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

hi,

does anyone know of any books to read that might help me with the interview as i will am considering applying for PPe?

thanx

How do you find the concept of the PPE course? Hard? Challenging?

What A levels (and their grades) did you get in to Oxford? Was the amount of time and work into those A levels worth it?

Post your views here.

They place the applicants on a bell curve; I was in the top half of the 99th percentile for both critical thinking and mathematical reasoning. I didn't get feedback on the PPE essay supplement to the TSA.

In New York, I interviewed with Nicholas Owen, a Politics professor from Queen's college. I was sent to a side room with a sheet of questions and an essay. The questions related to philosophy (logic and ethics) and the essay was a persuasive piece on an aspect of political theory. I had 30 minutes to look over these. I was then sent to interview. Upon entering, I was asked why I wanted to study PPE. My answer was cut short as we went headlong into the philosophy questions. I was able to give correct answers to the questions listed on the page; I was then pressed with more complex and in-depth extensions of the initial questions. I answered these until I was brought to one where I couldn't provide a satisfying answer. Then, Dr. Owen coached me into deriving the correct answer from findings I had already made. I was then asked to take a position on the political theory issue, for or against the position of the essay author. I then had to defend this position against Dr. Owen's arguments. We went back and forth until time elapsed, at which point I was prompted for any general questions about Oxford, student life, etc.

I had a good experience and I'd say PPE is a safer subject to interview at an international center than a more specialized one. However, if you can, it's certainly better to visit Oxford.

Hi,

Was hoping for some advice on what the best subjects would be at AS to do PPE at Oxford, or otherwise Politics at another university.

I have to choose 4 subjects, and History and Politics are two I definitely want to do. So far I've put down English and Latin for the other two, but I don't think I'd enjoy either of them, and if there were another alternatives that would be relevant for PPE/Politics and also considered traditional (rather than vocational) then I would consider them!

Thanks very much.

Do Politics, History, Maths and (your choice)

Hope that helps if you need anymore help ask.

Grant

Thing is, I found iGCSE Maths quite challenging.... I think I'll probably scrape an A, but I can just imagine AS Maths being way too difficult for me..

Thing is, I found iGCSE Maths quite challenging.... I think I'll probably scrape an A, but I can just imagine AS Maths being way too difficult for me.. I mean, I can learn methods, but it's just when it comes to applying the methods on different types of questions that I struggle on..

I thought subjects like economics and philosophy at AS aren't traditional?

Thanks

Thing is, I found iGCSE Maths quite challenging.... I think I'll probably scrape an A, but I can just imagine AS Maths being way too difficult for me.. I mean, I can learn methods, but it's just when it comes to applying the methods on different types of questions that I struggle on..

I thought subjects like economics and philosophy at AS aren't traditional?

Thanks

You might want to think again about studying economics at undegraduate level then.