Oxbridge Physics personal statement books advice

If I was writing my personal statement, what books would I want to avoid writing about as they are overused and popular. And which may make me stand out from the crowd and still be very good books. My favourite interests lie in quantum and particle physics.

This is a hard one to answer. For me, I when I wrotey PS, I also had an interest in particle physics, and what I did is went and looked at some extracts that were in more uni level textbooks and some more explanatory looking papers. I think the thing is with the reading is to not be bogged down by how much you read, and focus in on trying to get the most out of what you read. It is much better to read one more popular book, that gives you a lot to talk about what you've learned and how that interests you, than dozens of books for the sake of having dozens of books on your PS.
Hopefully this helps, and if not hopefully someone else can come along and give you a definitive list

If I was writing my personal statement, what books would I want to avoid writing about as they are overused and popular. And which may make me stand out from the crowd and still be very good books. My favourite interests lie in quantum and particle physics.

My daughter applied for physics at oxford and got as far as the interview. She took too long on a maths question and needed prompting, but her PS did get her to interview though. She ended up doing particle physics and cosmology at Lancaster uni pathway, did internships in neutrino and proton decay, and now at Manchester doing a phd at NEXT experiment in Spain.
Her podcast was pbs spacetime, and professor poveys perplexing problems was one of the books. There was another book on super symmetry I cant remember the name. But it was 2 books and a podcast. Dont overload on a complete list of books in the PS, choose a couple and write what you got out of them.
Do one quantum and one particle. That way you have your bases covered. Wishing you all the very best 🙂

If I was writing my personal statement, what books would I want to avoid writing about as they are overused and popular. And which may make me stand out from the crowd and still be very good books. My favourite interests lie in quantum and particle physics.

You don’t need to mention any niche books for physics - it’s a mathematical course, there are no “overused” books imo. One of my friends has an offer to study physics and the only book they mentioned was Feynman’s lecture series. Reading wasn’t something they were super keen on, which is completely reasonable for someone who had very mathematical interests and aptitude. This might be different for the Natural Sciences course at Cambridge (as Cambridge doesn’t offer a physics-only undergrad course).
Summary - read whatever interests you. Popular books are probably popular because they are good.

Thanks for the advice. If you don't mind me asking, what other supercurriculars did write about on his personal statement. Any competitions,videos, awards etc..?

If I was writing my personal statement, what books would I want to avoid writing about as they are overused and popular. And which may make me stand out from the crowd and still be very good books. My favourite interests lie in quantum and particle physics.

If I was writing my personal statement, what books would I want to avoid writing about as they are overused and popular. And which may make me stand out from the crowd and still be very good books. My favourite interests lie in quantum and particle physics.

a bit late but just wanted to add in case it's helpful, i have an oxford physics offer and i only mentioned 2 'books' in my ps (one was a textbook - the language of physics by cullerne and machacek - and one was a lecture from the feynman lectures on physics).
if you're interested in quantum i would definitely try going for the isaac physics spc camp held in the summer because they run through 'a cambridge quantum mechanics primer' which is basically a proper introduction to university level qm and you get to be taught by really cool people (machacek gave us some lectures when i went which was awesome!!). i also think there are essay competitions to win a trip to cern in the case of particle physics but i'm not sure of the deadlines on those. i think comps and awards like these probably mean more than books in a ps, but personally i didn't really think about writing the ps until the summer of y12 so just do what you're interested in now and by then you'll be more worried about trying to fit all the cool things you've done into the character count!
overall oxford probably cares the least about your ps compared to the vast majority of unis for physics: the pat and the interview are far more important (to the level where i don't even know if they bothered to read my ps) so i wouldn't be too worried about books specifically for it. hope this was helpful and please feel free to ask anything!!

This is very helpful thanks and not too late at all. I'm still in year 12 and I'm trying to start getting a few quality supercurriculars under my belt to further my understanding and enjoyment for the subject. Everyone recommends Feynman's lectures so I might have to give reading them a go. Would you say they are hard to grasp or made quite accessible for a year 12 student? I'll definitely looking in that Isaac physics spc camp, and the essay competitions too, it all sounds very interesting. Out of interest, what A levels did you do? Thanks again!

i would say the feynman lectures are a really useful supplement to a level physics at this stage - they were written for freshman and sophomore physicsts at caltech if thats a better indication of the level of difficulty. i think its one of those things where everyone can definitely have a go and read through it, but that's different from actually understanding the concepts (especially in year 12 - i'm planning on pouring over them again in the summer and using them to help me at uni). i would say if there's a topic you're particularly interested in then find the relevant lecture for sure, but don't force yourself especially if you aren't planning on reinforcing it by doing problems and stuff. (for my ps i mentioned specifically looking at the lectures on the theory of special relativity cause it was the basis of my epq). i think the main thing in any case is just to get really good at a level physics: if the feyman lectures help with that then go for it, but i personally found isaacphysics, step, mat, and foundational physics textbooks to be better suited to my skill level in year 12.
i'm doing physics, chem, maths, further maths, and an epq! no worries!!