Destination Education
00:20:41 · Barbara Lestak
Another student that I recently had, he was applying for PPE in Oxford, is going there this October, which is fantastic. And what he had done is, again, he had gone to many sort of lectures, but also he'd started a debate club in his school, which they didn't have before. You know, he got a lot of students coming into that, which was fantastic. He also joined a number of different competitions, but ones that he wanted to go to, because it was a tick box exercise, but because he just felt it was interesting. And essay competitions, so like the John Locke, and it just unlocked a whole other level of soft skills for him that he didn't have beforehand. And the most important thing that he did is again, he wrote a research paper and actually his focus was on philosophy and economics and philosophy specifically. So sort of financials and philosophy. And it was very interesting, even I read it and I was like, this is really good. But you know, he then took that and spoke to academics and what do you think and had those conversations. And again, it just shone through him.
00:21:56 · Ruth Benny, Barbara Lestak
[00:21:56] S0: Sat down with him. Impressive. I want to ask you though, Barbara, because obviously that's all well and good. I mean, process, the way that the university will actually evaluate a student is first they'll see their personal statement, which we'll come to in a moment. And they'll also see their predicted grades. But I know that a lot of the universities have these standardized tests now. Should we talk about those a little bit as well? Because they've got to pass or even ace these standardized tests before everything else will be considered. Could you just talk a little bit about those tests? Because I know there's also been some changes this year, I believe. [00:22:32] S1: Yeah, absolutely. So you have a number of different universities that request admission tests. Those tests, they are all now done in Pearson VUE Centre. So I highly recommend that you check where your local Pearson VUE Centre is. But also check school and, oh sorry, which university and which subject requires which admissions test. So as an example, this year there is a new test coming in called TARA, like the name T A R A. We believe it's going to so not much information has been released about that yet. It's going to be released at the end of this month. But from what we understand and know from a UCAS Open Day and a number of other sources is that it's going to resonate the TSA. And the TSA is utilised by Oxford for Economics and Management and PPE. And it's critical thinking. So that's a brand new test and that will actually be used
00:22:32 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
[00:22:32] S1: Yeah, absolutely. So you have a number of different universities that request admission tests. Those tests, they are all now done in Pearson VUE Centre. So I highly recommend that you check where your local Pearson VUE Centre is. But also check school and, oh sorry, which university and which subject requires which admissions test. So as an example, this year there is a new test coming in called TARA, like the name T A R A. We believe it's going to so not much information has been released about that yet. It's going to be released at the end of this month. But from what we understand and know from a UCAS Open Day and a number of other sources is that it's going to resonate the TSA. And the TSA is utilised by Oxford for Economics and Management and PPE. And it's critical thinking. So that's a brand new test and that will actually be used [00:23:33] S0: It's going going to replace the TSA, did you say? No,
00:23:33 · Ruth Benny, Barbara Lestak
[00:23:33] S0: It's going going to replace the TSA, did you say? No, [00:23:37] S1: no. It won't replace TSA. TSA still stands for Oxford, but the Tara will be used with UCL at the moment, as far as we're aware, and we're expecting a couple of other G5 universities to come into that too. And that's a critical thinking based admissions test. So if you're worried about it, you can find some information on the UCL website already. You can take a look. We have an article as well. So if you want to have it, it's on there and it explains everything we know so far. And if you wanted to have a look and see what that test is like, I highly recommend going onto the Oxford site, having a look at the TSA pass papers, and it will probably give you a pretty good idea of what that's going to be. That's a brand So new [00:24:30] S0: what I'm hearing is that these tests, that the process is always changing. It's always evolving and the iterations, but it's really so, so important that you're getting the right guidance, whether that's from school or you're doing your own research or you're engaging an external consultant. Yeah, it's not as straightforward. I mean, it can be rather straightforward, but depending on what universities you're applying to, I mean, I suppose for a lot of our parents and their children, they're super ambitious. And so if they are applying to the very top universities in The UK, it is super competitive. And so the process is becoming more complicated. Would you agree?
00:25:08 · Barbara Lestak
[00:25:08] S1: Yes. Yeah, exactly that. And yeah, it's exactly that. So students who have admissions tests, they have to prepare almost, if you imagine a year in advance at least, of all of the other students who are sort of doing normal UCAS applications that just require a personal statement. It's an added layer. It's the layer where universities like to use that because it's the one area that's fair game for all students. So every student will sit the same test, every student will have the same environment, etcetera, etcetera. So there's no sort of way that you can go into that, you know, or ask someone to do it for you, you know, it doesn't work. So you have to go and go through that as every other applicant. And every single year, those raw scores do go just an inch higher, a little bit higher, a little bit higher. And so the most important aspect is you've got to, as you said, Ruth, you've got to ace it. You need to absolutely maximise those points and there are ways of doing that. So timing strategies, looking at the questions that can maximise your points on, going back to the ones that you're not certain about but they have minimal points. So, looking at that and being able to digest that, it's not easy, especially under really pressured time conditions. That's hard to do for anybody. Even I get stressed if I have to do a timed exam now. You know, for somebody who's also going through all of the school curriculum and all of that, it is a lot, which is why that preparation, that run up as early as you can start is so, so valuable.
00:27:01 · Ruth Benny
[00:27:01] S0: Yeah, I want to ask you about that actually. So, we said that you're going into upper six or last year of school it's time to start the applications, but going back, I mean, when do you think is the right time to start preparing? Because I would even wonder, I'd ask you that even choosing A level subjects or IB subjects. So we have to go back even further, don't we? Because whatever subjects you choose, you may be keeping the doors open or unfortunately closing certain doors for certain courses. Is that right?