From reading lists, online resources, and study tips that actually work for Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams — you name it, we cover it.
Entrance examinations for Oxford and Cambridge are a key step in the pathway to your Oxbridge offer, but they can be an overwhelming process for candidates who are already dealing with the academic pressures of school.
In this guide, we’ll explore effective study habits to eliminate as much excess stress as you can, the importance of creating a revision schedule, and valuable online resources that can enhance your preparation, to help you feel confident and prepared on the big day.
Which entrance exams do I have to take?
First, let's break down whether you need to take an entrance exam at all.
BMAT = Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine.
Philosophy Test = Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).
MAT = Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering.
PAT = Physics, Engineering, and Materials Science.
ELAT = English Language and Literature.
MLAT = Modern Languages.
HAT = History and related courses.
LNAT = Law.
Cambridge ONLY Entrance Exams
Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) = Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, Human, Social, and Political Sciences, and Economics.
EAA = Engineering.
NSAA = Natural Sciences.
If you've had the unfortunate realisation of seeing your degree on this list, read on. You'll need some advice.
Effective study habits
Active learning is your new best friend.
What's active learning, you ask? Well, rather than endlessly re-reading notes and highlighting the same sections over and over, active learning requires recalling information without prompts.
A popular, and effective, form of active recall is making flashcards that have blanks for key info that you have to fill in. But there's some other great forms of active recall that work exceptionally well:
Teaching someone else
Teaching other people can be a great way of consolidating your understanding, and forces you to be able to summarise and simplify without the crutch of your notes next to you.
Quizzes and Q&As
This is where a study partner can be a great addition to your team, as Q&As are a tried-and-true method of effective study. It can enhance retrieval skills, while keeping you socially engaged!
Re-writing from scratch
Our personal favourite. Try recalling your notes (whether that's mind-maps or lists) from scratch in a green pen. Then go over your notes and fill in everything you've missed with a red pen. Keep going until everything is green and you feel confident in the topic.
This is a great way of visually keeping yourself accountable with how much you actually know, not just what you think you know.
You know what they say. Work smarter, not harder.
Making a revision schedule
Making a schedule is key, but make sure to do it right or you're asking for burnout.
You've heard a million times to keep space for breaks, but it's useful to actually mention what you're going to use those breaks for to avoid simply scrolling on reels. Colour code blocks for exercise, a hobby (like cooking, or reading for fun), family time and social time. Make your breaks work for you.
It's also important to consider spaced repetition, which just means that you should revisit material at increasing intervals of time. So rather than scheduling revising unseen poetry (or whatever it is) on Monday and Tuesday, consider spacing it out to Monday and Friday. This is the best way to activate your long-term memory, and becomes really useful in stressful exam situations where short term memory can fail you.
Online resources
There are plenty of online resources for when you're studying for Oxbridge entrance exams. Here's a list of the best Avalon-approved ones:
Official sites like the Oxford entrance test page and the Cambridge entrance test page are great for finding general information, but are also the best places to find accurate sample papers.
Learning platforms are good for consolidating basic knowledge; Seneca Learning is one of our favourites for supplementary learning.
We have to mention Quizlet. For obvious reasons.
Socratic is a new AI-powered site by Google which offers exam simulated environments, among other helpful things, if you're worried about exam conditions.
Obviously the best online resource is Avalon, if we do say so ourselves.
But seriously, a lesson with us includes basically all of the above, wrapped up into one time-efficient hour. Don't just take our word for it; book now and see for yourself how our personalised guidance and expert insights (from a tutor who has successfully taken the exact exam you're studying for) will revolutionise the way you study for an Oxbridge entrance exam.
What are you waiting for?
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