Shadowing Practice: What Studying at Oxford is Really Like - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, my name is Victoria and I just finished my first year as an undergrad at Oxford studying philosophy, politics and economics

and I'm basically going to walk you through the past year

to help you get a better idea of what it's like to be a student at Oxford.

First, just to make a distinction,

Oxford is the university but Oxford is composed of 30 something undergrad colleges and each one has its own dining hall,

its own tutors which are professors, It has its accommodations.

its grounds.

and that is basically where students spend their time.

So they go to a college at the University of Oxford and You don't just go to like Oxford generally.

The academic year at Oxford is composed of three terms.

So you have a Micklemes.

Hillary and Trinity.

Each term is eight weeks long.

Usually students arrive during zeroth week though and then there are six weeks between the terms.

So the brakes are quite long Term time is very intense.

So the first term of the year is Mechomis.

It starts in the beginning of October as a fresher, which is what they call first year undergrads.

You show up during zeroth week and you have a whole orientation week where they have you get to know everyone, get to know what it's like to be a student there,

and you get to meet your college family.

which is basically the system that most Oxford colleges have.

where as a student you get assigned

a student in the year above you who's in your course ideally

and hopefully has some traits that are similar to you And they sort of mentor you or

provide a source of information for you as you settle into your life at Oxford.

Then, as a first year, you get like married to just any of your friends and then you can become college parents.

and then you'll get your children assigned to you once you start your second year.

So I have three college spouses, I guess you would say.

Obviously it's not like a romantic thing, it's just these are some of my best friends.

or like college married

and then we'll have the chance to do family things with the freshers we get assigned

when we go back in the fall.

During freshers week they will have maybe like a fair for the different clubs

surrounding the college you can go to the university -wide pressure's fair

you will usually have a meeting where you meet the tutors

the tutors are basically your professors they are who you'll have tutorials with which is the whole Oxford tutorial system where

about every week you go and you bring out an essay or a problem sheet that you worked on

and talk it through with your tutors and it's more like a a dynamic conversation

to really push the way you think more so than Like, here's a grade.

"Here's what you're supposed to do." there were also bops and like parties and a lot of social stuff, bops are just um

like a party hosted by the college and a lot of different social things happening in the first week.

Also, obviously, in the UK drinking is legal from 18

So alcohol is like at almost every event at Oxford at the end of the first week of like lectures, tutorials

coursework once

that started at the end of the first week you have your matriculation where you wear your subfusk

that hopefully you picked up during freshers week which is your gown, your mortarboard, and then ribbon or tie.

and just a white shirt and then a skirt or trousers.

that have to be black and then black shoes and tights.

And matriculation is basically just a ceremony where you become officially a student, you walk down, to the Sheldonian.

You can wear your mortarboard which you don't get to wear again

until you graduate and you become officially a student of the university.

Throughout Michaelmas term is a great time to explore different clubs and societies.

I tried out rowing, which I have stuck with, and now I'm going to be vice captain next year, which is super fun.

You'll probably have some kind of initiations either with your subject for your course.

which I wasn't really prepared for but usually hopefully they're just like funny little activities

that you get to go around the university doing.

And then there are some holidays.

in Michaelmas so obviously there's Halloween which is mostly just like a clubbing event.

There's the 5th of November which is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night.

There is Thanksgiving if you're an American like me.

my warden hosted a Thanksgiving dinner that I was invited to which was very nice and also like

Hall just served a Thanksgiving formal for anyone who booked on.

then there's oxmas which is basically like the Christmas season but because I the end of term is quite early.

I think it's at the beginning of December

you can't really celebrate Christmas while you're there so they have Oxmas

where like the chapel will have events you'll put up a Christmas tree, and they'll have usually a Christmas like, Sunday dinner. in -haul.

The second term of the year is Hillary.

It starts mid -January.

And it's historically just kind of the worst term of the year.

The weather isn't great.

It's very rainy.

you can't really do much like my whole rowing season got cancelled because the river flooded Um, it's not the most happy time of year.

Which they do have like fifth week blues is a term that they have where like each term by fifth week, you know, There's a lot of pressure from the work you haven't been home for a

while and so you'll get like fifth week blues and they'll usually try to have

some welfare events to bring up people's spirits but Hillary just kind of the whole term

is that although I had a great Hillary so you know it doesn't have to bring you down

But some of the fun holidays that they have and Hillary are Burns Night, where you get to have haggis and do like the Ode to the Haggis,

and try it, which is really fun.

Um, they're Shrug Tuesday, just like Mardi Gras, Pancake Day, the day before lunch starts And then, the whole like Lent season starts

on the Wednesday Ash Wednesday which is actually quite a fun thing to do the choir and chapels

at Oxford are really nice even if you aren't religious

It's a great place to go just because it's so beautiful and The choirs are usually quite good.

And they have a lot of events with like also refreshments if you want that.

And then in Hillary, there's for the big rowing event.

torpids which didn't happen my year because the rowing river flooded but it's usually a fun event.

Um, and then they have like St. Patrick's Day is at the very end of term So sometimes that happens, like celebrations.

Sometimes not really.

Hillary, there's just not a ton happening.

There might be some balls, some other events, but Besides that, it's mostly just like your prime working time.

Over the Easter vac, if you're interested in rowing, there's the boat race between Cambridge in Oxford that happens

and I also went to a rowing camp so some colleges will have different camps or trainings

that they'll do during the vacs.

The third term of the year is Trinity.

which is mostly a revision term where people are quite stressed it's still a very fun time because the weather's better, but if you're in first year,

you have exams at the end of your first year called prelims.

which they don't count towards your final grade for like your degree

but they are very important because if you fail them you have to reset them and if you fail your reset

you don't get to come back to the school.

Um, and because you haven't had any real grades or tests up to that point.

So the structure of the academics at Oxford is that You have your tutorials each week.

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and in order to prepare for your tutorials where you have a discussion with your professor

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you can go to lectures most lectures are

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more or less optional or they'll have recordings

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So it's not like overly necessary that you go is encouraged and it can really help

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but most of your learning comes from you reading

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just on your own from the reading list that's assigned to you by your tutors.

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If you're in a STEM subject, you'll have labs.

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and lectures as well but you'll also have some kind of problem sheets to work through and then you take your

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you know, essay, Um, tutorial sheet whatever it is you send it to your professor and then they will sometimes

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give you a grade on it but it's not a great accounts for anything it's just like an approximation how you're doing.

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Or they might just give you some comments on like, "Oh, you know, work on this." you know, ask you questions throughout the essay.

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which they might talk about more in your tutorial.

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So you don't get a grade...

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really at all from your tutors.

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at the end of the term you will get an evaluation of kind of like,

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"Oh, here's the mark that you would probably get based on your work on your prelims.

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and then at the beginning of each term you have mock exams called collections.

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that are put on by your college

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where you go and you sit and basically have a mock exam

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to give you an idea of what it would be like those do get marked and graded.

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On the grading scale, at Oxford is quite interesting.

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basically a 40 is a pass and then anywhere from a 50 to a 60 is a 2 /2

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Anywhere from a 60...

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to a 70 is a 2 -1 and then 70 and up is a first But no one really gets like

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honestly above like 75 I mean, maybe more so on Um,

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like STEM subjects where there's more maths involved But if you're doing an essay subject, it's very hard to get above that.

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Anything above 80 is considered publishable.

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So you're not like no one's really getting in that especially for a timed essay.

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during a preliminary exam.

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Besides having all that pressure for your first Oxford exams, during Trinity term.

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There are actually a lot of fun things happening.

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The weather is like really nice in Trinity, although we did have some heat waves which was not ideal.

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Especially.. considering the Oxford just doesn't have AC really at all.

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My college had a boat party where we went to London we got to go on a boat in the Thames

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There's Mayday which is

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this holiday where

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on the last day of April everyone stays up all night to hear the choir sing from the Maudlin tower.

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which It's fun, but like It's really hard to stay up all night.

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So some people just wake up early to go listen to that.

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There was Beating of the Bounds was a random one that I went to where they had

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the school boys go around to all these like marks throughout

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old center of Oxford and like they hit it and mark it.

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Um...

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That's like some kind of religious holiday.

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There's summer eights, which even if you don't do rowing, this is a really big social event.

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So everyone goes down to the river, to the boathouses.

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There's usually.. like drinks and you know, burgers on the grill and everyone watches the races to see which college will get headship,

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which college will bump every day.

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really fun to definitely do that and then a lot of colleges also have garden parties throughout the term

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and at the end of the term there are commemoration balls

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which are really fancy white tie events where like there are fireworks, there are performers.

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I didn't go to one this year but they are very expensive but also very fun.

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I've heard.

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Then once prelims happen, you have your carnation that you wear for prelims which is white for your first exam, pink for your exams in the middle,

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and then red for your final exam.

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And then after that people do

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this thing called trashing where they'll get paint powder and throw it at each other and then they'll jump in the river.

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This was actually like kind of forbidden by the Oxford City Council during my year, so it didn't happen so much.

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But it is a fun thing to do if you're allowed to do it.

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If you are thinking of applying to Oxford or you will be attending it, this coming fall.

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There are a few things to know one you definitely need to be self -motivated.

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I had maybe three four contact hours with tutors a week

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And then I also had lectures on top of that

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but there are only like a few hours a week where you actually need to be there

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and you will be held accountable.

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And especially also given that you don't get grades, it can feel easy.

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to kind of slack off on an essay or not do it very well.

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which isn't ideal for your academic performance So you need to be very self -driven.

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make your own schedule and stick to it.

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found

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that there was a pretty good work -life balance then again

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my subject is doesn't have a lot of contact hours

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so it was kind of up to me to make sure that I was spending enough time on my work

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and also making sure that I finished it in a short enough amount of time

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that I had time to do other things.

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I was very involved in rowing.

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I rowed or had practice of some sort almost every day.

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Um.. a note from my warden which is like the head of the college is that you should have one athletic

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sort of activity and one academic activity, which I think is a good way to think about to make sure you're doing enough, but also not doing too much.

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I think a lot of people had good work -life balance.

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but it can be very easy to just either spend all your time working

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in the library and just only coming out to eat and to sleep

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or to spend very little time in the library because you don't have a lot of contact hours and you think, "Oh, I can just write an essay in a few hours

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and it will be fine." because of all the work that people have meals are going to be your social time

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So in a haul, Colleges only have one hall each which is where you can go and you get your meals.

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There's no kind of meal plan, so it's up to you if you want to eat there or not.

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You can always go out and eat.

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Oxford isn't that affordable of a city to be doing that honestly like haul meals

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how good they are and how expensive they are is very dependent on what college you go to.

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but your hall is where a ton of people will be there

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eating and like your friend group will socialize because since everyone else has work so much of the time.

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you will sometimes only see people at meals Because the breaks between terms are so long, your accommodation and your lease might not include those break times,

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so that would mean that you have to move out

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every term even if you're living in the same room all three terms you have to move your stuff out.

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between them.

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There's usually some kind of storage provided for it by the college

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or that you can find around the city but it does pose a little bit of a complication.

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for me something now and it means that you probably should bring as much stuff like

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Decor wise or whatnot because you're just gonna have to bring it out and after every eight weeks.

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While it can definitely be stressful, I had a great time in my first year at Oxford, and I'm excited for the next two years to come.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “What Studying at Oxford is Really Like”. This video has 199 sentences and 2747 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:21. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tutor noun	/ˈtjuːtəː/	One who teaches another (usually called a student, learner, or tutee) in a one-on-one or small-group interaction.
tutorial noun	/ˌtjuːˈtɔːɹɪəl/	A self-paced learning exercise; a lesson prepared so that a student can learn at their own speed or convenience.
lecture noun	/ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/	A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group.
prelims noun		The preliminary front matter of a book; all content preceding the main text or work itself.
assign verb	/əˈsaɪn/	To designate or set apart (something) for some purpose.
fresher noun	/ˈfɹɛʃ.ɚ/	A first-year student at a university.
undergrad noun		An undergraduate.
haul verb	/hɔl/	To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
choir noun	/kwaɪɚ/	A group of people who sing together; a company of people who are trained to sing together.
compose verb	/kəmˈpəʊz/	To make something by merging parts.
haggis noun	/ˈhæɡɪs/	A traditional Scottish dish made from minced sheep offal with oatmeal and spices, etc., originally boiled in the stomach of a sheep but now often in an…
matriculation noun	/məˌtrɪkjəˈleɪʃən/	Enrollment in a college or university.
mortarboard noun		A rectangular board, with a handle, on which mortar or plaster is carried: a hawk.
zeroth adjective	/ˈzɪɹoʊθ/	In the initial position in a sequence whose elements are numbered starting at zero; the ordinal number corresponding to zero.
warden noun	/ˈwɔɹdən/	A chief administrative officer of a prison.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
stay up verb	To remain awake; to not go to bed.
bring out verb	To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).
bring up verb	To mention.
go around verb	To move or spread from person to person.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.
move out verb	To leave one's present location; to leave somewhere for another place.
pick up verb	To lift; to grasp and raise.
put up verb	To place in a high location.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	tutors which are · fresher, which is · with which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is composed · was invited · is encouraged
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have stuck · haven't been · haven't had

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 57 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: zeroth /ˈzɪɹoʊθ/, athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fresher /ˈfɹɛʃ.ɚ/, matriculation /məˌtrɪkjəˈleɪʃən/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, approximation /əˌpɹɑk.sɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, carnation /kɑɹˈneɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: matriculation /məˌtrɪkjəˈleɪʃən/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, approximation /əˌpɹɑk.sɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, commemoration /kəˌmɛməˈɹeɪʃən/, complication /ˌkɑm.pləˈkeɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like tutor, tutorial, lecture.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: What Studying at Oxford is Really Like - Learn English Speaking with Video

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