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

how would they know?

how would they know?

Good point.
Can you get predicted A*s this time 'round? I reckon I could get one for Maths. It'd help the application grade-wise.

When I went to the Warwick open day, I talked to the head of PPE admissions, and he said it won't make much, if any, difference. This is largely because some private school will just predict an A* if they think their students might get an A, so people will be predicted 4 A*s even if there's no chance of them getting it. Also, teachers have no idea who will or won't get an A* as they haven't had any yet, so it isn't of any value yet.

Saying that, if you can back ian A* prediction up with great As results, I'd have thought tutors would be impressed

Like I said, I'm predicted an A and have actually been achieving it pretty much all year. I just think there's more chance of me not getting my predication due to examiner's discretion in History rather than say Maths or Physics.

The problem is is that my school won't cash the AS grades in, and so the only grades I have achieved that Oxford will know of is my poor-ish GCSEs, which I don't think represent me as an applicant all that well :/

I don't really know, but I presume if you have done well in your modules you could talk to the person writing your reference and ask them to mention it.

Also, I'm not sure how much they notice GCSE's. When I was talking to the tutor for PPE at Brasenose at an Oxford access day he said to someone from a normal school who felt that his GCSE's weren't as good as they could be that it's not a deciding factor. He thought that as long as you were heavily backed by your school, were predicted good A levels and did well in the PPE pre-admission test you had just as good a chance as anyone.

So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you

I think I spoke to the same tutor, the guy from Brasenose, our Oxford access day was in Cardiff.

This isn't very relevant but I just rememebered at its kinda funny.
I went to speak to this tutor afterwards, I had to wait behind this Chinese girl, she was asking him whether English not being her first language was an issue.

He was obviously trying to show her that as long as you are talented etc it doesn't matter where you are from etc. He goes, "Well its all about whether you can think analytically, for instance awnser the question... is toothpaste a medicine?"
"Urrr, sorryy, what is this... toothpaste??"
"You know toothpaste" *gisticulates toward mouth*
"Lips... what?"
"Toothpassteee! Clean mouth with!"
"I...."
"Oh never mind...."

nobody cares about the extra-curriculars, if you have three other a-levels it'll be fine

there were about 50 questions about whether maths was necessary, and he kept saying the same thing over and over;

Apart from Cambridge what other universities offer the natural science course, and which ones would you have gone to if you didnt secure your place at cambridge. Imperial, UCL, Bath, Durham. Am I right in saying that the order of overall best and lushness goes:
Cambridge
Imperial
UCL
Durham
Bath
Right?

Apart from Cambridge what other universities offer the natural science course, and which ones would you have gone to if you didnt secure your place at cambridge. Imperial, UCL, Bath, Durham. Am I right in saying that the order of overall best and lushness goes:
Cambridge
Imperial
UCL
Durham
Bath
Right?

Which was...?

And Brasenose is far superior to Balliol as a college

I wanted to specialise in Physics eventually, and I think that only the cambridge course is of a high enough standard to be able to do that, mostly because you pretty much fit the 1st year of three different subjects into the first year of NatSci. Also since Cambridge doesn't offer standalone science degrees, when you specialise you don't miss anything from that subject. Imperial etc offers physics on its own, so surely the Physics students do more physics than the Imperial NatScis who do Physics?

Maybe I'm wrong, but thats what I thought when I applied.

I'd assume that most people applying to do Natural Sciences at Cambridge apply for specific subjects at other universities. In all the cases (except one) where I know what people applied for, that's what happened (the exception applied everywhere for physics but also to Birmingham for something to do with physics and biology). There were fewer Natsci courses then but I'm fairly sure it would still be true now.