I'm about to start an efficient-leveling run of Oblivion. I've played through the game many times, but never an efficient-leveling run. I'm going for the +5/+5/+1 strategy, and I want all attributes maxed out at 100 - no more, no less.

Here is my planned character:
Race: Nord
six: Male
Birthsign: Apprentice
Specialization: Combat
Favored Attributes: Personality, Luck
Major Skills: Alchemy, Conjuration, Illusion, Mercantile, Mysticism, Restoration, Speechcraft

I plan on buying the house in Imperial City asap, and I know the chest outside the Arena contains 500 gold. Are there any ways to make about 6000 gold without raising my major skills? I'm thinking pickpocketing the guards would work.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

My advice is to go with the Thief birthsign, You can start out with 65 points of Luck and you will only need to advance to level 36 to max out every Attribute.If you are playing on a PC or a console you might start to get burned out because of the repetition caused by level scaling. The only challenge are the opponents that scale with you. Most of the creatures and opponents stop getting any stronger past level thirty. It can be annoying to one hit kill a Minotaur, but spend an hour to clean out a nest of Goblins, even if they are all Warlords and Shamans.

I really want the extra Magicka the Apprentice birthsign gives, though.

One mod I found was a must with efficient levelling was http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3629. I always grab the Thief birthsign as well. Makes +5/+5/+1 much easier. Never found the lesser magicka to be an issue. Although I play as a Breton, so that makes up for it. Don't worry about efficient levelling anymore though - my sig explains the reason...

I should have specified earlier, but I'm playing on the PS3, so mods are out of the question.

I would choose the Atronach for a birthsign if you are going for a high Magicka reserve, the weaknesses of the sign are not that difficult to overcome. The ways to do it have been covered recently in Cheats,Hints,and Spoilers. The reason I recommended the thief birthsign is my personal opinion and based on my playstyle. You need to boost your luck initially to achieve the ability to get 100 in your luck attribute. The five point gain from choosing Luck as a favored Attribute will make it possible.
EDIT Atronach Tip on page four-Mlps Big Daddy plays on an X-Box

You could always glitch your magicka up.
Although if you're against cheating then i would go with the atronach birthsign.