Your concerns, if any, before signing up? There were not any significant concerns that prevented me from taking part except maybe because I was a bit idle towards signing up and submitting all the paperwork. However, with my parent's persuasion, I did take part in the trip. What was the best thing about the experience? What pleased me most was definitely overcoming, by a margin, my fear of public speaking. Being able to debate in the Oxford Union was a spectacular, pivotal event. Although I had a rough start, I was able to ease into the idea of having everyone look at me, whilst judging me. In addition, the accommodations gave me a university feel, which is always a plus if you're planning on studying abroad, or somewhere that requires you to get settled in accommodations. If you were to recommend this trip to your best friend, what would you say? Socialize with everyone, as soon as you get there. My only mistake was that I did not open up to others until the last few days of the course, and it was unfortunate since they were all nice people. Start writing the essay and work on the PowerPoint more than a few days before the deadline. I had to pull an all-nighter to complete the essay and PowerPoint.

—  Khawla Al Mutawa from the United Arab Emirates

Joined a summer academic course at the University of Oxford