Super-Curricular Activities for Politics and PPE: Reading, Competitions and Projects

Admissions tutors for Politics, Philosophy and Economics and for single-honours Politics read personal statements looking for evidence that a candidate reads and thinks independently of the A-Level syllabus, since the courses ask students to build and defend an argument from week one, instead of recalling a fixed body of content. A UCAS form that lists school subjects and grades tells a tutor nothing they cannot already see elsewhere on the form; a paragraph showing a candidate has followed a question past the classroom, formed a view, and tested that view against a counter-argument does. Super-curricular activity is how that evidence gets made, not a box to tick alongside predicted grades.

PPE courses in particular test comfort moving between disciplines that reason differently: philosophy building formal arguments from premises, economics modelling behaviour with assumptions and data, politics weighing institutions, power and history against each other. Interviewers tend to probe for evidence a candidate has already tried this kind of movement, instead of committing to one discipline before arriving. Politics-only courses look instead for sustained curiosity about how power, institutions and ideas interact, tested against reading beyond the news cycle.

None of this requires unusual access. Reading, competitions, lectures and small independent projects are as available to a sixth-former in a comprehensive school as to one in a school with a dedicated Oxbridge programme; what varies is depth of engagement, and depth is what an interviewer tests for in the minutes they spend probing a text a candidate claims to have read.

What counts as super-curricular activity in Politics and PPE

Super-curricular activity means work that extends a school subject in the direction a degree will take it, as against extra-curricular activity such as sport, music or volunteering, which builds character but rarely speaks to academic readiness. For Politics and PPE the distinction carries extra weight, since many applicants arrive without having studied Politics, Philosophy or Economics formally to A-Level; History, English, Maths and Sciences are all common routes in, and a tutor reading a form from a candidate with no dedicated subject on their timetable relies more heavily on what that candidate has read and done independently to judge fit.

Tutors reading applications and running interviews are less interested in the length of a reading list than in whether a candidate can explain, in their own words, the argument of a book they claim to have read and say where they disagree with it. A personal statement naming five texts with no evaluation reads weaker than one naming two with a worked critique. The same principle governs competitions, lectures and projects: quantity signals effort, but only engagement signals the kind of thinking a tutorial or supervision will demand.

Reading around the subject

Reading is among the activities admissions tutors weigh most heavily, because it is the one every candidate can do regardless of what their school offers and because it maps directly onto what a degree in Politics or PPE actually involves: sustained engagement with primary arguments, instead of secondary summaries. A useful mix runs from classic texts, Plato, Mill, Rawls or Hobbes depending on interest, through contemporary academic argument, to serious journalism and long-form commentary, showing that a candidate follows current debate and treats politics as a living, present-day subject.

Depth matters more than range; a candidate who has read one dense text closely, made notes on where the argument is weakest, and can defend or attack it under questioning is in a stronger position than one who has skimmed ten. Reading a text alongside a review or critical response tends to produce exactly this kind of two-sided grasp, and is usually a better use of limited time than working through an extended list.

Competitions and essay prizes

Essay competitions and prizes give a candidate a specific question and a deadline, which does more to develop the skill of building an argument than open-ended reading does on its own. The process of drafting, cutting weak claims and defending a thesis against an anticipated counter-argument rehearses exactly what a PPE or Politics interview asks a candidate to do live. Placing or winning is a secondary benefit; the discipline of producing a structured, referenced piece of writing to a brief is the primary one, worth citing in a personal statement whether or not the entry was shortlisted.

Several established competitions run categories relevant to Politics and PPE applicants, including the John Locke Institute's essay competition, the Institute of Economic Affairs' student essay prizes and the Orwell Youth Prize for political and social writing. Debating and Model United Nations serve a related purpose, forcing a candidate to argue a position they may not hold and to respond to challenge in real time, close to the format of an Oxbridge interview.

Lectures, courses and online learning

Public lectures and free short courses let a candidate hear how academics in the field actually frame a question, which differs in useful ways from how the same topic appears in an A-Level syllabus or a newspaper article. Attending or watching a lecture is only worth citing if the candidate can summarise the argument and say what they made of it; a list of events attended with no comment on content signals attendance alone.

University outreach programmes aimed specifically at sixth-formers, alongside long-running public lecture series from bodies such as Gresham College and the LSE, give consistent access to this kind of material without requiring travel beyond an internet connection. Cambridge's HE+ programme runs subject-specific online lecture series aimed at exactly this stage of preparation.

Projects, EPQ and work experience

An Extended Project Qualification gives a candidate the chance to frame and answer a single research question over several months, close in shape to undergraduate independent work and giving an interviewer something specific to probe. A question narrow enough to research properly, tested against sources with real disagreement between them, tends to produce a stronger EPQ than a broad survey of a large topic. Smaller self-directed projects, such as writing regularly for a school or online politics publication, work on the same principle with less time required.

Work experience carries limited weight in Politics and PPE applications, since neither degree trains for a licensed profession as Law and Medicine do; direct exposure to institutions can still ground reading that would otherwise stay abstract, through shadowing a constituency office, volunteering on a campaign, or attending a local council meeting. School politics societies, Model UN chapters and debating clubs offer a lower-effort route to the same kind of exposure and are worth joining even where formal work experience is hard to arrange.

A Year 12 to Year 13 timeline

Preparation tends to work best moving from broad to narrow across the two years; starting narrow too early risks locking in a project before a candidate has found what actually holds their attention. Year 12 is the point for wide reading, joining a politics or debating society, and testing a few competitions or lecture series to see which suit a candidate's interests. Year 13 then narrows that exploration down to the two or three activities a personal statement will actually discuss in depth, alongside interview preparation once offers of interview arrive.

• Year 12, autumn to spring: wide reading across politics, philosophy and economics; join a relevant school society
• Year 12, summer: sit one or two essay competitions; decide whether to pursue an EPQ and settle a research question
• Year 13, early autumn: draft and redraft the personal statement around two or three activities discussed in depth
• Year 13, from November: interview preparation, revisiting the reading and projects cited on the form

Writing about it in the personal statement and at interview, and common mistakes

A personal statement for Politics or PPE reads strongest when it discusses two or three pieces of super-curricular work in real depth, instead of naming everything a candidate has done since Year 10. Each activity is worth linking explicitly to an idea it produced, an argument it changed the candidate's mind on, or a question it left open, since tutors are reading for evidence of thought, beyond a simple record of attendance.

At interview, anything named on the form is fair game for close questioning, and tutors will often ask a candidate to defend a position taken in an essay or reading note and then push back on it to see how the argument holds up under pressure. Preparation for this means revisiting cited texts shortly before interview, not simply trusting notes made months earlier, and practising the habit of stating a view, hearing a counter-argument, and adjusting the position in response, instead of repeating the original claim unchanged.

• Listing activities without saying what was learned or where the candidate disagreed
• Citing a text or lecture that cannot be discussed in detail if raised at interview
• Treating super-curricular work as separate from A-Level subjects, without linking it back to them
• Leaving all activity until the autumn of Year 13, when there is little time left to go deep
• Choosing competitions or projects for how they will look, which tends to show under questioning

Recommended resources for Politics and PPE

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: Grounds the psychology behind decision-making and behavioural economics central to the PPE core.
• Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel: An accessible entry into applied moral and political philosophy, built around worked ethical dilemmas.
• Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein: Connects economic theory to public policy design, a common PPE and Politics interview theme.
• Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson: Argues institutions, not geography or culture, explain political and economic development.
• The Republic by Plato: A founding text of political philosophy on justice, power and the ideal state, frequently raised at interview.
• John Locke Institute Essay Competition: A well-established essay competition with categories in politics, philosophy and economics for sixth-formers.
• Institute of Economic Affairs student essay competitions: Runs regular essay prizes and resources for sixth-formers on economics and public policy questions.
• Orwell Youth Prize: A national writing prize on political and social themes, judged on argument and clarity.
• Gresham College: Free public lectures, many on political thought, history and philosophy, delivered by leading academics.
• LSE Public Lectures and Events: Regular free lectures and panel discussions from LSE academics on politics, government and international affairs.
• The Rest Is Politics: A widely followed weekly podcast on current UK and international politics, useful for following live debate.

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