ArLT Summer School 2007
University Entrance
Professor Robin and Michael
24th July 2007
The supervision system starts by finding where the student is, leading him/her to something new.
Two techniques: act as devil's advocate, and throw in new information. In interviews, the same techniques are used. To prepare candidates for this, get them used to this kind of academic argument.
"We take people we can teach and do something with."
Little attention is paid to what applicants write about themselves, except as a starting point for interview.
Interviews are very closely limited to their academic subject.
What about the question: "What proportion of the Roman Empire was literate?" The question would not aim to test on the answer, but to see how the candidate approached the answer.
"If a candidate changes their mind during an interview, that's great."
Sports achievements? Not important.
What impresses? GCSE Rows of A*s. Five A*s as minimum. In Classics we turn hardly anyone away from interview.
AS levels - how much use do universities makes of them? Depends on what the teacher says about them.
Number of Classics applicants has risen in the last 3 years.
Cambridge colleges are very flexible in number of students for each subject (not so in Oxford). The pool system does work.
What about overseas students who haven't done GCSE? Admissions tutors have to rely heavily on what teachers says about them.
Classics from scratch. They must show linguistic capability. Cambridge teaches them some language and tests them on what they have been taught, to assess capability. They will also be pressed hard on what they have been doing at A level, to asses general intellectual level. GCSE language results count.
Submitted work: The nature of AS and A2 means it's hard to produce written work by the date required. Oxbridge is aware of this. Some pieces of work come covered with detailed teacher's comments, others with little. Admissions tutors use written work as starting point for interview rather than as a test.
Maths counts heavily.
Some intelligent pupils choose Classics because of better chance of getting in. Few people get in on Classics and then want to change subject. Pupils are not well advised to take the statistical approach. Don't choose Classics unless you love it.
Differences between Oxford and Cambridge:
In Cambridge the 4 year course starts with 1 year undiluted Latin (not so in Mods from scratch). Standard course, Cambridge does some of everything first, then specialism; Oxford literature from the start, then acquire other specialisms.
"Oxford is keener on universal rankings."
