History

History at Oxbridge is a vibrant and diverse course, with 'straight' history usually covering from the fourth century to modern day while the archaeological and ancient courses on offer go further back into the classical past. History is a great subject to combine with other courses, most frequently ancient and modern languages, politics and english!

Why study History at Oxbridge?

​The number one reason that you should apply for a history course at Oxbridge is because you love History! But there is so much more than that, History is a truly rewarding course allowing students to study a hugely diverse range of topics – if it happened in the past, you can study it! The benefits of choosing to study History at Oxbridge is the wide range of tutors across the universities which means you can follow your interests and know there is an academic to support you in this. A History degree also develops one’s critical thinking and analytic skills and teaches you how to research effectively and independently.
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Lifestyle

Typical Weekly Timetable (1st year)

Oxbridge History courses are centred around independent learning, this means that most days will be spent in the library researching for your next essay - here's a sample timetable for how a first year History student would structure their working days!

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Day:	Tasks:
Monday	Begin research for this week's essay - go to your college or faculty library to check out your reading and watch an introductory lecture!
Tuesday	Continue to research your essay independently. - start to plan out your ideas!
Wednesday	Attend a morning lecture, usually an hour to an hour and a half long. Spend the afternoon planning your essay!
Thursday	Write your essay for the deadline! This day will be your most focused, but also most enjoyable as all your hard work comes to fruition in your essay.
Friday	Hand in essay and attend your tutorial which is one to two hours long, spend the afternoon writing up the notes from your tutorial and filling in gaps in your knowledge revealed by the discussion. TIP: tutorials are one of the most important parts of the essay writing process - you may completely change your argument after discussing it with your tutor, make a note of any new ideas which have come from the tutorial to come back to when revising!​
Saturday	Begin to research your next essay! In first year you will usually take two courses at once each term, which works out to three essays every two weeks, and about four days to research and write each essay which means that after your tutorial for one essay you will move right on to the next. TIP: Don't worry about taking two courses at once! It isn't too difficult as the courses taken together will not be so similar as to become confusing - one will usually be much more theory based eg Gender History, Anthropology, Sociological Approaches to History, while the other will be a time period eg Britain 1688-1848, European History from 370-900.
Sunday	The day of rest! Spend the day exploring your college and city, meeting friends and getting some much neeeded rest and relaxation.

Application Process

Ideal Preparation Timeline (2022 Entry)​

• January - September: Explore your studies and boost your personal statement through supra-curriculars! Ensure that you are on track for strong A-Level* grades too.
• August - November: Prepare for the HAT or HAA
• September - October: Draft your personal statement
• November - December: Prepare for your interview. 
• January onwards: Focus on A-Levels*.

* or equivalent

Key Dates

• October 15  - UCAS Deadline (includes personal statement) and registering for the HAT (Oxford) or HAA (some Cambridge colleges)
• November 3 - History Aptitude Test
• Early December - Interview

Grade Requirements

Oxford:                                                                           

• A Levels: AAA
• Advanced Highers: AA/AAB
• IB: 38 (including core points) with 666 at HL

Cambridge:

• A Levels: A*AA
• IB: 40-42 points, with 776 at HL

Recommended A-Level Choices

• History
• Art History
• Government and Politics
• English Literature
• Economics
• A language - ancient or modern

Supracurriculars

What are supra-curriculars?

THE UNIREACH GUIDE

History-specific advice

• Find an area of history that you have a genuine interest in, one that you may not have studied in school - this can be as niche as you like, as long as you can explain your interest well and link it to your general love for History
  • ​EG: gay history, feminist history, the history of fashion, non euro-centric history, the history of emotions etc
    
• Once you have found this area, learn about it in as many ways as you can - museum exhibits, lectures, work experience, archival research, walking tours, films, podcasts, books! 
• Learning about emerging strands of history and historiographical debates will prove a really solid historical knowledge.
  
  • Historians at your local university are often very happy to talk about their work, you can find their details on faculty pages and send a couple of historians an email, explaining what you like about their work, your situation and how they might be able to help you - whether this be through a sort of mentorship, and email conversation about their area of expertise or an interview for your EPQ or student newspaper article.
    
  • This will also help you to get comfortable talking to high-level academics before your interview.
    

Start exploring your course

Historiography

interesting histories

Assessment

HAT (Oxford)

HAa (cambridge)

Personal Statement

THE UNIREACH GUIDE

PERSONAL STATEMENT BANK

Interview

THE UNIREACH GUIDE

INTERVIEW BANK

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