What do UNIS want?! How to be competitive for  

Great -- it can be a lot of fun to open your mind like a child!

Great - I'm glad you've found it useful! Best of luck, and practice the TSA! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-A9evb__UbSI.html

Hi, im also looking to apply to E&M i was just what GCSEs grades did u get and what A-Levels did u pick asw?

Thanks for your comment. Competitions/Olympiad can be great to mention in a personal statement. They provide good evidence that you are interested in the subject and are willing to stretch yourself beyond the school curriculum. It can be worth telling us specific puzzles that came up and how are you worked through them, or otherwise give some self reflection on what you took away from the tests.

Thank you for your kind comment! Typically, you have to meet the entry requirements for all three subjects, otherwise you may have to retake an A-level if you want to be considered at Oxford. Even something like A*A*B, which you might reasonably think is better than/equivalent to A*AA would likely not be permissible, The tutors have to see evidence of consistent ability across subjects, rather than concentrated ability. Best of luck with it.

@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thank you very much for the encouragement! I’m hoping for A*AA but if I did end up with A*AB then I’d probably go for a retake. The advice for Cambridge is that there are fine with retaking “one or two modular A2 units” but my subjects are linear so would require me to retake all the exams within each course - what is meant by the term “units” and how many retakes (and from what grade (C to A or B to A)) would be acceptable for an Oxbridge application?

Hi, a "unit" is not a fixed entity I'm afraid! In other words, the meaning will depend on the subject and the examining board. Essentially, unit refers to one component of an A-level that is separable from all other components and is tested with its own assessment - such as an exam or piece of coursework. If, as you say, your subjects are not split into units, then you may have to retake the whole course. There is no particular grade basis that we would be expecting, provided you met the admissions requirements across all of your A-levels. It's worth noting that for subjects like maths and physics, you will be expected to have obtained the necessary grades in one go, without retakes.

Thanks for your comment! Yes, indeed, international students are treated the same as domestic students. One slight difference is that we tend not to have much contextual information on international students, although this can be provided in a separate letter to the college you apply to, or can be included in the teacher reference on your UCAS form. It's not required, but you may feel that it's important for the universities to know about, for example, an illness that interfered with your studies.

Thanks for your comment! I suggest you look at the course structure for both subjects and decide which is the more appealing. See here for PPE www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing/philosophy-politics-and-economics#content-tab--2 Here for E&M www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing/economics-and-management#content-tab--2 Both will set you up very well for careers or further study in economics.

Thanks Sophie! It seems that the NCEA is absolutely fine for Oxford: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/for-international-students/international-qualifications Accepted University Entrance Certificate with National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) at Level 3 endorsed with Excellence. Considered on a case by case basis New Zealand Certificate of Steiner Education (NZCSE). You are encouraged to include a link to your qualification in your application and outline how it has prepared you for study at Oxford. We certainly have many fantastic students from NZ! Best wishes, Matt

you can check the international requirements on the Oxford homepage, I think A*AA is equivalent to 4 APs at grade 5

Thanks for your comment. Details can be found here: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/for-international-students/international-qualifications The specifics are: For courses requiring A*AA: Either Four APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to) OR Three APs at grade 5 (including any subjects required for the course you are applying to) plus a score of 32 or above in the ACT or 1470 or above (out of 1600) in the SAT. We do not require the optional essay for either the ACT or the SAT. Please note that Calculus AB and Calculus BC cannot be counted as two separate subjects for the purposes of meeting your offer, whether taken as separate tests or by receiving the AB sub-score when taking Calculus BC. If you are applying for a course that requires Mathematics you should take Calculus BC if you are able to do so. However, courses will accept Calculus AB if you are unable to take Calculus BC. The following combinations of Physics courses can be counted as two separate qualifications for the purposes of meeting your offer: Physics C: Mechanics, and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Physics 1 and Physics 2 Physics 1 and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Physics 2 and Physics C: Mechanics If you are taking both Physics C courses, or both Physics 1 and Physics 2, you will not be able to count any additional Physics courses towards your offer requirements. In addition, only the specified combinations of Physics 1/2 and Physics C are permitted.

@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thank you for the reply. Your videos are really helpful.

Hi there, medical students do tend to have very strong stem GCSEs. But we can contextualise the GCSE performance, in order to work out why the grades may not represent your abilities. We are also more interested in A-levels than GCSEs, and it's not uncommon for someone to improve significantly at A-level. So, it's not the end of the road. You will need to demonstrate that your abilities in stem are exceptional with your A-levels and admissions test performance.

It also might be worth considering what motivates you to apply. It sounds like worse-than-expected grades make you realise that you 'need and want' oxbridge acceptance because oxbridge acceptance will prove that you can achieve things academically -- I could be totally wrong, of course, but it's worth thinking about. Proving yourself, while a cool personal challenge, shouldn't be the basis for uni application, especially when it comes to oxbridge... at least in my opinion. Good luck on your application :^)

Hello! Please see here for details: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/mature-students

@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thanks so much!!!

Hi there. No, most PPE students have never studied any of those three subjects before. In some cases, it can be a disadvantage to have studied them, because students are so keen to show us how much knowledge they have, rather than actually answering the interview questions precisely. Of course, if you want to study PPE, it's important to show that you have some idea of what these subjects entail - that's why it's important to do wider reading and tell us in the personal statement that you are ready to study PPE, even if you haven't formally studied it yet.

We don't actually use school type systematically in our decision-making, because it's a pretty hopeless measure of context. There can be people like yourself who receive bursaries and attend independent schools, and then there can be very well off individuals who attend high performing state schools. The British media tends to obsess over school type, but it's no good in actually measuring relative privilege or disadvantage in any systematic way. Instead, we rely on individual level and social data - such as whether someone is eligible for free school meals, whether they have been in care, whether they are disabled, whether they are coming from an area with a very low progression rate to higher education, whether they are coming from a relatively poor neighbourhood, and so on. And, as mentioned in the video, we don't use these data to positively discriminate. We use them to discriminate accurately amongst similarly placed candidates. Hope this is all clear. Best of luck to you, Matt

You only need the qualifications to make you eligible for the course. Doing extra qualifications will not yield a competitive advantage.

Yes, it won't necessarily make your application stronger if you surpass the entry requirements. It may be that if you're getting better grades, then you'll perform better on admissions tests and interviews, but plenty of applicants perform relatively well in their grades and less well on other aspects of the admissions process. This explains why we may not offer a place to someone, even if they have extraordinarily good A-levels

Sounds good, yes! Make sure that whatever course you do is something that you will enjoy.

@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 thanks for replying. Can you give me an email or some way I can use to contact you effectively. Although I driven but need guidance and will surely make your efforts worth it

Is she studying for her A-levels in English? If so, I don't think she would need to take a proficiency test. Details are here: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/for-international-students/ELR#:~:text=If%20you%20require%20a%20student,granted%20an%20English%20language%20test

Yes sir, she is studying in an English Medium School in Kolkata, India

It's not dissimilar. I'm planning to make a video on this shortly. Your first port of call is here: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate

​@@JesusCollegeOxford1571Do kindly include what it takes to do a second Masters at Oxford for someone who just wants to continue in academia for the fun of it but not necessarily interested in doing a PhD. Thanks😂

Hi there. There is no particular number of GCSEs required. I would follow the recommendations of your school. You may be expected to have certain GCSE subjects for some of our degree courses - such as science GCSEs if you are planning to study science at Oxford.

Thank you for the reply sir. I wish to study economics and management at oxford. My school wants me to pick 9 subjects. The 9th subject would have to be Biology. My school wants me to study at least one of the 3 sciences. However, I have never really been passionate about science. I fear that maybe dropping biology may hurt my chances of getting into oxford. Could you kindly give me any suggestion?

I would do as your school suggests. They have far more expertise than I do on GCSE subjects. Intuitively, retaining a science GCSE is a good idea, given that economics is a scientific subject.

Thank you so much for your guidance sir. I would surely follow your advice.

You may need to pay a fee. Please see here: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/applying-to-oxford/application-guide/declaration-and-payment#content-tab--2

Hi, thanks for your comment! Guidance for international applicants is here: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/for-international-students#:~:text=Today%2C%20one%20third%20of%20our,in%20this%20section%20particularly%20useful. There should be contact details there as well, but you can ask me questions here, if helpful.

@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thank you! I appreciate it.