Improve your application to Cambridge

Books

• Archaeology department reading list

Journals and articles

• Current Archaeology: Home

Websites

• My HE Plus - Archaeology
• Young Archaeologists' Club
• British Museum
• The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge

Podcasts

• Archaeology Podcast Network
• Naked Archaeology

Extra resources

Check the Classics, History, Geography and Human Social and Political Sciences sections below.

Books

• Preparatory reading - Arabic
• Preparatory reading - Chinese
• Preparatory reading - Hebrew
• Preparatory reading - Japanese
• Preparatory reading - Persian
• Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Websites

• My HE Plus – Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
• Arabic learning resources
• Language Centre - Japanese Language Courses
• Middle East Studies Association
• Association for Asian Studies: Homepage

News media

• Al Jazeera

Extra Resources

Check the Language, English, and History sections below.

Books

• Faculty of Classics for prospective students
• Faculty of Classics recommended reading

Journals and articles

• The Hellenic Journal, Study of Greek language, Hellenic Society
• Omnibus Magazine : Free Texts, Download, Borrow and Streaming

Websites

• My HE Plus - Classics
• Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
• The Roman Society
• Classical Civilisation
• ORBIS/Stanford

Video

• Introduction to Ancient Greek History with Donald Kagan
• Faculty of Classics - New Collection Videos

Podcasts

• Radio 4 - In Our Time, History
• Classical Art Research Centre, Oxford

Other activities

• Introducing Classical Latin
• Getting started on Classical Latin
• Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin
• Duolingo - The world's best way to learn a language

Extra Resources

Check the English, History of Art, and Philosophy sections below.

Books

• Barnabus Calder, Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency
• Mario Salvadori, Why Buildings Stand up
• David Bergman, Sustainable Design: a Critical Guide
• Mark Miodownik, Stuff Matters

Journals and articles

• The Architects' Journal: Architecture News & Buildings
• The Architectural Review | Online and print magazine about international design

Designers to familiarise yourself with

• Shigeru Ban
• B.V. Doshi
• Yasmeen Lari
• Thomas Heatherwick

Websites

• My HE Plus - Architecture
• Learning programme
• Explore Green Architecture and Materials via Google
• Young Architect

Podcasts

• Dezeen, architecture and design magazine
• Wallpaper

Activities

• 10 essential freehand drawing exercises for architects

Extra resources

Check the History of Art and Mathematics sections below.

Books

• Matheson, An Introduction to the Study of Education
• Reay, Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes
• Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy

Journals and articles

• Philosophy of Education (Stanford Encyclapedia of Philosophy)
• Cambridge Journal of Education, Faculty of Education
• Research and Theory Behind the Sociology of Education
• Times Education Supplement
• Routes: a peer-reviewed journal giving sixth form and undergraduate geographers the chance to read and publish geographical knowledge. Read articles and potentially think about submitting an article yourself.

Authors to familiarise yourself with

• Diane Reay 
• Michael Young 
• Raewyn Connell 
• David Gillborn 
• Kalwant Bhopal

Websites

• My HE Plus - Education
• Educational Psychology Interactive
• Department for Education
• Challenges of 21st Century Education - Online Course
• The Conversation: articles from leading academics, many focusing on geographical issues

Video

• Learning to Play and Playing to Learn
• Toddlers Think for Themselves

Podcasts

• Ask the Geographer: produced by the Royal Geographical Society

Extra Resources

Check the English, Psychology, and HSPS sections below.

Books

• Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature
• Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction
• Eco, The Name of the Rose
• Fisher, Ghosts of my Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
• Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare 
• Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
• Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller
• Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker
• Paterson, Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A New Commentary 
• Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World 
• Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the 
• Souvenir, the Collection

Journals and articles

• London Review of Books
• Literary Review: For People Who Devour Books
• The Guardian Books website
• The New Yorker

Poets to familiarise yourself with

• Frank O’Hara 
• John Ashbery
• W.S. Graham 
• Lorine Neidecker 
• Joan Murray 
• Geoffrey Hill 
• Denise Riley

Websites

• Cambridge Faculty of English resources
• My HE Plus - English
• The TLS Literature - Literature
• The Poetry Society – Connecting you to the transformative power of poetry
• British Library Online
• Shakespeare’s Globe: Research and Collections Great Writers Inspire
• Poet Seers: Collection of poetry from around the world
• Poetry Foundation

Video

• The Paris Review - discussions with authors

Podcasts

• BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Culture
• Close Readings, LRB
• Approaching Shakespeare
• Oxford University Podcasts for English
• The Paris Review - fiction, poetry and interviews

Extra Resources

Check the Classics section (above) and the Philosophy section below.

Books

• John Arnold, What is Medieval History?
• Nicholas Guyatt, The Hated Cage: An American Tragedy in Britain’s Most Terrifying Prison
• Clare Jackson, Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688
• Helen McCarthy, Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood
• Ulinka Rublack, A Concise Companion to History
• Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire 

Journals and articles

• History Today: The world's leading serious history magazine
• HistoryExtra: BBC History Magazine and BBC World Histories Magazine
• Reviews in History: Latest reviews

Websites

• Getting Started: Reading Primary Sources – Cambridge History Faculty
• My HE Plus
• The Online Atlas
• History: British History in-depth
• British Museum
• Historical Association – the UK national charity for history
• The Royal Historical Society
• Black Cultural Archives
• Fordham University History Sourcebooks

Video

• Gresham Lectures - History
• Cambridge History Faculty YouTube channel

Podcasts

• Dan Snow's History Hit
• Radio 4 - In Our Time, History
• Historical Association Podcasts

Activities

• Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts, Open Yale Courses
• Online World History and Archaeology Courses

Extra Resources

Check the Economics section (above) and the HSPS section (below).

Books

• Politics reading list

Journals and articles

• History Today: The world's leading serious history magazine
• British Politics: A Very Short Introduction
• Politics Review Extras Magazine Archives

Websites

• Getting Started: Reading Primary Sources: Cambridge History Faculty
• The Political Studies Association
• UK Parliament
• United Nations: Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet
• Chatham House: International Affairs
• Amnesty International

Podcasts

• Talking Politics
• Radio 4 - In Our Time, History
• Thinking Allowed

Extra Resources

Check the History section (above) and the HSPS section (below).

Books

• Distinguished Scholarly Book Award
• HSPS Reading List

Journals and articles

• British Politics: A Very Short Introduction
• Politics Review Extras Magazine Archives
• The Economist - World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance
• British Journal of Sociology

Websites

• Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology
• The Royal Anthropological Institute
• Discover Anthropology
• Uncomfortable Oxford
• Heywood Political Ideologies
• British Sociological Association
• The Political Studies Association
• UK Parliament
• United Nations
• Chatham House: International Affairs Think Tank
• Amnesty International

Video

• Sociology: School of Life
• School of Life: Political Theory

Podcasts

• Talking Politics
• Thinking Allowed
• From Savage to Self
• Camthropod

Competitions

• RA Butler Prize — Department of Politics and International Studies

Extra resources

Check the Economics and History sections above and the Psychology sections below.

Books

• Barnard, O’Sullivan and Virgo, What About Law
• Berlins and Dyer, The Law Machine
• Bingham, The Rule of Law
• Kennedy, Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women 
• McBride, Letters to a Law Student: A Guide to Studying Law at University
• Williams, Learning the Law

Journals/Articles

• Law - The Guardian
• Charles Dickens and the Law
• Counsel Magazine

Websites

• My HE Plus - Law
• Learn More about Law
• Think Cambridge Law
• The Lawyer Portal: The Resource for Aspiring Legal Professionals
• Justice.gov.uk
• Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
• Legislation.gov.uk
• Mcbridesguides: Helping you to Study Law
• Public Law for Everyone
• The Secret Barrister

Video

• Justice with Michael Sandel
• Cambridge Law Webinar: Admissions Q&A
• Mental Health and the Law lecture by Richard Martin
• Exploring Legal Futures Webinar

Podcasts

• Law in Action

Activities

• Exploring Law Course: Studying Law at University

Extra resources

Check the History and Human, Social and Political Sciences sections (above).

Books

• Mathematics Faculty reading list
• Neale, Why Study Mathematics?

Journals and articles

• Chalkdust Magazine
• Science news and science articles from New Scientist

Websites

• My HE Plus - Mathematics
• Plus Magazine - Living Mathematics
• NRICH - Mathematics Resources for Teachers, Parents and Students
• STEP support programme
• Tom Rocks Maths
• Careers in Mathematics - Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

Video

• London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures
• Numberphile
• Mathematics at Cambridge on YouTube
• 3Blue1Brown
• Mathologer
• Vihart

Podcasts

• BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Science
• Oxford University Maths Podcasts: The Secrets of Mathematics

Competitions

• UK Mathematics Trust
• UKMT competitions
• UKMT Teams Maths Challenges
• UKMT Maths Olympiad for Girls

Activities

• Women in STEM - Women & girls in science, tech, engineering and maths
• PROMYS-Europe: Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists

Extra resources

Check the Computer Sciences and Engineering sections (above) and the Natural Sciences (below)

Books

• Pinker, The Language Instinct
• A Concise History of… published by Cambridge University Press 
• French/German/Italian/Russian/Spanish Literature: A Very Short 
• Introduction published by Oxford University Press

French texts

• Albert Camus, L’étranger 
• Françoise Sagan, Bonjour tristesse 
• Joseph Joffo, Un sac de billes

German texts

• Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Der Besuch der alten Dame
• Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser

Italian texts

• Italo Svevo, La coscienca di Zeno 
• Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo 
• Natalia Ginzburg, Lessico famigliare 

Portuguese texts

• José Saramago, A viagem do elefante
• Lygia Fagundes Telles, Antes do Baile Verde
• Luís Bernardo Honwana, Nós matámos o cão tinhoso

Russian texts

• Natalia Baranskaia, A week like any other 
• Alexander Pushkin, Any short stories 
• Nikolai Gogol, Revizor

Spanish texts

• Federico García Lorca, La casa de Bernarda Alba
• Gabriel García Márquez, Crónica de una muerte anunciada
• Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus

Journals and articles

• Polyglossia

Websites

• My HE Plus - Modern Languages
• The TLS Languages and Linguistics
• ARTE, the European culture TV channel, free and on demand
• Memrise

French

• Le Monde.fr - Actualités et Infos en France et dans le monde
• Le Figaro - Actualité en direct et informations en continu
• Libération
• Culturethèque
• TF 1 and France 2 (French TV channels) 
• L'Express
• RTVC Radio Television Caraibes, 94.5 FM, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• Internet Radio for Caribbean Radio
• Sud Quotidien - one of Senegal's main daily papers. 
• Le Soleil de Québec – French Canadian news

German

• Online Resources for German, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics. Dozens of links to newspapers, videos, podcasts, museum and cultural institutions, dictionaries and much more! 
• Der Spiegel

Italian

• Corriere della Sera - Ultime Notizie
• Rai TV Italian TV
• LA7 Italian TV 
• Rai Radio Italian radio 
• La Repubblica newspaper 
• La Stampa – newspaper
• Italia Agenzia Nazionale Turismo -  Italian places of interest

Portuguese

• Porta dos Fundos Brazilian comedy group 
• Jornal Público Portugal newspaper 
• Expresso Portugal newspaper 
• BBC Brazil
• O Globo Brazil newspaper 
• Valor Brazil newspaper 
• RTP Play Portuguese TV and radio
• EBC Radios Brazilian TV and radio

Russian

• AIF news
• Gazeta
• RG news
• Mosfilm

Spanish

• Corpus de conversaciones en español: short clips featuring everyday conversations with speakers from various Spanish-speaking countries. 
• Catálogo de voces hispánicas (Instituto Cervantes): short clips featuring examples of Spanish from different parts of Spain and Latin America 
• Lyricstraining: listen to your favourite music while listening to Spanish and improving your listening skills and vocabulary.
• Prensa escrita: links to all daily papers in the Hispanic world. 
• BBC Mundo
• RTVE Televisión española: Spanish TV

Films and series

• Netflix language films and series 
• Mubi – films in many languages

French film

• Jean-Luc Godard, A bout de souffle 
• Mathieu Kassovitz, La Haine 
• Laurent Cantet, Entre les murs

German film

• Wolfgang Becker, Good bye, Lenin!
• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Das Leben der Anderen
• Marc Rothemund, Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage

Italian film

• Vittorio di Sica, Ladri di bicicletta 
• Federico Fellin, i La dolce vita 
• Matteo Gorrone, Gomorrah

Portuguese film

• Margarida Cardoso, A costa dos murmúrios
• Walter Salles, Central do Brasil
• Fernando Mereilles and Kátia Lund, Cidade de Deus

Russian film

• Andrey Zvyagintsev, Leviathan
• Sergei Bodrov, Prisoner of the Mountains
• Andrei Tarkovskii, Ivan’s childhood

Spanish film

• Guillermo del Toro, El laberinto del fauno
• Pedro Almodóvar, Volver
• Sebastián Leilo, Una mujer fantástica

Extra resources

Check the History, HSPS, Philosophy, and Linguistics sections (above).

Books

• Cambridge Natural Sciences reading list

Biological Sciences

• Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
• Margulis, What is Life?
• Mukherjee, The Gene
• Mukherjee, Emperor of All Maladies
• Mukherjee, The Song of the Cell
• Reich, Who We Are, and How We Got Here
• Ridley, Nature via Nurture
• Sapolsky, Behave
• Schilthuizen, Darwin Comes to Town

Physical Sciences

• Hawking, A Brief History of Time
• Mann and Crease, The Second Creation
• Orzel, How to Teach Quantum Physics to your Dog
• Povey, Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems
• Warner, A Cavendish Quantum Mechanics Primer
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Journals and articles

All Sciences

• New Scientist, Science news and science articles (requires a subscription)
• Nature Journal
• Young Scientists Journal
• Scientific American: Science News, Articles, and Information

Biological Sciences

• Educational Magazines - Biological Sciences Review (requires a subscription)
• The Scientist Magazine - Life Sciences News and Articles

Physical Sciences

• Symmetry magazine - dimensions of particle physics
• ParticleBites - The high energy physics reader's digest
• News Center - Particle Physics News and Resources
• Quanta magazine
• ChemMatters magazine

Websites

All Sciences

• Oxford Sparks: Bringing Oxford Science to Life
• Things We Don't Know
• Brilliant
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• BBC Science and Environment news
• Oxford Science Blog
• Explore Natural Science through Google
• Bluesci: Cambridge University Science Magazine

Biological Sciences

• Biochemistry
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Royal Society of Biology resources
• Conservation Science - Zoological Society of London
• Natural History Museum Schools

Physical Sciences

• Isaac Physics
• COVID-19: Using Isaac to learn and teach
• physics.org
• CERN Resources
• Mastering Physics
• Physics zone
• PhysicsLAB NextTime Questions
• Explore NASA STEM
• Galaxy Zoo
• Introducing Isaac Chemistry
• Chemistry World: Chemistry news, research and opinions
• Analytical teaching resources
• Synthesis Explorer
• Prepare for University - Mathematical Chemistry
• The Royal Society of Chemistry
• ACD/ChemSketch

Videos

All Sciences

• The Royal Society
• BBC iPlayer - Science & Nature Documentaries

Biological Sciences

• iBiology

Physical Sciences

• Chemistry in the Garden
• Four - Chemistry: A Volatile History
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Podcasts

All Sciences

• BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Science
• The Life Scientific
• Naked Scientists Online, Science Podcast and Science Radio Show
• Science in Action
• Ologies Episodes

Biological Sciences

• Department of Biology, Oxford

Physical Sciences

• Chemistry podcasts and science storytelling
• Periodic Table: Podcast
• Department of Chemistry, Oxford
• Physics Podcasts

Competitions

All Sciences

• CREST Awards
• Schools Writing Competition

Biological Sciences

• British Biology Olympiad

Physical Sciences

• Cambridge Chemistry Challenge
• The British Physics Olympiad: Home
• UK Chemistry Olympiad

Activities

All Sciences

• Women in STEM
• Desmos

Biological Sciences

• Puzzles: Ask A Biologist
• Plant ID: getting started

Extra resources

Check the Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine sections (above).

Books

• Blakemore, Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain 
• Eysenck and Keane, Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook 
• Damasio, Self comes to mind: constructing the conscious brain
• Hogg and Vaughan, Essentials of Social Psychology
• Hrdy, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding
• Johnson and de Haan, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: An Introduction
• Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
• LeDoux, Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
• Pinker, How the Mind Works
• Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat 
• Schaffer, Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology 
• Ward, A Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience

Journals and articles

• Nature Human Behaviour
• Websites My HE Plus - Psychology
• Psychology AZ - Department of Psychology

Video

• What’s PBS at Cambridge like? Interviews with current students
• Gresham Lectures - Psychology

Podcasts

• Radio 4 - All in the Mind

Extra resources

Check the HSPS and Natural Sciences sections (above).