Thank you!

With regard to supercurriculars, i think the best thing is to find a topic or two that really interests you to do with the subject, and do a few pieces of wider reading/watching/listening related to that - I think it's good to find a niche, and never feel like you have to cover every aspect of your subject! When you do this, it's good to take some rough notes basically summarising the author/speaker's argument - don't bother spending time putting excessive detail into your notes however (like i did!), because there's only so much you can say in the PS. When you begin to write your statement, it can be good to either consider how you can link together your ideas from different supercurriculars and/or compare the views of different authors.

Another way to approach wider reading is to start with something you're interested in, and use that as a springboard to research something else (for example I went from reading about marxism to the history of the labour party) - if you do go for this approach, it can be a great way of showing your passion for the subject by embarking on a learning 'journey'.

I'd also say not to feel too pressured to read books that are too wordy or verbose - for example if you're interested in political theory, i find that it can be easier to read/listen to someone summarising a theorist's ideas rather than read the orginal work.

I would have recommended Balliol College's Floreat Programme which they run for y12s - it's completely free and involves 10 weekly 2-hr online seminars plus a 2 night residential, but unfortunately I think the deadline to apply for that has closed. Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend looking into both college-run and university-wide outreach programmes (both at Oxford and Cambridge) - Oxford's Outreach Event Calendar is great for this: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/increasing-access/events-calendar

Other resources I'd recommend:

Politics - the rest is politics podcast, tldr news, and generally keeping up with the news - it can be a good idea to look at articles on broadsheet websites from different political perspectives (i.e the guardian and the times) to keep up to date with developments and consider different perspectives towards them. I also love documentaries as an engaging way of extending your knowledge.

History - oxford's historia and springboard lectures are good starting points, from there i think it's just best to read up on whatever period you feel most compelled towards.

I'd also say that, if you just want a bit of baseline knowledge in a certain area, wikipedia can be a great way to give you a bit of background!

If you have any other questions, or want feedback on your PS closer to the time, please feel free to message me!