Oxbridge Preparation
with
LIFE MORE EXTRAORDINARY
Is your child aiming for Oxbridge? Are you looking for help with their Oxbridge preparation?
Did you know that getting the grades is only the first step? It takes much more than this to be offered a place.
From entrance exams to personal statements and interviews there are a lot of hurdles your child needs to jump in order to achieve their goal.
My name is Lucy Parsons. I am a Cambridge graduate, former secondary school teacher, academic coach and author of The Ten Step Guide to Acing Every Exam You Ever Take.
My team and I can help you navigate the Oxbridge application process in a manageable and enjoyable way helping your child to extend their intellectual curiosity and critical thinking so that they come across as a really interesting candidate, rather than one who's been overly coached.
What does the Oxbridge Preparation programme involve?
The Oxbridge Preparation programme is a one-to-one service.
When your child does their Oxbridge Preparation with us they will:
- Plan a set of activities that will truly impress admissions tutors, as well as deepen and widen their education, so that they can write confidently about their experiences in their personal statement and talk about them with ease if they are invited to interview
- Be held accountable to executing their plan so that they have a great set of experiences and insights to write about in their personal statement
- Have support with writing the first draft of their personal statement, through my tried and tested methods, so that they don't waste time looking at a blank screen not knowing where to begin
- Get an Oxbridge personal statement review so that they can get their personal statement done and dusted without writing twenty drafts or over-thinking it
- Receive help and advice to make sure they stay on track with getting the grades
- Be given advice about where to go for entrance test preparation and Oxbridge interview practice
What you will get when you sign your child up for Oxbridge Preparation:
- Six live calls to be spaced over the time from when you sign-up to when your application is complete. These calls will be used to:
- Plan the activities they need to do to write about in their personal statement
- Keep them on track with their plan as well as their studies
- Do their Oxbridge personal statement review
- Review their progress on entrance test preparation and mock interviews
- Access to my Personal Statement Masterclass (worth £99)
- Email support between calls
What you won't necessarily get when you sign your child up for the Top Ten Mastermind:
- Practice interviews. In some cases a member of the team will be able to do practice interviews for students as part of the package, or at an extra cost (depending on how you've used your sessions), or point you towards someone better qualified ( i.e. they have a degree in the right subject from Oxbridge, or they're an experienced Oxbridge mock-interviewer)
- Help with entrance exams or tests. This depends on whether we have the expertise on our team. What we can't provide is detailed tutoring for the tests within the scope of the six call package - but, where we're qualified, we can point you in the right direction with your preparation.
Who will you be working with?
In the first instance, you will have a call with Helen Chaplain, my lead academic coach to determine how we can help you. Helen will be able to recommend whether you work with her, or another member of a hand-picked team who all have highly relevant Oxbridge preparation experience.
Meet Helen Chaplain...
As both an English teacher and a solicitor, Helen can assist in structuring and drafting personal statements which require precise expression within a limited character count. Helen has been a sixth form tutor throughout her teaching career and has worked with many students applying to a wide range of courses and institutions, assisting them with personal statements and the application process generally. As an academic reference writer for her schools, she is also able to advise on how best to ensure that all of a student's academic and extra-curricular achievement is recognised. Helen is also familiar with the issues which arise out of the UCAS application system, sixth form study and other concerns.
Helen is an Oxford graduate, and for the past ten years has been working in independent schools rated “excellent”, not only as an English teacher, but overseeing applications to Oxford, Cambridge and other highly competitive universities across the curriculum. As the Oxbridge co-ordinator and Head of the More Able and Talented Programme at a leading Cheshire independent school, she has advised students of all ages on developing their super-curricular interests.
How much does this cost?
The total cost for the Oxbridge Preparation Programme is £900.
If you are interested in your child taking part, please book a free 15 minute call with our lead academic coach, Helen Chaplain (Oxford English graduate) to check whether you are a good fit for Oxbridge coaching with us. This is a good time for you to ask any questions you have.
"Lucy is a wonderful personal statement tutor, she is so dedicated to helping students achieve their dreams. She completely transformed my personal statement into one that allowed me to get an offer from Cambridge!
Lucy’s patience, creativity and linguistic prowess ensured that the process of writing my personal statement was efficient and ultimately successful! All of her resources in her writing package are invaluable, I would highly recommend their use as they provided an excellent structure. Lucy also tutored me on how to approach the entrance exam, these few hours could not have been spent better! I highly recommend Lucy as a tutor, she is truly amazing!"
Kathryn, successful applicant to Newnham College, Cambridge
Is your child a good fit for Oxbridge Preparation?
To be a good fit your child should be:
- In year 12
- Have As or 7s and above at GCSE (ideally 8s and 9s). They should be on track to get As and A*s at A Level
- Be prepared to do the work - we can't do the work for them, it has to come from them
- Have natural intellectual curiosity
When can I start?
I would suggest starting as soon as possible after your child has received their GCSE results, but you can start any time up to the July of Year 12.
"I knew from the outset that it was going to take me a long time to write my personal statement, as I am a huge perfectionist. So I signed up to Lucy’s personal statement workshop to guide me and help me be more efficient and productive with my time. It provided me with a structure to start from, and saved me hours, if not days, of fiddling around with details that I would eventually have to cut out anyway! Once I finished my final draft, Lucy reviewed it with me via Zoom, and helped me to put the finishing touches on it. This spared me a great deal of anxiety and I felt very proud of the result.
On the back of this I managed to secure an interview for Cambridge, and remembering how helpful she was with the personal statement, I asked Lucy to help me prepare. Personally for me, the biggest concern was my mindset and approach to the interview. In just an hour, Lucy helped me see the interview as a positive opportunity to interact with world-leading experts, and not something to be terrified of. Thank you Lucy for making the Cambridge application process so much more enjoyable than it could have been!"
Successful Cambridge applicant, Natural Sciences
Frequently Asked Questions about my Oxbridge Help
What previous success do you have getting students into Oxbridge?
In the 2019 application round two students I helped with elements of their application got places and four were invited for interview, out of six who I helped with their personal statement. This is an overall success rate of 33%. The current success rates for all students who apply is about 16% for Oxford and 20% for Cambridge. We will be realistic with people about their chances of getting in, based on their GCSE grades and school backgrounds, but some people choose to work with us despite the relatively low chances of getting in. We never want anyone to spend the rest of their lives thinking 'what if?'.