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

I wouldn't replace english lit with philosophy.



Just do whatever you enjoy most out of French and English.

Thank you so much! Did you take English Lit. or French by any chance?

Teaching in Cambridge now, after nine years teaching in Oxford, a much higher proportion of my students ... have studied social science A-Levels like Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Economics or – at a pinch – Philosophy, rather than older-fashioned subjects like History, Maths, German or Physics.... And they have a lot more bad writing and thinking habits than I’m used to, which are hard to dislodge .... and I get a lot more, “but this is how we were told to do things in school” remarks from my students, as they try to stay inside their intellectual comfort-zone — and I have to tell them that they aren’t at school any more.

Hi

I'm in Year 11 at the moment and these are the A Level subjects that I've chosen:

Maths, Further Maths, Politics, Economics and English Lit.

Basically, some of my friends have started to make me feel a bit apprehensive about taking English Lit. and so I'm considering replacing it with either French or Philosophy.

However, would taking Philosophy, Politics and Economics be a disadvantage in any way? Also, I'd probably end up dropping Philosophy, which I'm guessing would look a bit odd...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. History's not an option unfortunately.

I have heard (sorry just the usual TSR anecdotal evidence) that Philosphy A-level isn't liked by universities as it is too dogmatic and poor preperation for a degree involving it. I found English Lit to be fun and great practice for the writing about abstract thoughts -as will probably be needed in philosophy.

Oxford don't say any of the PPE compenents ,even economics, are compulsory at A-level so don't worry. They don't expect you to have studied any of them formally. Although you'll need some knowledge of them for the interview. Your choice looks good to me.

No sorry! Did maths, further maths, history, latin and economics (and dropped history).

perhaps you should replace politics with french/english?

There's only one answer to any of these types of questions - "Do what the hell you like".

Seriously, you've got maths. That's all you need. If you prefer to do philosophy then go for it. Ignore anything about which is more respected, you've got two tough maths A levels in there, which shows you can do a 'traditional' subject. And you have an exam to show you can actually string a sentence together.

I did Maths, Biology, Politics and Chemistry (only AS). It's hardly typical.

A fun anecdote from my year so far - at the Fresher's subject formal with my tutors, my philosophy tutor was sat with about 4 of us from my college and asked us all in turn what we did at A level again. He commented on how unusual my A level combination was. So my tutors anyway didn't care at all what I did it seems. He told me that the main criteria for his choosing us was the essay part of the TSA and the interviews.

So yeah, ignore all the rubbish elsewhere and just do what you want to do.

I'm also in year 11 and want to study PPE at Oxford. I've chosen maths, physics, chemistry, geography and history. How does that sound? Might chnage physics to biology.

I'm also in year 11 and want to study PPE at Oxford. I've chosen maths, physics, chemistry, geography and history. How does that sound? Might chnage physics to biology.

Oh my god, I've been trawling through this thread again, and I was reading some posts from 2009 and came across one made by a Year 11 to which I sort of sighed a little as it was another rather samey worry about A-level subjects... and then realised that it was a post by ME in Year 11!

Haha well I'm in the Lower Sixth now and as far as I am conscious plan to make a PPE application later this year.

My question now is basically how concerned I should be at myself? Other people appear to have read swathes whilst I've found myself with enough to pore over which constitutes far less than analysing The Republic for over 75 hours! (will admit slow but sure hyperventilation upon reading how someone'd done that...)
I know one must demonstrate a breadth of knowledge and capacity to argue intelligently, but the thing is, and I don't know if this sounds weird, but I'm petrified that my enthusiasm wouldn't translate into succinct articulation in an interview. By which I kind of mean, I can probably read books and papers for hours, but when someone asks me to discuss something, I'd be utterly lost for words. Clearly, I should debate more, but it would seem a lot of PPEeps are the equivalent of debating champs? (which I'm not really )
Also heads up to pinkpenguin who kindly replied to my post last year and who due to my more thorough contextual reading of the thread I understand to be currently in her first year at Ox.? How is it?

when I was at your stage I hadn't done much Reading, dw you have summer for that- the best thing you can do now is get good AS grades!

Debating is important - my philosophy interview and politics one consisted of the tutors either disagreeing with me or telling me to counter my own argument!!!! I'd say practise, join a team, debate with teachers, parents, or just think about arguments when you read something- be analytical! But if you really find it hard to debate- especially in phil/pol the tutors will see, and may not look too favourably on you. Hope this helps!

Ps I was interviewed for ppe in December, I didn't get in, but in retrospect I can see where my interview was supposed to go, I was just nervvous! Anyway good luck

But remember the interview isn't like a debate, but more of a disussion. I do quite a lot of (competitive) debating and it's all about being intellectually aggressive, crushing the others' arguments (or at least making the judges think that you've crushed them). Whereas my interviews were more explorations into a topic, where views would be suggested (by both me+the tutors) and discussed - intellectual honesty being key (so if you see points for and against an idea, you should say, explain your thought processes) - not the case in debating.

But do start debating if you don't already - it's great fun and has made me more confident and articulate (I think).

Hello all, I was looking for some advice on options for second and third year. I'm set on continuing Economics and Politics but I don't quite work out how it all works. I gather we take eight modules in total, including core modules, which leaves four options. So does that mean that out of all of the oodles of interesting modules we can only pick four of them?

Also, I'm really torn with core politics modules; I really want to try and specialise in international relations and the politics of Latin America, so obviously international relations is a must. But I also really enjoyed political theory and would quite like to do comp gov, while I gather that political sociology would be useful for something like politics of Latin America. So all in all, any advice? - are any of these modules particularly interesting / boring and do I have the way the choices work right?

I know one must demonstrate a breadth of knowledge and capacity to argue intelligently, but the thing is, and I don't know if this sounds weird, but I'm petrified that my enthusiasm wouldn't translate into succinct articulation in an interview. By which I kind of mean, I can probably read books and papers for hours, but when someone asks me to discuss something, I'd be utterly lost for words. Clearly, I should debate more, but it would seem a lot of PPEeps are the equivalent of debating champs? (which I'm not really )

I was accepted for PPE this year at Hertford College so can just give you info about how my itnerviews went. I didn't read the Republic pre-interview - read Machiavelli's The Prince instead, which gave me a few lines of argument that I used to back up my statements in the PolPhil part of the interview. I also read some basic philosophy goods (never finished any but got about a thrid of the way through one on political philosophy. I'd recommend Glover's Causing Deaths and Saving Lives for ethical philosophy - they asked me about that in the interview (it was on my PS). I'd done very little debating before my interview, but had competed in the Rotary Youth Speak competition which was a great help. As many have already said, you are not debating competitively with the tutors, they only want to see that you have read around your subject, and that you have been able to piece together information to be able to back up your viewpoints effectively. In my interview we discussed utilitarianism and I did a complete u-turn on some of my points.I must stress that this ok as the tutors want you to be able to change your views as you gather more information.

For the economics interview Imust stress how important maths is. It is also a good idea (if you don't study econ) to browse through an A-level text book as I was tested no game theory in my interview. Current affairs are also important, the recession came up in my interview, for which I was not well prepared.

Hope this has helped.

Why was maths important in your econ interview, oh and they expect people to know about the game theory at interview? Oh no..

Why was maths important in your econ interview, oh and they expect people to know about the game theory at interview? Oh no..