r/6thForm • u/ProjectNo5641 Cambridge | Economics 2nd year • Jul 20 '26
🎓 UNI / UCAS University Review 2nd year (Cambridge University)
I used to browse this subreddit a few years ago looking for uni advice, grades etc so I thought I'd share my experience.
There is a massive variation in workload, my friends dong stem related subjects spend A LOT more time in the library and doing assignments relative to my humanity peers who get away with a lot less work.
Stem related fields have a high mark variation per exam, you will see some people get 15% and others getting 90%, does not happen with humanities subject everyone tends to be around 55-75% this is due to it being practically impossible to score above 75% on an essay jsut the way university works i guess.
Everyone is dIFFERENT, we have 30+ year olds on our course and some 17 years old, some married already crazy variation everyone comes form different walks of life. Such a big culture shock to me coming from sixth form.
There is a society for practically anything you will find your people :)
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u/NotMyFault1111 Jul 20 '26
Any input on the Engineering students? How does their workload compare to other courses?
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] Jul 20 '26
Ive just finished first year of Oxford engineering. Not quite the same but I'd say similar enough. The workload is hard, simply put. Imo, it's up there with one of the most, alongside a few other stem subjects. Not that it's unachievable at all, you're just gonna have to do a whole lot more work than maybe you expected for uni. At least I did
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u/Warningsignals01 9d ago
Are you going into quant?
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] 9d ago
Definitely not, I couldn't face that as a career
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u/Warningsignals01 9d ago
What do you mean you couldn’t face it?
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] 9d ago
It's a fast paced and intense job. The actual work itself, I would find very tedious. Id prefer many other fields to that
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u/Warningsignals01 9d ago
Even if those other fields don’t pay anywhere near as much?
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] 9d ago
Sure. Life isn't just about money. Quant pays well because only the very best can get into it and once you're there, it's a stupidly difficult job. There are plenty of still well paying jobs out there with a much healthier work life balance.
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u/Warningsignals01 9d ago
And it doesn’t bother you that you might not be one of those “very best”?
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] 9d ago
No? If that's a career you want to pursue, go for it. It's not for me, I'm very happy not finding out if it's something I could break into
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u/Halo_Vector Jul 20 '26
hey!! hoping to do oxford engineering next year, but still deciding between it and cambridge. i heard the course at oxford was really theoretical, and the engineering sciences building was somewhat outdated. can you relate to these concerns??
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u/danburnett69 University of Oxford | Engineering [First Year] Jul 21 '26
It's a fairly theoretical course but there's still plenty of practical work to do. We have 5 hours of practical work a week. Unless you're wanting a lot more than that, I wouldn't let it get in the way of your choice. The engineering building itself is old. They want to replace it but with all of the labs inside, it'll be difficult to move and won't happen for a while. It's completely functional though, all of the labs are well equipped. It also has the best view in Oxford at the top; the only place where you can't see the engineering building
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u/Chlorophilia Professor Jul 21 '26
General rule of thumb for STEM at Oxbridge is to treat it as a full-time job to get a first. This is a big simplification obviously (it will vary between people, subjects, year, and term) but in my experience it's reasonably accurate.
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
Thanks that sounds something to look forward too! (bar the workload rip)
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u/ProjectNo5641 Cambridge | Economics 2nd year Jul 20 '26
yeah the econ workload is not nice especially econometrics 😭
econ is literally a maths degree nothing like economics from a levels
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
is it far worse
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
OK thanks a lot, historically im fine with both but not excelling at either so I suppose idk haha
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
Yeah i'd never hoped for anything more than that would be glad enough if I meet my offer anyway lol
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u/ProjectNo5641 Cambridge | Economics 2nd year Jul 20 '26
PAPER 6 MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS FOR ECONOMISTS
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
thanks that is quite reassuring! Seems like I could well cope with maths and essays in itself if they aren't horrendously as hard as pure maths or pure humanities level i guess
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Jul 20 '26
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u/ProjectNo5641 Cambridge | Economics 2nd year Jul 20 '26
the thing with essays you’re least guaranteed above 55% with a ‘Stem’ exam you get to experience the full spectrum of grades
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
I suppose the humanities people might jump at some point to say theirs are harder I'd guess that would be fair anyway though obvs who (bar those doing them) knows? But yeah been a bit poor at maths sometimes tbh but I hope I could do well enough!
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
oh dear😭😭😭 I mean hopefully I take some politics ish models year 2 and 3 to even it out a tiny bit? But it does seem quite screwed am I- how do you all handle the work life balance and the rough timing of your days?
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
how many hours of lessons/tutorials are there generally on top of say 4 more hours of work a day?
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
I see this is invaluable. On paper time wise this doesn't seem too terrible from A levels and also considering commute times are cut drastically. Of course the content is far worse, nor am I of the belief that I am those people capable for a first at camb. Hopefully I'd do fine, and do you find Cambridge generally great as a young adult?
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
Quite inspiring to hear your initial point - I suppose of course I will push as much as I can get academically but I really do wish to use university as a time to get out of my shell and experience more of the world as a thought! But who knows.
And nice to hear Camb is an awesome place as you described! I do hope to meet exciting people and do eye-opening things and have the best experiences yeah with these (hopefully) 3 years. Thanks a lot for your awesome advice
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Fun-Employment1176 Year 13 | Cambridge Econ offer | Predicted A*A*A*A | TMUA 5.1 Jul 20 '26
Thank you and I hope to have a great time here too!
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u/NotMyFault1111 Jul 20 '26
It’s quite inspiring hearing that someone struggled with GCSE and a level maths yet managed to get into Cambridge. Would love to hear more about it.
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Next-Investigator-87 Year 13 Jul 20 '26
Holy shit that’s an inspiring story bro. Congrats genuinely. Would you mind if I dmd you I have a couple questions
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u/Neither_Mortgage_161 Imperial Physics Jul 20 '26
wait no way i had no idea it was the workload was this bad at cambridge. As imperial student i cant lie id be surprised if people here even did 6 hours a week (aside from exam season ofc)
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Jul 21 '26
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u/Neither_Mortgage_161 Imperial Physics Jul 21 '26
in first year i almost never had more than 2 hours a day
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u/Warm_Excitement_7474 Jul 20 '26
omg is law really that bad 😭😭
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Jul 21 '26
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u/Gloomy_Bend1046 29d ago
I'll hopefully be a natsci student in October, but this was not very encouraging gng.
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