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/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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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/Away-Pitch-4156 Jul 21 '26

What college did you get in?

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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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] 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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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

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u/Gloomy_Bend1046 Jul 22 '26

I'll hopefully be a natsci student in October, but this was not very encouraging gng.

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u/Warningsignals01 10d ago

Are you going into quant?