Access DVD - Studying English at Oxford

Transcript (abridged)

(In case you have difficulty playing the video)

Jenny: As it is with most of the Arts, it's really up to you to structure your own study. There are lecture series on the papers that you can take but it depends what kind of person you are: I work really well with lectures because I remember what I hear.

Caroline: I go to... one or two in a week, if you're lucky. There are weeks when I don't go at all! I don't find that at all detrimental because I just don't work like that - I work better sitting, reading or talking with other people rather than sitting being talked at.

Caroline (on the workload for English students): One tutorial essay, which you prepare and either hand in or read out during the tutorial. There's a lot of reading to be able to do that, and the essay's about two-thousand words. So that's your main work for the week, as well as the ongoing lectures for different topics. You might be doing Paper 1. Your main focus could be Victorian English You might have a class with the other english students in your college, once a week say, to keep another paper on the go.

Jenny (on 'course 2') : I didn't apply originally to do course 2 but I decided to do it this year. Basically, the normal English degree - course 1 - covers the entire breadth of English literature from the Norman Conquest onwards. There's a lot of options - in your first year you cover Victorian, Modern and Mediaeval stuff. Later on you could choose whatever you like. Course 2 is really old literature - Chaucer etc. You have options to do, e.g. welsh, high German, old Saxon. Not a lot of people take the course, but statistically the people that do tend to get better results in finals.

Interviews usually take the form of a mini-tutorial, which is the session you'd have every week with your tutor, talking about essays. I had two interviews - I stayed here for 3 days. I think you have a written test - check on the internet. English students generally have 2 at their college, and maybe 1 at another college. Having interviews at another college doesn't mean anything though - I didn't have any at other colleges, but a lot of people I know that got in had several. It could mean anything at all so don't read into it. The first interview was on a short piece of prose where you'd go in and talk about it. Generally if you can't think of anything to say, they'll prompt you. They really want tyou to do the best you can. The second interview will be on the work you sent in with your application. I didn't have any essays at all because my teacher didn't really set us any so I sent in 2 exam scripts and they were fine.

Caroline: Mine was all about Shakespeare, which is strange because I only mentioned him in passing. Don't lie - if you haven't read something, don't put it down - they'd know! Especially if it's the speciality of the person interviewing you so it's really important to be utterly honest.

(more text coming soon)

Many thanks to Jenny Henry and Caroline Crampton for this interview!

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