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Advice to applying for oxbridge for compsci

Hi, I'm planning on applying for compsci at oxbridge and imperial this year and am studying Further maths, Physics, and Compsci but I have no clue what supercirriculars to do, I've done some stuff like the CS50x but i guess I haven't done anything else particularly interesting? Is there anything I could do or am i totally cooked :frown:
And for admission tests should I prepare by doing past papers or is there other stuff that could help
Please help

Reply 1

Why do you want to apply for computer science? I would recommend pursuing areas you like about it and forming your supercurriculars around that. Remember that oxbridge want you to be more reflective and would rather have fewer supercurriculars that have been thoughtfully analysed than loads chosen impulsively for no apparent reason. For the TMUA, you may want to teach yourself some of the year 2 content in the spec, then do lots of past papers Q's. If you're stuck on a question, don't look up the answer but save it for another day. That way, you'll never run out of them, unless, of course, you solve them all.

Reply 2

Also, I'm just curious as to why you chose CS50x?

Reply 3

Original post
by HitTheZzzzz
Why do you want to apply for computer science? I would recommend pursuing areas you like about it and forming your supercurriculars around that. Remember that oxbridge want you to be more reflective and would rather have fewer supercurriculars that have been thoughtfully analysed than loads chosen impulsively for no apparent reason. For the TMUA, you may want to teach yourself some of the year 2 content in the spec, then do lots of past papers Q's. If you're stuck on a question, don't look up the answer but save it for another day. That way, you'll never run out of them, unless, of course, you solve them all.

I don't have a rlly interesting reason, I just like most aspects of it right now and I want to pursue a job as a software engineer or something in AI. And for the idea of pursuing areas about it I like, would reading books be good? I've only read one but I would say it was pretty impactful

Reply 4

Original post
by HitTheZzzzz
Also, I'm just curious as to why you chose CS50x?

I heard people say it was hard so I wanted to do it and see how challenging it was for myself, it's also pretty heavy on the programming aspect of CS which I definitely like so yea. I don't know how to portray it but I do genuinely love CS otherwise I wouldn't consider applying for such a competitive university but I'm not sure I can compete with people who're so much smarter and have done a lot more yk what i mean?

Reply 5

Original post
by HitTheZzzzz
Why do you want to apply for computer science? I would recommend pursuing areas you like about it and forming your supercurriculars around that. Remember that oxbridge want you to be more reflective and would rather have fewer supercurriculars that have been thoughtfully analysed than loads chosen impulsively for no apparent reason. For the TMUA, you may want to teach yourself some of the year 2 content in the spec, then do lots of past papers Q's. If you're stuck on a question, don't look up the answer but save it for another day. That way, you'll never run out of them, unless, of course, you solve them all.

Oh also I forgot to mention but I do further maths so I've learnt the year 2 spec it's just my logic from now that I need to find a way to improve, I think?

Reply 6

Original post
by briannasa
Hi, I'm planning on applying for compsci at oxbridge and imperial this year and am studying Further maths, Physics, and Compsci but I have no clue what supercirriculars to do, I've done some stuff like the CS50x but i guess I haven't done anything else particularly interesting? Is there anything I could do or am i totally cooked :frown:
And for admission tests should I prepare by doing past papers or is there other stuff that could help
Please help

When my son applied to Cambridge he did not have CS at either GCSE or A level and everything seemed to be centered around Maths during the tests and the interviews. Even his PS was full of examples showing his love of Maths - he had taken part in a few Maths competitions via his school. He had no real examples of any type of coding. Yet he was given an interview, passed the tests and was pooled but not picked up from the pool.

I would say a few examples of coding would help but you need good examples of your Maths abilities also.

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