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

Hi, everyone.

I am too thinking of applying for PPE and have done Maths, Economics, Philosophy and Combined English up to AS level and managed to achieve 3As and a B, respectively. I'm having the latter remarked because I do not believe my responses in the exams were of the level they marked it (2Cs). If it is then brought up to an A, I will pursue it to A2 along with the other subjects. But in the event that my grades are not changed, I will ditch it for an AS in Further Maths in its place. Do you think that might be an appropriate enough course of action?

My GCSE grades, by the way, are 3A*'s, 5As and 2Cs and a pass in GNVQ ICT - I went to a really shoddy comprehensive which may be soon shut down.

Reply 2101

JohnKennedy

10

I would say focus on your three A-levels, that's all oxford wants, get high unit scores, although a bit of further maths never hurts...

Reply 2102

~Ollie~

8

JohnKennedy

I would say focus on your three A-levels, that's all oxford wants, get high unit scores, although a bit of further maths never hurts...

I think I would probably agree with this - further maths is certainly useful and may give a slight edge in interviews etc and English doesn't add all that much for PPE.
However, doing 4 A-levels does theoretically take some of the stress out of meeting a 3A offer (though adds a lot of stress if there is a 4 grade offer)

Reply 2103

oceansize

hi lizzy,

i applied for ppe from germany and i know that it is weird suddenly having to write a personal statement, german universities don't require them either.

but: if you want a topic to write about in your ps, other than why you're interested in ppe and what you think you could make of the degree, it should be something you're verrrrry interested in, maybe things you've seen or experienced while travelling or just recent events you found particularly interesting and read a lot about in the news, an issue that got you interested in ppe in the first place (globalisation? development? the "war on terror"? the credit crunch? the oil prices? climate change?) or maybe even something like your long-term plans or ideas or dreams.

why don't you want to write about africa? i think there are many "ppe-related" questions or topics you could relate to africa (as to any other continent i suppose). have you read a few personal statements that were posted here? that helped me last year to get into "the flow" of it all.

xx

Reply 2104

autohmail

Thanks a lot for that, JohnKennedy and Ollie. Though I remember reading on the Oxford Philosophy department's site that there might also be an advantage in doing an English A Level, as it teaches you to read more critically, a capacity desired by them. And as for high unit scores, my Economics' 244. Not too bad?

Reply 2105

~Ollie~

8

autohmail

Thanks a lot for that, JohnKennedy and Ollie. Though I remember reading on the Oxford Philosophy department's site that there might also be an advantage in doing an English A Level, as it teaches you to read more critically, a capacity desired by them. And as for high unit scores, my Economics' 244. Not too bad?

However philosophy to some extent demonstrates that, I would think the advantage provided by English is fairly minimal.
244 is a scrape A (240 is boundary) but doesn't matter too much as they know grades not numbers

Reply 2106

JohnKennedy

10

Although with 244, i would think about re-taking some units in June or January given that if you get an offer you want to be sure to make it!

Reply 2107

_Lizzy

@oceansize

hey..thank you so much for your answer! Well..the reason i wanted to write about a topic is that i thought everybody does so..
it's not that i want to write it like an essay, but more mention some things about it and show why it interests me..
but how did you mention the books you've read? or how should i write the ps if not mentioning current affairs?

thank youuuu

Reply 2108

JohnKennedy

10

does anyone have any thoughts about whether H&E is more or less competitive than PPE or E&M?

Reply 2109

autohmail

Again, many thanks, JohnKennedy and Ollie. The idea of discontinuing English is very appealing to me; I just wanted a bit more assurance. A2 Economics appears to be more essay-orientated which I am probably more stronger at, so it is better to try to kill those exams as best as I can. Maybe I might retake it if I get an offer.

I have no thoughts on H&E, John. I am deeply sorry as I feel I should repay you for your sage advice.

Reply 2110

JohnKennedy

10

no worries autohmail, have you decided which college you're going to apply for yet?

Reply 2111

autohmail

Erm, Worcester is a cert, I've heard wonderful things about the place. My second choice? Probably New or St Johns or even Balliol - it is true that you have an equal chance when you apply for any college? All the same, I am not sure if I am actually going to go for Oxford; depends whether I can round up support from my sixth form.

Reply 2112

JohnKennedy

10

ît's pretty much true that it does not really make a difference since the university will pool you to a less subscribed college if they think you're a good candidate.

Yeah i'm thinking Balliol as well or possibly Brasenose, so many nice places though...

Reply 2113

Darkest Knight

12

cor

I advise very strongly that you do mathematics. The economics course now has compulsory mathematical components - in both first and second year. The second year course actually has a core paper entitled 'quantitative methods'.

In the end - it isn't needed explicitly. But in the end they will see many candidates who are capable - and you need to convince politics, philosophy and economics tutors. If I were an economics tutor I would not fight the corner or someone who did not do maths A-level.

I did economics a-level (aswell as maths) and did not find it massively useful after the first few weeks. It is useful as you understand core concepts quicker and basic models. However, first year micro is very different to micro at a-level - you use basically an entirely different method (except for the monopoly/perfect competition bits). The macro is again useful for some core concepts but it is very different at university. Economics a-level will maybe take 3hours a week off your required reading. In the end, economics a-level is extremely easy compared to undergrad economics so doesn't give very good preparation.

Thanks for the reply. Could you tell me how useful you found Maths AS for the Economics part of PPE? I'm confident I can learn the basic economic concepts myself without doing Economics for AS, but it is something I would fine interesting.. Of course, if the Maths in AS is actualy useful for PPE then I'd certainly do that instead!

Reply 2114

RawJoh1

14

Darkest Knight

Thanks for the reply. Could you tell me how useful you found Maths AS for the Economics part of PPE? I'm confident I can learn the basic economic concepts myself without doing Economics for AS, but it is something I would fine interesting.. Of course, if the Maths in AS is actualy useful for PPE then I'd certainly do that instead!

A-level maths is far more useful than A-level economics.

Reply 2115

Onizuka

Is the reading list on the first page still useful? I notice that it hasn't been updated since 2006.

I'd be grateful if anyone currently reading PPE at Oxford could comment on this.

Thanks!

Reply 2116

Teebs

16

Onizuka

Is the reading list on the first page still useful? I notice that it hasn't been updated since 2006.

I'd be grateful if anyone currently reading PPE at Oxford could comment on this.

Thanks!

Looks accurate enough to me.

Reply 2117

oceansize

hi lizzy,

to be honest, i didn't even mention any books, i deleted the paragraph about the books i'd read because the whole thing was much too long in the end. but that is not to say that you shouldn't mention some books - it is hard though to tell you "how" to mention them, maybe you can describe what you take from a certain book or how it influenced you or what you think of some of the main ideas or concepts - i just remember, when i was 15 or something, i read joseph stiglitz's "globalization and its discontents", and that definitely got me burning to find out more about globalisation, development, the imf's and the worldbank's policies and strategies etc., and also about more abstract questions like "global justice".

i think i just sat down one day for an hour, after feeling uncomfortable about the whole ps-issue for some weeks, and wrote down all the bull******* about me, ppe, my travels, thoughts, ideas, books, achievements, motivation, plans, dreams that came to my mind - and i realised that it wasn't even that clear to me, apart from a deep-inside feeling, why i actually want to study ppe. a little later, i then re-read all the stuff i'd written, got annoyed, but tried to figure out what i was trying to say, to analyse what my underlying motivation seems to be, etc.

some time in between, i had a very short ps - it was just "i am terribly, terribly interested in p, p, e". i found it really hard to understand myself and my interest and find out where my interest stems from, but that is really something you just need to search inside yourself for :rolleyes:

.

but anyway, i had travelled a bit and had done one of those exchange summer programmes, what i saw and experienced there also gave me quite a lot to write about. but then again, i feel i'm not the best person to advise you on how to write your ps, i assume all the english students around know quite a bit more about what you're expected to say. :o:

so, i guess, just let it flow? :biggrin:

xx

Reply 2118

tb1990

i was wondering if anyone could tell me what the 3 essay questions on the TSA test were this year?

Reply 2119

Virginia

tb1990

i was wondering if anyone could tell me what the 3 essay questions on the TSA test were this year?

Hi, I'm applying for PPE 2009 entry (St. John's) and I also had trouble finding the essay questions at first but the official site as put them up now.

Here's the link: http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsaoxford/Test+Preparation
It's Section 2 - Writing Task

Hope that's what you are looking for! Btw, what college are you thinking of applying to (assuming you are applying for PPE of course!)

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

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