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

Criminy how the hell did you get that sorted out?


We can't accurately assess how well you will get in, surely as somebody who studies logical processes and reason would comprehend that?

There's a PPE thread on here (in Oxford Colleges and Courses) which is a good place to post, because us PPEists see it immediately.

80.7. I think the highest that year was 84.0, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Oh, and the person who suggested doing debating earlier is absolutely right. There is not a single more important skill you could have for your PPE application than to be able to hold your own in a debate with someone, because that's effectively what the interviews are. You give your idea, and you're expected to be able to hold your ground when challenged, and explain why you're holding it.

I think even more useful than the actual debate is in fact the prep time. In the debating I did, we were given the topic an hour beforehand and had to prepare in that time. Obviously its quite stressful but you have to come up with a decent argument under those circumstances, and this is where you really get to suggest ideas and defend them against the criticism of your teammates. Some debates we would spend 45 minutes heatedly arguing over what our points would be and then hurriedly jotting down a couple of points in the last 15 minutes. This actually requires more thinking on your feet than the actual debate, when you just deliver your argument and then have time to organise your rebuttal during their argument.

An hour's prep time? Ah, so you did World Schools style rather than British Parliamentary, right?

Ah, yeah. At the World Championships, the debating style used is basically the format used in Australia and New Zealand - British Parliamentary can be quite abrasive and has a 2 team vs. 2 teams format, rather than 1 vs. 1 team format, so while it is the format you will see in the Oxford Union, on an international scale it isn't used. I actually prefer the World's/Australian format - the longer prep time means you have a greater opportunity to establish strong ideas, and third speaker in World's/Australian format is the best position in any format (it's just an excuse to run rampant through the entire argument with a metaphorical shotgun). That position doesn't exist so much in BP, although 4th has some similarities. You should try for the Australian team, for World's - Australia has the most all time wins and is usually really successful. I was on last year's Welsh team.

Haha I wish. I doubt I could even get onto my state team - I only started debating in 5th form and have to stop now anyway to concentrate on exams at the end of 6th form. You must be a damn good debater to have been on the Welsh team... and wow you guys were runner up!

You're right though, third speaker is a pretty awesome role - I was third speaker for the thirds debating team for a while but then I got moved up to the firsts and have been stuck at first speaker ever since as we have a bauss third speaker.

So how does the 2 v 2 thing work in British parliamentary style debate?

I started in 5th form myself! God, I was awful at the start. There weren't any teachers in my school who knew how it worked, it was just me and a friend turning up and getting beaten repeatedly. But that's how you get better! Getting to the World's finals was awesome but my personal highlight was knocking out England. Such an emotional moment, because we'd held a few friendlies before that as practices and they'd monstered us, but on the day we just pulled together completely.

Really? wow, you must've improved a lot in those two years. Did your friend get to a high-level of debating as well?

Hmmm... i kinda wanna do debating again haha. There's still one season left, and I was going to see if I could just debate without going to training, but my coach wouldn't let me. Maybe I'll go try and convince him again.