The Lockdown 2021 Challenge - Week 3

Lockdown is here again, and this time we are issuing a challenge to students in year 7, 8 or 9 at UK state schools. On Friday every week we will put up a new lockdown challenge, relating to a subject that you can study at university, and a question about studying at university. You will have until the following Friday to submit your answers to us. You can submit your answers using this online form. Please send any questions to us at admissions@worc.ox.ac.uk (and don't worry if you have missed last week's challenge, which was an Earth Sciences question: you can access it here.)

Lockdown Challenge Week 3: History

History is - as we all know - the study of the past, but it involves so much more than just trying to determine 'what actually happened'. A degree in History usually combines analysis of a huge range of different time periods with more focussed work on particular groups of people and places. It involves questions of interpretation (who is telling the story in the way they are telling it, and why?) as well as attention to detail and questioning of different kinds of evidence. See if you can answer the question below about local history. Think about different kinds of history - political, economic, social, religious, cultural - in your answer.

What would a historian find interesting about the place where you live?

You could try talking to members of your household to see what they remember about the place where you live, or doing some research on the internet.

Thinking about university...

One of the answers students often give when they are asked why they chose to go to university is 'so as to get a good start in my career'. It is true that university can get your career off to a fantastic start: university graduates usually have higher salaries when they begin their careers, and they usually earn more over the course of the their careers than people who do not have a university degree too. But some people think that which subject you study determines what job you can get when you finish your degree: and for most jobs that isn't true. In fact, most degrees can lead you into most jobs and professions (with obvious exceptions: if you want to be a doctor, for instance, you will need to study Medicine!). In most cases, employers value the skills that university students learn while studying for their degrees much more than the knowledge of the subject that they learn. 

Write down as many jobs as you can think of that someone who has a degree in English Literature could work in. If you are stuck, you could take a look at this website which has some suggestions.