can get your hands on).

Assuming you get an interview from that then some interview prep is important, but ultimately they are super tough to really be prepared for since the whole idea is to get you out your comfort zone. I know I felt I'd completely ruined my chances after my first (I had two) and the 24 hours before the 2nd I felt so down. But ultimately all worked out in the end :smile:
Original post by Anonymous
I'm interested in applying for Oxford's PPE course and I'm in year 11 now and I'm struggling to find any work experience and supercurriculars currently. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi, My son is studying PPE at Oxford. He didn't have any work experience but got involved in school clubs, school prefect duties etc. He read relevant publications to keep up to date with current affairs and read well beyond A level curriculum in the relevant subjects. Practicing logic and reasoning skills for interview also helped.
Original post by Slider64
I've gotten an offer to study PPE this year.
You don't need to have any particular work experience/ extra curriculars. Main things are to have solid GCSEs + predicted grades, to ace the TSA, and perform well at interview.
My personal statement was mainly focused on politics and economics, since those are the two topics I've traditionally been most interested in. What it is definitely worth doing is reading around the topics, which I'd hope you'd be wanting to do anyways! :smile:

Do you have a copy of your personal statement?

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