Academia 13: Life Update/Oxford University Taster Tutorial

Hello my beautiful friends!

I am back for good (until Year 13 mocks 😉)! I have so much news, hence the "Life Update" part of the title...

• I attended a Taster Tutorial at Oxford University during half term, which is the heart of today's blog post.
• I had my Year 12 mocks last week. As many of you know, this was the reason for my inactivity on this blog and my Instagram over these past weeks. I am considering posting a results blog post or Instagram post, so let me know if this would interest you.
• I am currently going through the application process for Head Girl at my school, which may be the topic of next week's blog post. The application process involves public speaking (I did my speech today), so I may share how I bottled my nerves to do my speech as well as what I included in my speech.
• University open days are upcoming! I am attending Warwick, Birmingham, Imperial, Nottingham and Cambridge.
• Hot off the press, I have been offered a place on a University of Cambridge summer residential, which I am EXTREMELY excited about.

These are my academic life updates summarised in five bullet points. Of course, I am open to further questions about any of them!

Now onto my opinion of the Taster Tutorial...

Three colleges took part in this event and I was based at St. Peter's. To begin the day, there was an Oxbridge application presentation. This was not overly useful for me because the University of Cambridge have come into my school to present this and I have attended similar events with similar talks. If you have not been well informed regarding Oxbridge, this would be useful for you.

After the talk we went for lunch, which was provided for free, although college lunch is heavily subsidised, so it is cheap for students too. The lunch was so filling! I had a vegetarian hot dog with chips and peas (healthier options were available 😂) and there was cheesecake, yoghurts and/or fruit for dessert. During lunch I met with other maths students and we discussed the problems we were emailed prior to the event. Everyone was so, so kind and I found everyone easy to get on with.

 After lunch was the main part of the day... the tutorial with a real life professor at St. Peter's. At first I was slightly nervous, but I tried to participate as much as possible. The lecturer was really encouraging and I found it useful to gain knowledge from the other seven Year 12s in the room.

After this hour-long tutorial, our group was taken on a tour of Balliol by a student. This was useful because the student gave us a better insight into life at Oxford, for example student jobs at the college, the JCR, catering, accommodation, libraries, faculties, societies, restaurants and so much more!

As a plenary, we met with students at the college, who study our subject, to discuss subject-specific life at Oxford. The general message from the student was to work hard, so I'd recommend having a keen work ethic if you are considering Oxbridge.

I had a few hours to kill before my train home, so I ventured around Oxford with one of my new friends, which is where many of these pictures are from! Since we were prospective students, we were allowed to wander around the colleges for free. I must say, both Oxford and Cambridge are beautiful places with there old-style architecture. It would be amazing to attend either of these as my university. Imagine waking up to this view everyday!

I hope this has given you an insight into my Taster Tutorial experience. As always, feel free to ask me any questions. I'd completely recommend attending an event similar to this if your have the option to. To have this 8-to-1 contact with a top professor in the field of mathematics is an opportunity worth taking.