Chris - ASNAC

Name: Chris Milliken
Subject: Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
Year: 2nd
A-levels: English Lit, History, Maths, Further Maths

What does your working week entail?

An Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic-ist's working week depends very much on the combination of subjects taken. For example, an Asnac (the term Asnac is often used to describe the subject and those studying it) taking a number of language papers will have set amounts of translation to undertake each week, whereas one who focuses more on the history side will have only a weekly essay to complete. Also, palaeography students (in second year at least) sometimes have a little bit of transcription homework per week.

I study one language (Old English), three history papers (Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and Brittonic) and a palaeography paper, therefore I have a
couple of hours of translation to do, some transcription work and a weekly essay of about 1,500--2,000 words. I spend most of my working time in libraries reading and planning for my essay. I then have a 1 hour supervision on my essay.

How easy was the transition from A-level to the first year of your degree?

Reasonably easy. It can be tough getting used to having to work everything out for yourself to begin with, but you soon settle into a rhythm. You will soon become expert at navigating around the University Library (and its tea room), for instance! Also, the academic staff are sympathetic and don't expect you to understand everything or not have problems with some aspects of your work in the first year.

As an added bonus, the course structure is changing somewhat from 2008 admissions onwards, so students will have (I believe) some introductory lectures on the course before term begins so that they do not feel completely out of their depth at the start of the year.

How easily can you fit social activities into your working week?

Quite easily -- so long as you're organised. After a while you come to understand what is expected of you, so you will easily be able to gauge what you should be doing and when you should be doing it.

What sort of things did you talk about in your interview?

I was tested very much on my ability to think and reason. Because Asnac is
not well-represented in the A-level curriculum, they do not expect you to
know too much. I was asked about, for example, the pros and cons of
archaeological and historical evidence, the linguistic advantages a Latin
poet might have over one writing in modern English and asked to discuss the
interesting aspects of a couple of photographs and drawings.

They will also probably ask you about an aspect (or aspects) of the course
that you find particularly interesting. I had read some Old English poetry
so I mentioned that, and we had a brief discussion about the themes in the
poetry as well as how I would compare it to Chaucer (I had admitted on my
Cambridge Admissions Form that I was studying some Chaucerian poetry for
English Lit A-level).

Finally, I had submitted an essay along with my application but this was not
discussed. Be aware of this. They are not that interested in things which
you have told them on your form, but more how you can analyse problems or
issues which are inherent in studying Asnac.