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

Original post by Brand New Eyes

Hmmm indeed. It's just that you don't really have an essay subject (Economics doesn't really count). That's all I'd say. What's your EPQ on?

yeah thats my issue...its not confirmed yet but i'm thinking maybe the conflict in the middle east? is there maybe a better topic which i could do which could link P, P and E together?

Reply 6225

Original post by candide

I can't see why they would, as long you still enjoy politics econ etc...?

(which I assume as a fellow PPE applicant, you do)

i loves a bit of politics and political philosophy and economics fo sure :smile:

Reply 6226

Original post by ibs007

Hmmm...it would of helped if you took an essay based subject! However, im sure that if you portray your interests in PPE in your personal statement and through books that you WILL (:P) read on the subjects then you should be fine.

Like I said, i dont think there is any MAJOR disadvantage from coming from a strong and deep scientific background! - however, you will HAVE to nail the TSA (but with some practice im sure you will be able to get the hang of it!) and you are taking Critical Thinking after all!

Whats your EPQ on?

My EPQ is going to be on China's Economic Model (Which is heavily influenced by its political ideologies..:P)

hehe i bought lots of books before exams but havent found the time to read them yet oopsie :L the tsa should be alright i think and haha critical thinking is a waste of my life :P had unit 1 exam today, completely made up everything yay! i'm thinking maybe the conflict in the middle east? what do you think? china's economical model sounds fab yay

Reply 6227

Original post by Bantersaurus Rexx

yeah thats my issue...its not confirmed yet but i'm thinking maybe the conflict in the middle east? is there maybe a better topic which i could do which could link P, P and E together?

EPQ is about depth rather than breadth, trying to make things link to all three will inevitably lead to covering too much topics, rather than a specific one in detail. As long as you can write a decent essay and think analytically (which you get from science anyway) then you should be fine.

Reply 6228

WillArmstrong

Hi guys,

Perhaps 'punching above my weight' here, but it is an absolute dream of mine to do PPE at Oxford. I really feel I have a strong political understanding and I will be doing Politics along with Maths, History and Geography at A-Level next year.

I breeze through the Humanities like History & Geography and I have been getting A*'s easily for them, but my grades for the sciences aren't straight A*s. I will probably get out of the 11 1/2 GCSE's I took, I will get 2/3 A*s with the rest A's and probably a few B's. It's banded about on here that Oxbridge see applicants with less than 6+ A*'s at GCSE as worthless, but is it really true? Or maybe am I being a bit crap at being able to accept the inevitable?

Thanks

Reply 6229

Norbertnorbert

Original post by WillArmstrong

Hi guys,

Perhaps 'punching above my weight' here, but it is an absolute dream of mine to do PPE at Oxford. I really feel I have a strong political understanding and I will be doing Politics along with Maths, History and Geography at A-Level next year.

I breeze through the Humanities like History & Geography and I have been getting A*'s easily for them, but my grades for the sciences aren't straight A*s. I will probably get out of the 11 1/2 GCSE's I took, I will get 2/3 A*s with the rest A's and probably a few B's. It's banded about on here that Oxbridge see applicants with less than 6+ A*'s at GCSE as worthless, but is it really true? Or maybe am I being a bit crap at being able to accept the inevitable?

Thanks

2/3 A*'s and mostly A's is absolutely fine and probably only slightly below average. GCSE's are such a small part of the process there's no need to worry at all.

Reply 6230

Original post by WillArmstrong

Hi guys,

Perhaps 'punching above my weight' here, but it is an absolute dream of mine to do PPE at Oxford. I really feel I have a strong political understanding and I will be doing Politics along with Maths, History and Geography at A-Level next year.

I breeze through the Humanities like History & Geography and I have been getting A*'s easily for them, but my grades for the sciences aren't straight A*s. I will probably get out of the 11 1/2 GCSE's I took, I will get 2/3 A*s with the rest A's and probably a few B's. It's banded about on here that Oxbridge see applicants with less than 6+ A*'s at GCSE as worthless, but is it really true? Or maybe am I being a bit crap at being able to accept the inevitable?

Thanks

A level is nothing like GCSEs sorry to break it to you. But GCSEs are too easy and the grade boundaries are too low. Don't worry about getting A*s just do all your exams and choose subjects that you will enjoy doing.

As for so called "grades", your performance in the first term of year 12 should be the key indicator of whether you're "oxbridge material", not how many A*s at GCSE you have.

Also, I'd advise against doing Geography And history and politics which have numerous overlaps (politics is considered weaker) and geog and history are both humanities giving you very limited A Levels. Do philosophy, its easily the hardest A Level and will do more for you than Politics. I hope you mean you have a strong political understanding for someone of your age.

I may be a little harsh here but, it's the truth. Good luck with GCSEs, they seem like the most important thing right now, but one year from now, you will look back and miss the days of GCSE!

Reply 6231

WillArmstrong

Original post by Brand New Eyes

A level is nothing like GCSEs sorry to break it to you. But GCSEs are too easy and the grade boundaries are too low. Don't worry about getting A*s just do all your exams and choose subjects that you will enjoy doing.

As for so called "grades", your performance in the first term of year 12 should be the key indicator of whether you're "oxbridge material", not how many A*s at GCSE you have.

Also, I'd advise against doing Geography And history and politics which have numerous overlaps (politics is considered weaker) and geog and history are both humanities giving you very limited A Levels. Do philosophy, its easily the hardest A Level and will do more for you than Politics. I hope you mean you have a strong political understanding for someone of your age.

I may be a little harsh here but, it's the truth. Good luck with GCSEs, they seem like the most important thing right now, but one year from now, you will look back and miss the days of GCSE!

Really? As in merit for the A-Level or in the eyes of the judge for oxford applications?

Reply 6232

Original post by WillArmstrong

Really? As in merit for the A-Level or in the eyes of the judge for oxford applications?

Put it this way... Politics is viewed as on the same level as Business Studies, Media Studies (yes you heard me) English Language and Film Studies. Not that I have anything against these subjects but that's Oxford.

If you want an easy A/A*, then do politics, my friend tells me geography isn't much of a step up from GCSE either as long as you understand both human + physical.

Would also like to stress how important maths is for the economics side of things! Aim for 90+ UMS, remember that you're not just applying for Oxford! Although this is more if you're focused on an economics based degree. If it were Politics with economics its less of an issue. Economics with politics however, maths A-Level requirement at Warwick, LSE etc. etc. And yes, the order in which degrees are listed matter, with the first being the main, and the latter being like a smaller part yet a significant proportion. Degrees are not evenly split unless it says Economics AND Politics

Reply 6233

SamF1992

@Will Armstrong your those GCSE's are probably below average, but they're certainly not going to prevent you from getting in, stuff such as the TSA is much more important.

Also, on the note of how Politics etc is regarded, obviously I don't have an inside knowledge of the process but they're not going to blacklist you for it, it's certainly not considered with the likes of Media Studies. Most people I met at interview did Politics at A level, it's only natural really that many potential PPE'ists are going to have Politics as an A level, they're not going to penalise you for taking an interest in one of the branches within your academic studies.

Fwiw, my AS levels were Business Studies, Economics, Politics, History. I think the Business Studies was a negative factor in my application (although this was marginalised as I dropped it for A2), but I don't think the Politics was a negative at all, if it was, I doubt I'd have got an offer, especially considering I got AAAB (B in History) at AS level.

Reply 6234

WillArmstrong

Original post by SamF1992

@Will Armstrong your those GCSE's are probably below average, but they're certainly not going to prevent you from getting in, stuff such as the TSA is much more important.

Also, on the note of how Politics etc is regarded, obviously I don't have an inside knowledge of the process but they're not going to blacklist you for it, it's certainly not considered with the likes of Media Studies. Most people I met at interview did Politics at A level, it's only natural really that many potential PPE'ists are going to have Politics as an A level, they're not going to penalise you for taking an interest in one of the branches within your academic studies.

Fwiw, my AS levels were Business Studies, Economics, Politics, History. I think the Business Studies was a negative factor in my application (although this was marginalised as I dropped it for A2), but I don't think the Politics was a negative at all, if it was, I doubt I'd have got an offer, especially considering I got AAAB (B in History) at AS level.

That's what I had been thinking, but I thought that's what you get for applying at Oxford with one subject not being as well thought of as others. Nothing like a bit of re-assurance, thanks dude :smile:

Reply 6235

I used the Cambridge list of prefered subjects, they have a different well view of things putting much more weight on A levels than GCSEs. http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

I will just add that at the open day in september, I actually asked the admissions tutor what she thought of Politics A level (as I was questioning it at the time) and she said quote "I'd rather have history, you wont believe how many students I have who don't know when the French Revolution was".

I guess I am slightly biased, my whole year was basic dictation from the textbook which is not exactly interesting. But that's what you will be doing most of the time, learning the textbook, drumming in examples and regurgitating them in the exam (for edexcel anyway). BUT, it is great to widen your understanding of the system, elections, democracy, pressure groups, how parliament and government functions. But all of that knowledge can be gained by reading yourself anyway.

At the end of the day, you must do what you want to do, and what you enjoy, rather than what you think you should do. Have a flick through some of the textbooks (teachers should have spares) and that'll give you some clues.

Reply 6236

SamF1992

Yeah, no doubt they prefer History, it's a much more rigourous and thorough subject than Politics is at A level. Still, Politics is fun, and paticularly combined with History, gives you a great understanding of world events, paticularly if you do modern British History, as the majority of the course for Politics (unless you do USA modules) is based around British/EU events.

Reply 6237

Original post by Brand New Eyes

EPQ is about depth rather than breadth, trying to make things link to all three will inevitably lead to covering too much topics, rather than a specific one in detail. As long as you can write a decent essay and think analytically (which you get from science anyway) then you should be fine.

okeydokey cool thanks for the advice :smile:

will take it into account when i start it in the summer.

Reply 6238

candide

Question about the TSA.

Okay, I'm done with exams and I was bored (and also feeling post-exam guilt that I wasn't revising or doing sumat productive) so I had a go at the TSA specimen paper.

It said each question was one mark so in the end I got 43/50 so 86% which I thought was quite good and of which I must say I was quite proud. =L

But then I saw on the website that they dont use a mark per question system but sumat called the "rasch" system whereby points are allocated based on question difficulty etc.

Most of my lost marks came near the end of the paper where the questions did seem trickier.

Does this mean my 'real' score is actually a helluva lot less than 86%?

Does anyone know how they mark the thing? Which questions are weighted?

Can anyone clear this up for me cos I need to decided whether its worth spending a tenner on a critical thinking textbook?

Reply 6239

SamF1992