Do i have a chance of getting in for English at Oxford?

I just started year 13 and need to solidify my uni choices soon - especially if I do want to apply to Oxford, then I will need to make my decision very soon to leave enough time for first wave applications.

I am predicted AAA in English lit, History and Fine Art. I have mocks next week but I highly doubt I will achieve an A*. The entry requirements are AAA, but I know that the majority, if not practically all students hold A*A*A or above. However, I do also know it is not impossible to get into Oxford with AAA, which is why I am posting this question here.

I have attached my personal statement here (if anyone is willing to read it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QopUkp_-SQXuLvl0Q_0DLZja6XYawLZ85JcNRSygPR0/edit

In terms of my capabilities, I achieved the top in my year for History in my mocks at the end of year 12 and whilst I'm not entirely sure if I got the top for English as well, I have received an award for it and I am pretty sure I score above average to top scores in that. I understand that this comparison is definitely not on the scale of the competition to get into Oxford, but hopefully it provides a little insight on the references I may get from my teachers - if they even matter that much.

Of course, I know it is hard to determine who will and who won't get into a university, but I really want to know if I should at least give it a shot.

Any advice and comments would be greatly appreciated!

Reply 1

"'"'"

Take it easy-more than half of the offers from Oxford have A*A*A or below while A*A*A is around the average of the final result. Cheer up and fight for it!

Reply 2

black tea

Posting your PS on a public forum was a very silly thing to do... You are going to have to rewrite it now, it will flag up on the UCAS plagiarism checker.

Reply 3

Stiffy Byng

Original post by Anonymous

I just started year 13 and need to solidify my uni choices soon - especially if I do want to apply to Oxford, then I will need to make my decision very soon to leave enough time for first wave applications.
I am predicted AAA in English lit, History and Fine Art. I have mocks next week but I highly doubt I will achieve an A*. The entry requirements are AAA, but I know that the majority, if not practically all students hold A*A*A or above. However, I do also know it is not impossible to get into Oxford with AAA, which is why I am posting this question here.
I have attached my personal statement here (if anyone is willing to read it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QopUkp_-SQXuLvl0Q_0DLZja6XYawLZ85JcNRSygPR0/edit
In terms of my capabilities, I achieved the top in my year for History in my mocks at the end of year 12 and whilst I'm not entirely sure if I got the top for English as well, I have received an award for it and I am pretty sure I score above average to top scores in that. I understand that this comparison is definitely not on the scale of the competition to get into Oxford, but hopefully it provides a little insight on the references I may get from my teachers - if they even matter that much.
Of course, I know it is hard to determine who will and who won't get into a university, but I really want to know if I should at least give it a shot.
Any advice and comments would be greatly appreciated!

Please don't run yourself down. You are a competitive candidate. I suggest that you read every book you can get your hands on. Remember than much of the canon is available free on Gutenberg. Don't be limited by the A level syllabus. Read as many C18 to C20 novels as you can, as much C16 to C20 poetry as you can, and as much Shakespeare as you can.

Obviously, think carefully about your other four target universities, as nobody can be sure of obtaining an offer from Oxford. Work hard, give yourself time for fun, don't burn out, good luck!

Reply 4

Stiffy Byng

PS: Try Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, and maybe look up JRR Tolkien's essay Beowulf and the Critics (people sometimes forget that Tolkien's main job was being the Merton Professor of English at Oxford, not writing nonsense about hobbits). You should be able to read Chaucer in the original, with a crib, but poems like Piers Plowman and Gawain And The Green Knight are trickier. Tolkien's translation of Gawain is quite good. He never completed his translation of Beowulf (too busy writing nonsense about hobbits). There's a good recent film of Gawain, which captures the magical strangeness of the poem.

Here's The Wanderer in Anglo Saxon and in modern English -

https://www.tloneditions.com/Ezequiel_Vinao_The_Wanderer_translation.html