Ancient and Modern History

Ancient and Modern History (AMH) has a quite small intake, especially compared to standard Modern History, but it's a great course and really enjoyable. The course is split so that there has to be at least some ancient and some modern (though modern history is anything after c.300 AD), but its quite flexible, so to a certain degree you can tailor the topics to fit your interests: You can keep your focus on one period if you like, but I think the best bit about AMH is being able to make comparisons between areas of history centuries apart from each other.

The teaching itself is divided between hour long lectures (mostly at the Exam Schools, less than five minutes from college), and tutorials, which depend on your tutor, but are usually at least an hour long. The number of lectures isn't very heavy, most often 2-3 a week, which is something the scientists love to complain about. More emphasis is placed on the tutorials, or 'tutes' as they're known, of which there are usually three a fortnight in the first year, since the mainstay of your studies will be preparing essays for these. Outside of this, your time is your own, but the downside of so much independence is that you have to be able to manage your time by yourself. If you can't be bothered to do the reading and write the essay, it won't get done and you won't gain anything. At the same time college helps you as much as it can. We have a great college library, with most of the basic books there, and Magdalen has a good number of history tutors (If you want to do a specific topic that isn't covered by tutor in our college, they'll make arrangements with a tutor at another college). Most importantly, being in a close-knit college community means that if you are pressed for time and trying to finish an essay, or just need a break and want to chat with someone, there will always be someone there and the people around you all deal with the same pressures themselves and understand.

As for the interview, the interviewers won't expect you to have an historical encyclopaedia in your head. You don't have to have done Classics or Latin or Greek to do AMH (In fact, you can do the course without studying any ancient language), but you will need to demonstrate an active interest in the ancient world, so obviously some awareness will be expected. Other than that, what they will be looking for are the same skills which the HAT (the History Aptitude Test, which you will normally sit at you own school in November) is designed to test; the ability to consider evidence and form an argument from it, and then to review that argument in view of discussion. In fact, the interview is a lot like a tute, though obviously more intense. You will be given time before your interview to examine and compare some passages or artefacts and make notes, but there really isn't much that you can do to prepare for this beforehand. The best advice I can give you is to read around the essay you submit, any topics which came up in the HAT, and anything you claimed to know about in your personal statement, because it's these, along with the passages I mentioned above, which you will be asked about. The interviewers will pick up on what you say and question you, but don't panic. What they are looking are for is the ability to form an argument, and to adapt that argument when flaws are pointed, coming away with a fuller insight into the topic.

Good Luck.