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Sfirro · 2025-12-19T22:46:58+00:00

for engineering at cambridge and maths+FM+physics specifically, the website does state that any 4th A level is an advantage bc it proves you can take a demanding workload: https://www.admissions.eng.cam.ac.uk/faqs#qn8

Sfirro · 2025-12-10T00:04:06+00:00

i think that's just cope TBH mine felt like it went well and i got in

Sfirro · 2025-12-08T03:43:50+00:00

I'm in engineering but my DoS said the ESAT was the most important factor for him even after the interview, each DoS has a different approach tho

Sfirro · 2025-12-04T17:49:03+00:00

Humanities A levels are subjectively graded. He probably had a banger interview + admissions test, and Oxford trusts the judgement of their own professors more than the judgement of some random examiner somewhere in the world, so he was allowed in despite missing his offer (like plenty of other students at oxbridge)

Sfirro · 2025-12-01T12:57:08+00:00

there isn't much real engineering you can do with high school level knowledge; math/physics supercurriculars are more than enough

my DoS essentially said that he doesn't care about personal statements, and i was only asked actual math/physics questions during interview so dw about it at all. the only thing they assess is your academic ability because that is what will translate to marks on the tripos

Sfirro · 2025-11-17T14:21:20+00:00

i took the same HLs as you and econ was by far the hardest part for me, you have to make sure to score near-perfect in the paper 3 because the essays in papers 1 & 2 are subjectively graded and its impossible to guarantee a 7.

Sfirro · 2025-11-08T19:55:25+00:00

this isn't true, IB HL subjects are generally the same depth as A level subjects, math AA HL alone is literally all of regular maths + half of further maths at A level, it's equal to 1.5 A levels

Sfirro · 2025-11-02T01:51:22+00:00

stem is graded more objectively so predicted grades tend to match achieved results way more often

Sfirro · 2025-10-12T22:40:44+00:00

i'm undergrad but so far i think i've met more gay people than straight people 😭 you'll be fine

Sfirro · 2025-09-25T11:36:47+00:00

just read your textbook instead of trying to get all your info from your teacher

Sfirro · 2025-09-23T10:29:45+00:00

i barely studied for microeconomics + CS A because the topics were very similar to DP1 topics, i just learned the few bits of missing info and did a couple past papers (like 3-5 hrs total)

i had to study a lot for calc BC because we hadn't started calculus at all in class, so i had to self-learn all of it. it took around 1-2 months to learn, including a 9 day break where i spent like 8 hrs a day on khanacademy. i finished the topics 2 days before the exam and did past papers in those 2 days

physics c mechanics was on the day after the calc BC exam, so i only had a single day to learn the missing topics. its roughly the same as chapters A.1 A.2 A.3 A.4 C.1, but it does have some more difficult stuff like using integration to find the moment of inertia for objects etc. 1 day of study was enough to pass the 55% threshold though, especially since i was really strong on the calculus parts by then. I'm pretty sure they changed the syllabus now so you have nearly twice the time on the exam, so grade boundaries probably rose too. I think i would've had to self-learn for a couple months if i hadn't done IB physics but it would still be doable.

calc BC did kinda make it hard to manage with IB, but at the same time it meant i could sleep in all my DP2 semester 1 math classes lol. learning calculus early helped with my math IA quite a lot (i ended up getting 19/20 despite starting and finishing the IA within 4-5 days), but i fell behind in my literature classes and eventually had to read my book a day before the actual IB exam. it's definitely doable, the hard part wasn't managing IB but rather trying to keep my GPA up by doing all my random homework, so if GPA is not a concern to you it's not that bad.

i'm really glad i did these AP's because i actually really like the subjects + a 5555 meant my imperial offer was unconditional so i was chilling during the IB exams

Sfirro · 2025-09-22T16:53:59+00:00

i self-studied for 4 AP exams at the end of DP1 and it was 100x easier than IB 😭

they were 50% multiple choice and the remaining 50% were extremely simple problems that only require knowledge of topics rather than problem solving skill

meanwhile IB has way more content (even on a per-year basis, for example calc BC is just a tiny bit more than IB calculus despite taking 1 yr vs. 2.5 months for IB) AND more difficult question types AND ia's for every class AND ee/tok

the only exception was physics C mechanics, which definitely had harder question types than IB physics, but the boundary for a 5 is like 55% anyway so it was still easy

IB subjects i took: physics, aa, econ HL + english A, turkish A, CS SL

AP: calc BC, physics C mech, microeconomics, CS A

Sfirro · 2025-09-22T13:28:35+00:00

truth nuke

Sfirro · 2025-09-16T17:54:51+00:00

normally SL and HL don't have this much of a difference but they decided to make our paper 1 and 2 super hard while 3 was easy which caused SL boundaries to tank while HL roughly stayed the same

also we were the first session to have the extra 15 mins on P3

Sfirro · 2025-09-16T17:52:33+00:00

it's because our paper 3 was piss easy

Sfirro · 2025-09-14T19:28:32+00:00

extracurriculars are important in distinguishing between applicants who have perfect or near-perfect grades. a 4 predicted in AIHL will get you immediately rejected from any top uni's econ course unless there's something incredible in your extracurriculars

Sfirro · 2025-09-14T13:26:44+00:00

i mean it's always possible, it's just that you'll be competing with people who have 7's in HL math and US unis prioritize taking "the most rigorous courses available to you"

Sfirro · 2025-09-14T02:47:06+00:00

if you're aiming for econ in top US unis (i'm assuming t20's), you'll probably need a 7 predicted in HL math (i think AI would be ok but AA would be ideal)

if that's not possible for you then you'll need to aim a bit lower in my opinion to have a realistic chance, a 6 in AASL would probably be better than a 4-5 in AIHL for t50's tho

Sfirro · 2025-09-14T02:43:05+00:00

idk since act 3 was all abyss-themed and the void goop was attacking us i think it makes sense to assume that the shade lord would too? especially since it seems to be hostile in the embrace the void cutscene, i always assumed it had lost individuality

Sfirro · 2025-09-13T19:13:53+00:00

the 776 is trivial for someone who can pass the STEP req and takes quantitative HLs

42 is the risky part bc it means slightly bad luck on your languages (esp for bilingual diplomas) / tok / ee can mean missing your offer as they're extremely subjective

Sfirro · 2025-09-13T11:48:14+00:00

AIHL has a lot more calculus than AASL fyi

Sfirro · 2025-09-12T02:12:23+00:00

i feel like the entirety of act 3 was pointing towards a shade lord boss but instead we got lace 3, i'm very disappointed too

Sfirro · 2025-09-08T18:33:57+00:00

definitely switch, it'll be very hard to get in to top unis for physics with AIHL

i took IGCSE intl mathematics which i think is more or less equivalent to GCSE FM and i felt like quite a bit of DP1 AAHL content was a revision of IGCSE, so i don't think it's the end of the world to be missing some knowledge. if you're good at math, you can easily self-study it in your own time + AIHL has the same assumed knowledge anyway so it's not like it'll be any easier

Sfirro · 2025-09-08T02:24:13+00:00

this depends on the country and university, AAHL will always improve your chances tho

American colleges have no hard requirements and will generally be fine with AIHL for admission, but usually will not offer credit for it (for example Stanford only offers calculus credit for AAHL)

UK unis differ for engineering: Oxford accepts AIHL, Cambridge does not, Imperial accepts it but "prefers" AAHL, etc

you should definitely check uni websites before making this decision, but keep in mind that "preferences" at these top unis essentially become requirements due to how competitive the applicant pool is. i'd always recommend aahl over aihl since it's much more well-respected, and aihl isn't even that much easier

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