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Guide to Oxbridge

Part 6: The Interview itself

Interview technique

The key to a successful interview is to remain calm and collected so you can do yourself justice and demonstrate your true potential.

It’s obviously very important to be on time. This in itself will help to calm any worries you might have. You might like to scout out the location of the interview the morning before the interview so you know where to go. There will be students at the college, ‘runners’, who will take you to your interview.

When you get to the interview, most interviewers will spend a couple of minutes breaking the ice and chatting with you to settle you in.

During the interview, if you haven't understood a question or don't know an answer, don't be afraid to say so – you’re very unlikely to be ‘marked down’ for this.

If you need to take your time thinking about your response to a question the interviewer will understand - in fact, it's a good idea not to rush in and answer a question straight away, and it shows you are thinking about the answer.

If you feel you've handled a particular question badly, don't worry about it – put it out of your mind and concentrate on the next one. And you can always come back at the end, during the questions, to say you’ve had a rethink about your answer.

If interviewed by a panel, address your answer to a particular question predominantly, but not exclusively, to the person asking the question.

 

What interviewers are looking for

Finally, what are interviewers really looking for, apart from the obvious qualities like past academic achievement, reliability, ability to answer the questions asked etc? Based on our research, talking to tutors and dons, we think it’s this:

 

  1. Breadth of interest – are you interested in going beyond the syllabus

  2. Critical and analytical ability – are you able not just to read beyond the syllabus but to critically analyse sometimes complex and new information, and then form your own independent view

  3. Ability to defend your case – having formed that view, are you able to articulate and defend it

An important thread running through all this is: do you have a passion for your subject and are you teachable? Teachability is a key, your interviewer will want to know ‘do I want to sit in tutorials with this candidate’, in some cases for three years or more.

You might have the best A-levels in the world, have read all the books there are to be read, but are you going to thrive in the very special Oxbridge environment if you don’t have this quality?


Click here to go to the next section of the Oxbridge Interviews' Guide