Balliol made the transition yesterday from standard lessons to Materclasses, all the while embracing their new surroundings and becoming increasingly comfortable in their new environment.

Lessons went over well as everyone began to build on yesterday’s introductions. Students were surprisingly prompt for such an early stage in the course and there was a great level of enthusiasm from the get-go. Lessons were a short affair however, as it was soon time for the first Masterclasses of the course.

Masterclasses allow students an expert-led introduction to a specific subject. Yesterday, they took part in CSI Crime Investigation, Learn by Design, The Stock market Challenge and an Architecture Workshop. There was a lot to get through, but the focus was on learning whilst having as much fun as possible: a criterion certainly met over the course of the afternoon!

The students did incredibly well in the Stock Market Challenge – an exercise that saw the students try to make as much money as possible in the shortest period of time. There were some great fast-paced moments as everyone sought to outdo each other before final trading. Later on, CSI Crime Investigation had students puzzling over the culprit was in different murder scenarios.

The evening was a balmy one after a decisively hot afternoon, with some students opting to head over to Uni Parks for a bit of football and rounders. For those less sportily-inclined, there was also a talk on the topic of Oxbridge as well as flower crown design. It’s fair to say everybody slept well last night!