4.8/5
The Oxford PPE Mastermind will help prepare you for every step of the application process, from personal statement writing, to exam practice, to interview preparation.
You won’t find such a highly intensive, comprehensive and personalised preparation specifically for Philosophy, Policitcs and Economics at Oxford anywhere else.
There are four Mastermind Programmes: Bronze (🥉), Silver (🥈) , Gold (🥇), and Diamond (💎)
800+ exclusive online past paper video solutions and practice questions
Full recording of 2-day intensive summer Economics workshops including essay technique and interview prep
Full recording of 2-day TSA Preparation Course:
1-day Economics and PPE group interview course
A suggested week-by-week study programme to keep you on track
PLUS: Fortnightly Economics workshops with our expert Economics tutors
PLUS: Fortnightly social sciences workshop including Philosophy and Politics
PLUS: Fortnightly TSA workshops including TSA mini-mocks
AND: 3x 1-1 mock interviews
PLUS: Fortnightly Economics workshops with our expert Economics tutors
PLUS: Fortnightly social sciences workshop including Philosophy and Politics
PLUS: Fortnightly TSA workshops including TSA mini-mocks
PLUS: 6x 1-1 mock interviews
increase in your chances of getting to Oxbridge
students to date
4 & 5 – star reviews
of students would recommend us to a friend
Students tell us that, when they see the answer the examiner was looking for, they get it, but that they would have never have known the intended answer on their own.
Our 800+ video solutions have been created by our handpicked team of expert tutors. They have been created to express every thought process, so that you can start to think just like an expert and approach problems or passages of text in the same way.
This video content and the extra practice questions we provide form the basis of the independent study that Mastermind students will do at home.
You will have access to the online resources for 1 year, i.e. until after your admissions test and interview have both taken place.
“Using the online resources, I felt there was somewhere I could turn every time I had a question!”
–Charlotte
“It’s really helpful to see the best way to tackle a question and what to start with. In particular, the use of diagrams to explain problems made a lot the explanations very clear.”
–Siddharth
You want to be able to approach interview questions and your TSA essay with utter confidence. Not a doubt in sight.
For this, you need:
With these 4 skills under your belt, you’ll be able to impress the admissions tutors by creating an essay or producing an answer which hinges on economic or political insights from all the thinking you’ve done about them.
Examples of topics
The below are just some examples of topics we’ll be covering with you. In reality, we’re likely to change things up a bit, according to the current affairs stories at the time.
The sessions will involve discussion, argumentation and some interrogation(!). They aren’t lectures and you’ll be an active participant, learning how to express your views with panache.
Each of the following topics can be spun to be relevant to you and your subject. We will draw on other social science subjects besides PPE to make sure you can give nuanced answers to a variety of questions. The tutor will bear in mind your subject of choice and angle the question to your subject specialism.
Economics:
Examples of topics
The below are just some examples of topics we’ll be covering with you:
Philosophy and Politics:
Other Social Sciences topics (from subjects incl. Land Economy/Economics & Management) include:
Examples of topics
The below are just some examples of topics we’ll be covering with you:
TSA Critical Thinking:
TSA Problem Solving:
Over this two day summer course, we will be spending one day focusing on essay writing, making sure that your essays are well structured, answer the question, show nuance, show your ability to think outside of the box and explain your arguments in a succinct and convincing manner.
On the second day, we will be looking at a whole host of skills which will prove to be very useful for your interview, including:
The problem-solving and critical thinking questions in the TSA aren’t based on any subjects you’ll have learned at school (although a little bit of maths know-how won’t hurt) and they test a huge variety of skills. What’s worse, they are highly time-pressured, especially given the amount of information you have to absorb.
However, we have created and systematised a unique set of repeatable techniques for Thinking Skills questions, and a method for analysing a question to determine which technique to apply. This course is designed to teach you that method and allow you to tackle any TSA question you might face.
Again, this course will provide the foundation for the preparation you will go on to do over the summer holidays.
Dates: Summer (TBC)
Content:
Day 1 – Problem Solving
Day 2 – Critical Thinking – question analysis and practice
The TSA features a significant essay section on topics from Economics, Politics, Ethics, and other social sciences. In this workshop, we will cover all the key techniques you’ll need to smash that essay, plus a host of further tips to make your essay stand out.
Content:
Dates: Various weekend dates in November 2022 – you’ll be allocated a space upon registration.
Generic interview prep is rarely very useful, and it can be hard to find realistic interview practice for a technical Economics/PPE-based interview.
This 6-hour course is completely focused on the ins and outs of an Economics/PPE interview. Specifically, you’ll be grilled on your personal statement and practise answering tough, never-before-seen questions and explaining your thinking to the interviewer as you go.
Uniquely, you’ll do your interview in front of up to nine other attendees and you’ll have a chance to watch their interviews too, allowing you to work through the questions in real time.
Isn’t that super stressful, I hear you ask?
Basically, yes!
And students who attended this course in the past unanimously told us that the real interviews felt easy in comparison.
“Actually doing a mock, you see the depths the interviewer would explore once you get into the question, which you don’t get just from looking up interview questions online. And it’s fascinating to see everyone else’s mocks and their different approaches.”
–Katie
“The mock interview helped me to practise how to take advice onboard while attempting a question. It was also very useful in getting used to the sorts of thought process you need to carry out, such as starting with a concrete case and then generalising. The tutor who asked the interview questions and the tutor who gave feedback afterwards were both very friendly, and they went over the different aspects of your interview in depth to explain what went well and how to improve on other areas.”
–Thomas
Not currently available outside of this package, we are offering up to 40 hours of tuition with our esteemed tutors.
Honestly, the value of every minute with our expert tutors in a ONE-TO-ONE setting is IMMENSE.
This tuition is highly recommended for international students, as it will also allow us to go through other aspects of your application, such as university choice.
– Personal statement help
– TSA prep
– Interview prep
– Discussing marked mock exams
– Mock interviews
– A-level support
– Useful vocabulary for international students
– General questions about Oxford
– Super-curricular enrichment
The pressure of an Oxford interview is real. The number of truly exceptional students that have walked into an interview only to succumb to their nerves is incredible.
Our 1-1 interviews help you avoid this situation and allow you to walk into your interview with confidence.
You’ll get three mock interviews in a two hour session, with detailed feedback after each one.
Becoming comfortable answering tough questions in your subject “out loud” – and facing pushback from the interviewer! – takes some getting used to. Our expert tutors emulate the interview process so you are fully prepared!
We are sure that no other organisation offers such a comprehensive and rigorous package of online and group courses specifically for PPE admissions tests and interview preparation. In the unlikely event that you do find an identical package at a lower price, carried out by tutors with comparable credentials, we guarantee to match the price.
We guarantee the quality of our tutors. All of our tutors are either Oxbridge-educated or hold a PhD from a Russell Group University in a relevant subject. Our tutors go through an intense selection process before they qualify to work with us, and even after that they undergo further training to shape them into the best teachers possible.
There is a 14-day money-back guarantee available to students who attend the first two weekly workshops and send us their notes and marked questions to prove that they have used the online resources. If you have done both of these and you still don’t feel that the programme will benefit you on your journey to Oxbridge, just let us know and we would be happy to refund you your full payment. Please note that, if you have had some 1-1 tuition sessions with us, these will still be payable.
Not to worry, send us a message at support@oxbridgeformula.co.uk with the order number of your previous bundle and we’ll send you a way to purchase the bundle at a further discount.
As a Mastermind student, you get access to ALL of the workshops that we run, and one summer course and one October course (or equivalent). These will initially be allocated to you when you choose the course, but if you change your mind, half way through the year, we can reallocate the courses you have access to.
Everything we do here at the Oxbridge Formula is highly interactive, so you will get a much better experience if you can attend live. Therefore, we recommend you plan around the dates of the intensive courses if possible. Nonetheless, if you absolutely cannot attend, you will also have access to pre-recorded versions after each course has taken place. If practical, we also intend to record parts of the skills workshops. Please note that we are not able to share a recording of the interview group course.
The Mastermind is for students who are aiming for 2023 entry or deferred entry in 2024.
When you apply, you will complete a baseline academic assessment and discuss with us your motivations for applying to Oxbridge to allow us to determine if you are a good fit for the Mastermind. We only work with highly motivated and determined students as our programme requires a good deal of independent study on top of the classes and courses on offer. To be successful, students will need to spend several hours each week on independent study, a level of commitment is required of all students.
