Rare’s study seminars are designed to help Rare candidates with their academic work and specifically to ensure that they understand how to get a top degree. Our research suggests that this sort of ‘secret knowledge’ is often not easily available at university but is handed down from one generation of successful students to the next. For people from backgrounds without a tradition of higher education, it is often not available at all: the study seminars are designed to help redress this imbalance.

The series kicked off with a talk from Rare’s Managing Director, Raphael Mokades, on getting a first class degree in History. Raphael read History at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and graduated with a first class degree. He was also awarded the Gibbs Prize for outstanding achievement in his Finals.

Raph’s talk covered areas including being strategic about picking topics, learning how to read history books effectively, and how best to structure answers.

We are planning a number of future study seminars, to focus on areas including Law and Modern Languages.