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ACADEMIC MATTERS
Psychology
Mrs Edwards, Head of Psychology, met up with Sofie Procter (OK 2021) after her first year reading Experimental Psychology at New College, Oxford.
How have you found your first year?
What is the best thing about university life?
I am loving the whole experience. Everything we study is so relevant to everyday life, whether I’m learning about 3D vision or the importance of emotions in cooperative behaviour, which makes the work so enjoyable as I can see its importance. Of course, Oxford is not an easy place to study with one or more essays a week, but I’ve found all my tutors to be so helpful and encouraging. I was worried that I might have to sacrifice my extracurricular interests for the academic work so I didn’t fall behind, but that is not the case at all as I found that my sport commitments, in particular, make me more productive during the day; my tutors particularly encourage this because it’s so important to have some balance in your routine. Oxford, for me, is the perfect balance of everything. It’s big enough that the university doesn’t dominate and there are plenty of different places to go for lunch or drinks, but it’s small enough that I often bump into people I know, and everything is within a 20-minute walk. Obviously, the buildings are so beautiful, and I’ve been lucky enough to visit friends or tutors in other colleges, which has been so interesting.
It’s rare that I walk out of my room without bumping into someone that I know – whether it’s from college, my subject, sport or societies, I’m bound to see a friendly face wherever I go which makes university feel a lot like home. This also means that life is quite spontaneous as I’ll bump into someone and invite them for a coffee or decide to play tennis with some friends after dinner.
How have you changed since going to university? Without a doubt I’ve grown in confidence, particularly with the tutorial system at Oxford. I’ve learnt to accept that I probably won’t know the answer to every question I am asked but I am happy to make an educated guess or just admit that I’m not sure so my tutor can help explain it to me. We are also encouraged to introduce originality into our essays so I’ve learnt to carry out my own research into a topic and present papers which extend the content covered in lectures or present an alternative viewpoint to the essay question I’m answering.
How would you advise someone to make the most of university? The best thing for me was getting involved in sport, especially team sports like hockey. At a university like Oxford, where students are separated into colleges, mingling with other colleges is so important to expand your social circles and I’ve found that sport is a great way to do this while getting some fresh air away from work.
KINGSTONIAN 2021/22
Sport might not be for everyone, so there are loads of other societies for you to get involved in and meet new people and I’d really encourage it!
What have you missed about KGS? I really miss being able to study more than one subject. While Psychology was definitely the right choice for me, I do wish I could have continued some of my other subjects as well. I would advise students who feel the same that applying to Scottish universities may be a great solution as you are often encouraged to take multiple subjects in your first year. There are, however, other ways of keeping up additional subjects; for example, I am considering joining a language centre in Oxford to continue with my Spanish.
What advice would you give someone applying to study Psychology at university? Thoroughly research the course that is specific to the university they are applying to. I have found that the Oxford course is particularly science heavy, with modules on neurophysiology, perception and statistics, for example. While this worked in my favour, I know others were surprised by this and have perhaps struggled more with grasping the concepts. Not all universities take such a science-based approach to the subject so this should be considered before choosing where to apply.
