Philosophy, Politics, and Economics is one of the most prestigious courses at Oxford, and indeed the world, and is arguably the very most. In 2017, the Guardian described it as 'the Oxford degree that runs Britain' and noted that its graduates 'make up an astonishing proportion of Britain's elite.'

It is well-known that a wildly disproportionate number of British politicians studied PPE (Ed Balls, David Cameron, Yvette Cooper, Ed Davey, William Hague, Ted Heath, Michael Heseltine, Nigel Lawson, Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Rory Stewart, Rishi Sunak, and Liz Truss, to name but a few).

Less well-known is the fact that a huge number of politicians from all over the world studied PPE at Oxford as well! These include Tony Abbott, former Prime Minister of Australia, Pete Buttigieg, former US Secretary of Transportation, Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer and former Prime Minister, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, former President of Peru, John Kufuor, former President of Ghana, Kukrit Pramoj, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the first State Counsellor of Myanmar and 1991 Nobel Peace Price Laureate.

However, PPE is not just for politicians. It's also been studied by actors (Riz Ahmed), army generals (Wesley Clark), authors (Walter Isaacson), business executives (Nick Denton), financiers (Guy Hands), historians (Anthony Seldon), journalists (Mehdi Hasan), and even US supreme court justices (Stephen Breyer). Clearly, whatever it is you want to accomplish in life, studying PPE at Oxford is a great first step!

Besides its famous alumni, one of the wonderful things about PPE is the freedom you have in your study. Students in their second and third years take a total of eight modules of their choosing, which can range from Jurisprudence, to Hellenistic Philosophy, to Politics in South Asia, to Marx and Marxism, to History of the World Economy. This allows, you to keep following your interests as you evolve over the course of university.

There is further freedom to be found in the style of teaching, with two compulsory contact hours per week in tutorials, as well as a number of interesting lectures you may attend, and a great deal of independent study, allowing you to structure your days as you see fit.

The range of topics you can study means that the course attracts all types of thinkers, leading to a dynamic student population, united in their love of thinking deeply and curiosity about the world.

Of course, all of this means that the application process for PPE is highly competitive, and you're competing against many of the brightest minds in the world. Of the 1,908 students who applied for PPE between 2022 and 2024, only 12% were successful. As such, tutoring can be essential in securing a place. That's where we come in, providing our expert guidance to help you stand out from the crowd.

If you want to learn more, just get in touch with us at hello@ppesuccess.com, or give us a call on +20 8156 4942. Good luck!

Absolutely - students often surprise themselves, and so you never know for sure whether or not you will be successful. Also, the application process itself can prove beneficial for students, deepening their appreciation of the subject. Finally, studying this course is such a wonderful opportunity, and so you don't want to live with the regret of not even trying!

If you're truly unsure, get in touch with us at hello@ppesuccess.com, or give us a call on +20 8156 4942, and we can arrange a consultation.

There are no subjects that are essential requirements for admission. However, we recommend that you take Maths, as this can be useful for the Economics component of the course, and you may struggle without it.

Beyond this, it's helpful to have taken an essay subject, but there is no need to have studied Philosophy, Politics, or Economics (and having done so will not aid your application). As such, we advise that you choose those subjects which you enjoy, and believe you're likely to score highly in.

The A-Level entry requirements are AAA. For Advanced Highers the requirements are AA/AAB. For IB the entry requirements are 39 (including core points) with 766 at HL.

If you're wondering, say, whether it's worth taking an additional A-Level to boost your chances, it's useful to know that once the entry requirements are satisfied, other aspects of your application take precedence, such as the TSA score. As such, while you should ensure that you meet the requirements, going above and beyond is unlikely to aid your application, and so that effort should be allocated towards the TSA and interview instead.

For GCSE, A-Level, and IB tuition, visit our partners, Avalon Education.

Yes! We offer tuition for GCSE, A-Level, and IB students through our partners, Avalon Education. Theirs tutors can tutor you for your exams, ensuring that you're in the best position possible when it comes to making your application.

We recommend that students begin initial preparation as early as possible, as this allows you to progress at a calmer pace, and gives you more time to broaden your knowledge of the subject. Due to the importance of exam results, if it's more than a year before your application date, your focus should be on getting the best grades possible, with occasional (every month or so) tutorials to discuss readings. For GCSE, A-Level, and IB tuition, visit our partners, Avalon Education.

We advise that students begin preparing in earnest in January of their application year, as this allows for sufficient time to cover comfortably all past papers, the personal statement, and mock interviews.

If you want to take a gap year, you have two options: One, apply in year 13 for deferred entry, meaning that you will apply with your peers, but join the year after, allowing you to have the year off. Two, apply in your gap year, after finishing your A-Levels.

Each has its pros and cons. With the first option, some believe that you need to impress your tutors even more to receive an offer, as they want the confidence not just that you're one of the best candidates this year, but also next year. However, if you're not successful, you can apply again in the gap year.

With the second option, you can apply with your confirmed rather than predicted A-Levels, and you have more time to focus on your application rather than juggling it with your school work (and are, in theory, a year wiser!). However, if you are unsuccessful, reapplying means taking a second gap year!

The answer of what to do if you want to take a gap year, is different for every student - get in touch with us at hello@ppesuccess.com or give us a call on +20 8156 4942 and we would be happy to help you figure it out.

We are the only educational consultancy in the world with a singular focus on PPE applications to Oxford. This means that we can focus on offering the best guidance and tuition for this particular subject, rather than splitting our attention across a range of subjects and universities.

As a general rule, the Oxford tutors are seeking to admit the students of the greatest intellectual ability and potential.

That said, the university does take into account a variety of factors to inform the student's potential, and these include things like school background. As such, a student who is at a school that typically performs very poorly's grades will be looked upon more kindly than a student from a high-performing school's grades. This can mean that an independent school background may disadvantage your application when there is a finite number of places on the course.

Nevertheless, impressive students of every background are admitted every year. If you believe that it may be slightly more competitive for you because of the light in which your grades are viewed, that is all the more reason to work extra hard at the TSA and in interview prep, so that you're undeniably a great candidate anyway.

It's up to you. Most schools will review your personal statement, and will also likely arrange for a mock interview from one of your teachers.

However, schools have huge numbers of personal statements to get through, and so don't have the bandwidth to spend hours perfecting each one.

On the interview front, a mock interview with a teacher can be helpful, and you should take the opportunity if it's presented, but the teacher is unlikely to have recent, direct experience of Oxford PPE interviews (did they recently finish studying PPE at Oxford?). As such, they will struggle to replicate closely the experience of Oxford PPE interviews, and so it can only be of limited benefit. On the other hand, a mock interview course of several mock interviews, each with a different Oxford PPE tutor, means that by the real thing you will have experience with a range of questions and interview styles, as well as having received useful feedback on past performances, giving you the confidence you need on the day.

With regard to the TSA, this is something your school is very unlikely to prepare you for, in part due to the amount of time needed for adequate preparation. There are ~20 past papers available, and the best-prepared candidates will have gone through every one, marked them, and met with a tutor to discuss their errors - this is something that makes a crucial difference, and is something that most schools simply cannot offer.

We hire very selectively, and pay well to attract the best talent. Furthermore, our entire tutoring team studied PPE at Oxford, and so we are able to offer insights on the application process that can't be gained anywhere else.

You should write the personal statement as if it is for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, even if you're just applying for Politics and Economics elsewhere. As a rule, you should write the personal statement with the course at the most selective university on your list in mind, especially if that course includes more subjects.

Particularly for courses similar to PPE at top universities besides Oxford (say, Politics and Economics at Manchester), they are used to many of their applicants also applying to Oxford for PPE, and can infer that that is what is happening in your case, and your application won't be disadvantaged in any way. Students apply for slightly different courses at different universities all the time, and so it's nothing to worry about.

The most significant parts of your application are your predicted A-Level grades, your TSA score, and your performance at interview. Specifically, your application won't be considered if you don't meet the A-Level entry requirements. If you do, then you will sit the TSA, the score of which is the main factor in securing you an interview. If you are invited to interview, your performance there, along with your TSA score, are the main factors considered for the decision of whether to make you an offer.

As candidates are often not invited to interview until 1-2 weeks before the interview date, waiting to hear back before starting mock interviews can give you insufficient time to prepare.

As such, we advise beginning interview preparation shortly after completing the TSA. This will allow for a cadence of one mock interview per week, whilst ensuring that 4-6 mock interviews will have been completed before the real thing.

Seeking to cram several mock interviews into just a couple of weeks can be counterproductive as students struggle to remember feedback and keep improving over such a short time period, and also it can be difficult to arrange interviews with so many tutors on such short notice.

You can book your mock interview with us here to get started.

We have worked with 122 candidates since 2021, and are very proud to say that 96 of them received a place at Oxford, meaning we have a 79% success rate. This is down to the thorough, disciplined work done by our tutors and students, who work hard throughout the year to cover every single aspect of the application.

Most of our students join our 1st-Class Service, meaning they work in partnership with their tutor over the course of the year, ensuring that they have had the best preparation possible once it is time to apply.

One of the great things about the PPE course is the amount of doors that are open to you after studying it. Although it's renowned for producing prominent people in politics and media, PPE graduates also frequently go on to careers in finance, consulting, law, industry, academia, and entrepreneurship! Through our partners, Avalon Education, we offer careers consulting, so whether you are still applying to university and want help charting out your path, are now enrolled at Oxford, or anything else, we can help you plan what's next.