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Oxbridge Entrance: The Real Rules

Author: Elfi Pallis
Publisher: Tell Books
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

34 reviews
Sales Rank: 17377

Media: Paperback
Edition: Third
Pages: 214
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8

ISBN: 0954594428
EAN: 9780954594428
ASIN: 0954594428

Publication Date: June 8, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Also Available In:

•	Paperback - Oxbridge Entrance: The Real Rules
•	Paperback - Oxbridge Entrance: The Real Rules

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Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Equalising the competition July 8, 2008
Here's how to get into Oxford. You tell your interviewer that you don't much like Oxford, and you're not keen on the chemistry course, and then you arrive two hours late for your entrance exam. The privately educated headmaster of your state school in Warrington, keen to send some proletarian types to Oxford, will lock you in the examination room until you've completed three hours. Your "preferred" college will offer you a place.

I excelled at sciences. My physics teacher wrote on my mock A-level script "This is the best A-level paper I have ever marked". I achieved A-level grade As in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, in 1973 when grade A was awarded far less frequently than now. Unfortunately I was also thoroughly naive. A 1970s edition of "Oxbridge Entrance, the Real Rules" might have saved me from a deal of misfortune.

I like the fact that Elfi Pallis's book is addressed to parents. Neither of my own parents was educated beyond the age of fourteen, and probably felt that they couldn't contribute to my academic decisions. Yet they were the people who loved me, and who were truly concerned for my welfare, not my headmaster, not my Oxford tutor. I'd like to have been able to give them a book like this, so we could discuss rationally and objectively the options available.

My actual fears about Oxford weren't addressed during my application. I was particularly worried about finding accommodation. Because of the inequalities inherent in the collegiate system, I was expected to find my own accommodation for three years, when wealthy, privately educated students received guaranteed college accommodation. It was the unavailability of affordable, habitable accommodation that most contributed to my underachievement at finals.

Oxbridge applicants should be cautious about initiatives designed to widen access, because cooperation from Oxbridge can be grudging. Elfi describes how the government's Access projects can set teachers, parents and pupils of different types of state schools against one another, without perceptibly changing student proportions at Oxbridge.

The pre A-level entrance exam of the 1970s was Oxford's own initiative to encourage state school students to apply to Oxford. Unfortunately that method of application meant Hertford College could discount my excellent A-level results when awarding its scholarships. The available scholarship, with its college accommodation entitlement, went to a private school student - actually an Oxford chemistry professor's son. I doubt his need was greater than mine.

I profoundly regret sitting the pre A-level entrance exam in 1972. I didn't know what a gap year was, but a year taken out would have saved a lifelong regret. With my excellent science A-levels I would have been in a great negotiating position. Under happier circumstances, I imagine I might have been comfortable at Oxford or Cambridge, or at any respectable university.

Elfi is a sociologist by training, and the mother of an Oxford student. I think she is very well qualified to write this book, which is objectively analytical and appropriate for its readers, most of whom will be from state school backgrounds. Similar books by Oxbridge graduates tend to be uncritical and prescriptive. Elfi describes pitfalls as well as benefits of Oxbridge, and the detail she includes adds depth to the picture.

Those who complain about an alleged anti private school tone in Elfi's book should relax. She is only trying to equalise the competition between state and private school students. However successful she might be, private school students will be vastly more likely to get into Oxbridge. And yes, I'm envious, I wish my parents had been wealthy enough to send me to private school.

Nevertheless, I think Oxbridge will always find ways of benefiting the already privileged at the expense of the inconveniently gifted. It might be better finally if the Government cut their half billion a year state funding. Perhaps they might be taken over and reformed by the market leader in the provision of prestigious tertiary education, which I believe is Harvard University.

1 out of 5 stars

If in doubt check it out... April 30, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

If the whole application process for Oxford and Cambridge is an unknown quantity then you can't go wrong reading as much about the topic as possible. There are some useful tips regarding A-levels and the run up to interviews in this book. It is at least worth pulling out of your local library.

If, however, you are a fairly mature and independant adult with a little knowledge of what to expect then I would not recommend this book. The author is not only regularly factually incorrect about many different issues pertaining to both Oxford and Cambridge (some statements are outdated, sometimes she is ill informed, and sometimes she lies unashamedly) but she is patronising, judgemental and has an inferiority complex. It therefore makes what would be an average and often uninformed book, a very frustrating read. If you want help getting yourself or your child into Oxbridge, reading this book may encourage prejudices which will actually inhibit your entrance. Make sure you read around the subject and take everything in this book with a large pinch of salt.

4 out of 5 stars

Good, useful tips but some advice may be outdated March 12, 2008
This book confirmed a lot of what I have read about Oxbridge entrance but provides a useful guide to what a student must do to prepare properly (and there is lots of preparation). It also discusses many of the inequalities of the current selection process (which will make your blood boil, depending on where your child is being educated). Apparently, if you're in the state sector, it helps immeasurably if the student's parent is a teacher (so bad luck if you're not part of a teaching dynasty). And there's no doubt that if your child is in a middle-ranking comp, he/she faces an uphill struggle. Two things that put me off this book slightly are that its findings and research were undertaken in 2001/2, so it didn't feel completely current (more recent updates are pretty thin on the ground). Also, I found the number of typographical mistakes rather annoying (and inappropriate).

But it's worth reading, especially if you're coming to the subject with little or no prior knowledge.

4 out of 5 stars

It was a book but... February 6, 2008
although I did enjoy reading this book, and although I do think it would be useful for those it is aimed at(thus my 4 stars). I would not say that I am absolutely pleased with it. One of my main reasons for this is because of the authors patronising attitudes to public school students and also her over-emphasis on getting into whatever subject rather than giving an insightful approach into getting into the subject you want. Although there is a good separate section for medical applicants- it was not anything that we did not already know- and not only this but not much else has been said about how to get into any of the other courses at Oxbridge- suggesting that they are easier to get into- which compared to law and medicine- yes they probably are- but they are still not as easy as the author makes it out. All in my mixed feelings about the book, make me give it a 3.5- which I can't so I'll just give it a 4, because I do feel that it is an inspirational book for those students that think that Oxbridge is far higher up there than it is.

5 out of 5 stars

The true story January 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is the only Oxbridge guide which tells you the truth. Families are helped to understand the far-from-perfect admissions process, so a bright student can get the right kind of support. The advice given to sixth formers on academic preparation is excellent and designed to bridge the yawning gap between A-level work and the level of knowledge Oxbridge seeks. Students to whom I recommended this book handled their interviews well and very often got in.