2x interviews
Interview 1: discussion of submitted work; Interview 2: personal statement
Thought about some potential questions based on personal statement
Enthusiasm and other qualities that are desirable in students are about as important as knowledge or intelligence
Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.
Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.
Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 30 minutes
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No
I had two interviews. The first asked me about an essay I'd been asked to submit beforehand. The essay was not marked or anything like that, it was just the basis for the conversation. It was an essay about US politics that I had written for the politics A Level I was taking at that time.
The second was a more wide-ranging discussion about points I had mentioned in my personal statement and broader questions of political philosophy. For example, I remember being asked to give examples of valid exceptions to the principle of freedom of speech.
I was given a
My advice would be to (1) Read particularly well around the points you mentioned in your personal statement (2) Try to come up with versatile examples you can use in response to different questions (3) Use examples when asked questions (4) Above all, remember that the interviewers are looking for people they would like to teach for three years, so enthusiasm and other qualities that are desirable in students are about as important as knowledge or intelligence