#exploreyoursubject

Subject Masterclasses – events for Year 12 Students Subject Masterclasses provide academically-able Year 12 students with the opportunity toexplore subjects they are interested in studying at university and may not have previouslyexperienced. Each event includes two lectures, an introduction to the admissions process, and the chance to hear about student life from current undergraduates. There is a charge of £10 per student to cover event costs, with free places available to those in receipt of a 16-19 Bursary, Discretionary Learner Support, Looked-after Children, and those from families in receipt of Income Support. Following on from the success of last year’s events we are pleased to announce that we are increasing the number of Masterclasses offered in 2015/16. The events will now run on selected days between November 2015 and June 2016. A range of subjects are offered each year, currently we would like to inform you bookings are open for February 2016 Masterclasses:

 Archaeology: Saturday 06 February 2016  Genetics and Biochemistry : Saturday 06 February 2016  Physics: Saturday 06 February 2016  Theology and Philosophy: Saturday 06 February 2016  Architecture: Saturday 27 February 2016  Classics: Saturday 27 February 2016  English: Saturday 27 February 2016

Entry Requirements: A*AA No subjects required but a mix of science and essay based subjects is recommended James switched to PBS after his first year of Philosophy. He now takes two papers in Philosophy and two papers in PBS. He is assessed at the end of the year with three exams and an extended research project.

What do you most enjoy about PBS?

Reasoning and Decision Making: what is the logical, normative way of approaching a problem compared to heuristic and biases.

How many contact hours do you have a week?

Six hours of supervision and a few hours of lectures.

What are you researching for your extended project?

Whether cryillis letters are more susceptible to the crowding effect. The crowding effect is when you can’t see objects in peripheral vision. Cyrillis letters have dominant horizontal spatial frequency so they are more similar to each other than Latin letters.

What do you do in the evening?

Entry Requirements: A*AA No subjects required but some Colleges ask for a language to A Level. Anna is a second year AMES student who came to Cambridge after a Gap Year. She started Japanese ab initio although had some experience in the language. She is also fluent in German, having grown up in Belgium.

What did you do during your Gap Year?

I volunteered in Japan after the earthquake. I was working with a German charity so I didn’t learn much Japanese but the experience gave me a real insight into Japanese history and way of thinking. I developed a cultural awareness that I could draw on when I started the tripos here.

How did you find out about the course if you were living in Brussels?

I researched the course online. When I arrived I found this type of teaching much more intense than at school. There was also a lot more independent study than I was used to.

What does a typical day look like for an AMES student?

The first year was very language intensive. We had to go from no language knowledge to a post A Level standard in one year. It’s still pretty language orientated ijn the second year but we also have Papers on society, modern History and Classical Japanese.

7.30 Get up and eat breakfast in the College hostel kitchen.

9-10: Lecture

10-3: In the Faculty in supervisions or language classes or in the library preparing work for my supervisions.

Entry Requirements: A*AA

No subjects required but most Colleges prefer History/ an essay based subject at A Level.

Emily is in the second year of the History tripos. She is also the JCR Access Officer which means that she works on behalf of the Undergraduate students to make Robinson as open and accessible as possible to potential applicants. Can you describe a typical day?

7.30: Get up and have breakfast in my room. Usually read the news on my iPad, and check my emails for the day ahead.

9-10: Head to the History faculty for a lecture on Paper 9, ‘Early Modern Economic and Social History’.

10-11: Lecture on Paper 23 ‘World History since 1914’ which looks at Indian and Chinese History.

11: Study with a friend in the University Library, just over the road from College. We have lunch in the tearoom at 1 and I generally stay there until 6, reading and writing my supervision essays. Usually at around 3pm I might head with a friend to Sainsburys for food shopping, or WHSmiths for stationary shopping.

6: At six, I will head to the garden restaurant for dinner, or cook pasta in our staircase kitchen and catch up with friends.

7: In the evening I have a lot of choice – Either I am subediting the University student newspaper, Varsity, or I go to a debate at the Cambridge Union, or I hang out in the bar here or at Corpus, my friend’s College. Sometimes I just chill out in my room with a film and friends. When I have an essay deadline the next day, I will head to the Robinson library with a mug of tea and spend the evening typing/reading.

11: Bed

What’s the difference between Papers?

The History tripos is separated into part 1 and part 2. Part 1 is for first and second years. It involves taking five papers (a paper on British political History, British Social and Economic History, European History and the other two papers you have free choice). We all take a ‘Themes and Sources’ extended essay, (also part 1) which involves reading a lot of primary material. I am writing mine on the history of rivers, focusing on their economic, cultural and environmental role within societies. The other Papers tend to be based more on secondary literature, but still have the opportunity to look at primary sources. For example, this term I chose paper 9 (Social and Economic History in Britain from 1500-1750) and this paper offered source seminars which allows closer examination of primary sources.

What’s your favourite part of being a History student?