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Guide to Oxbridge

Part 3: Interview preparation

We've looked at choosing a course and college, crafting your Personal Statement and putting in your application. Now onto the interview process, something that pupils often find the most daunting thing about applying to Oxbridge.

Reading

Oxbridge tutors and dons look for breadth of subject interest. Yes, they want to know you have a sound understanding of your AS and A2 level courses. But last year at Oxford, just 21% of candidates were accepted, and 98.6% had three A’s at A-level. So they will be looking for evidence that you are interested in going beyond the syllabus, which also shows you have high levels of self-motivation.

It’s worth reading a book or two which you feel able to speak about and answer questions on, though your interviewer won’t expect  you to be the world expert on it.

Reading a subject-related journal or magazine – for example, New Scientist or the Economist – is also a good idea. Your interviewer might ask you about a recent article you’ve read in it, so it’s best to think about things you can talk about.

It’s also worth keeping up to date with current affairs surrounding your subject. If you plan to study Medicine, can you speak about and given an opinion on the latest medical ethic topics? Watching the news and reading a good newspaper can help. But don’t just watch or read, make sure you have something to say!

Selection criteria

Oxford and Cambridge subscribe to admissions codes, which set out the general selection criteria for the universities. This is designed so that there is a broad framework of consistency amongst different subjects, and is supposed to demonstrate that there is a methodology behind accepting or rejecting candidates - it's not random selection!

It's worth trying to find out what criteria there are for your subject. Oxford handily links to theirs, you'll have to dig deeper on Google to find criteria for individual Cambridge courses.

Have a think yourself too: if you were the interviewer, what would you be looking for?

Preparing yourself for the obvious questions

It's rare you won't be asked some of the following questions, so have a think beforehand about how you might answer. Make sure your answers are genuinely true, and that you really believe in them, but you'll also need to think about how you might make your answer stand out from the crowd. Your interviewer will have asked these questions of perhaps 10-20+ interviewees on that day, so will be bored of clichés and platitudes!

- Why do you want to study this course?
- Why do you want to study at this college?
- Why did you choose this university over others?
- What do you want to do after you graduate?

Make sure you've read the course syllabus, especially for the first year course - you may be asked what part of the course you are most attracted by. Oxford have an undergraduate Handbook detailing the syllabus, while you can find the Cambridge ones via the course websites here.

It's critically important that you can answer questions on your Personal Statement. You'd be surprised how many candidates say they've read a book or article when they haven't! It's worth taking a copy of your statement with you to read through before the interview. Similarly, it's worth re-reading any submitted work as this might form the basis for your interview.

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