Oxford PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) Students and Applicants

Plenty of Oxford PPEists don't have maths. I don't have maths, for example.

How are you finding it without Maths?

First year Econ was hard (I'm entering 3rd year now). Rest is fine without maths.

I'm in a similar situation to you. You should have a look at this: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/

Plenty of Oxford PPEists don't have maths. I don't have maths, for example.

Sorry for all the questions, but did you do Economics for AS/A2?

And, did you carry on all three subjects after first year? If not could you tell me which you dropped? I always imagined myself dropping Economics (if I got in) at the first chance available, but I read that Philosophy (especially logic) is quite difficult, whereas you can carry on Economics and get away without Maths, if you choose the courses.

Thanks very much!

For A-levels, I did:

Economics
Philosophy
Govt & Politics
History

Econ A-level is useless for degree level econ. Logic can be hard, but you don't have to do any difficult logic for Finals if you don't want to. I dropped Econ after my fist year.

For A-levels, I did:

Economics
Philosophy
Govt & Politics
History

Econ A-level is useless for degree level econ. Logic can be hard, but you don't have to do any difficult logic for Finals if you don't want to. I dropped Econ after my fist year.

I'm doing exactly the same but swapping Economics for Maths A level

Hopefuly it will be more useful

Grant

From what I've heard, for the first year, Economics itself would actually be more useful. And from that site I linked to above, the author, who read PPE at Oxford himself, wrote that A Level Maths was useless for PPE, and he actually found Economics useful for the first year. After the first year, he carried on Economics, and in the courses he choose, there was barely any Maths apparently.

But you have to bare in mind that the author of that blog did PPE over 10 years ago; alot has changed since. So I am sorry to say but I would trust current student "rawjohn1", who send economics is useless, while many have said Maths is very useful even AS.

Grant

We recommend that you take those subjects you enjoy the most, and where you are most likely to achieve the best grades.

Okay no problem, but judging from your previous posts your not too keen on Maths, and are only doing it for PPE. Obviously it's a very useful subject to have done, but I just think you'd do better in something you enjoy and are interested in.

I emailed Oxford and here is a quote:

From what I've heard, for the first year, Economics itself would actually be more useful. And from that site I linked to above, the author, who read PPE at Oxford himself, wrote that A Level Maths was useless for PPE, and he actually found Economics useful for the first year. After the first year, he carried on Economics, and in the courses he choose, there was barely any Maths apparently.

I'm not sure about the advice that that link gives.

He says that:
"There is not any significant maths apart from GCSE style maths [in first year PPE]"

That's just false. I was pretty good at GCSE Maths, and I found the maths in first year Econ really hard. I don't know what crazy GCSEs the blog author's been doing, but I never did partial differentiation or Lagrange multipliers when I was doing GCSEs. Either he did some crazy GCSE maths, or first year microeconomics has changed significantly since he did it.

He's right that some routes are more mathematical than others, but having A-level maths when it comes to first year Econ is a definite advantage.

EDIT: I agree with Darkest Knight that it's what you enjoy that counts. Yes, A-level maths would have been more helpful to me than A-level Economics. But I would have hated maths, and hence have no regrets about which A-levels I picked.

Thanks very much. I think I'm in a similar situation to how you were when making AS choices. It's pretty clear that Maths would be more helpful for first year Economics than Economics itself, but it's just making that decision as to whether I should do a subject I know I'd loathe.

Sorry for all the questions, but it's so helpful to speak to someone that's been through what I hope to one day, so could you tell me how you found the help on hand for maths during your first year? Were you pretty much left to learn the maths you didn't know (presumably a lot if you'd only done GCSE) on your own, or was there a lot of help available for everything you didn't know?

Also did you do any preperation the maths, or did you know apart from what you were tought at GCSE when you started at Oxford?

Finally.. is there any Maths that you'd recommend I start learning from now if I don't do AS/A2?

Thanks

I don't mind you asking lots of questions - they're easy to answer and don't take a long time.

Help for maths in first year is pretty good, if you want it to be. The onus is on you to go to the lectures, and work through the exercises etc. I didn't bother with the lectures, and in hindsight that probably made things harder (though given I dropped Econ as soon as I could, it hasn't hurt me in the long run).

So yeah ... it's sort of "on your own" in that regard, but you can always get other students who do have A-level maths to help explain stuff to you. I think if you found the time to work through the maths workbooks that are provided, you'd be fine. Of course, finding time is often easier said than done.

I did no maths preparation - only had my rusty memory of GCSE. As for what I'd recommend - it's hard to find the will to actually do the stuff prior to coming to Oxford, especially if like me you hate maths. But you could maybe take a gander at the lecture handouts and the maths workbook. Unfortunately, they're only available to those inside Oxford, but PM me your email address and I'll send them to you.

Hope that helps

EDIT: Of course, all this assumes that first year teaching hasn't changed significantly. It may have done, for all I know.

EDIT2: That you hate maths is no reason not to apply for PPE - I don't want to put anyone off! I hate maths, but I wouldn't want to be doing any other degree.

Okay no problem, but judging from your previous posts your not too keen on Maths, and are only doing it for PPE. Obviously it's a very useful subject to have done, but I just think you'd do better in something you enjoy and are interested in.

I emailed Oxford and here is a quote:

I have about 18 useful PPE books and textbooks to give free to anyone starting this autumn - they're taking up space and i'm about to emigrate. they include such first year delights as Descartes, Mill on Liberty and Utilitarianism, International Relations since 1945, the Marx Engels Reader etc, as well as some "dictionary of philosophy/politics" type things and some specialist philosophy things like collections of essays on free will. All in good condition.

They are free to anyone who wants them and is willing to collect from East London some time before 25th August.

Email me if you want them, thanks.