Law @ Christ Church, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

2x 15 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

Legal scenarios, small sections of statute, general discussion

Best preparation

Have a conversation about your subject with someone you don't know

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Don't worry about not knowing anyone who's been to Oxbridge.

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.

Interview Format

Test taken: LNAT

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: 15 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The tutors were a lot more tense than they usually were, but did use some easy opening questions about myself to allow me to calm down.

I was presented with situations that were intentionally quite ambiguous legally (not enough details were provided to make anything obvious) and asked to pick them apart. No matter what I said, the tutors would always have a question about it, and I would have to be ready to defend my view point or reflect and change it.

The summer course that I went on was brought up and its impact on my application questioned.

Some questions were based off a small section of statute, and the point of this was just to see how well I could comprehend what I was reading and apply it to given situations. Take your time.

In the end, the atmosphere was scary, but also really exciting. More than anything, it felt like a rare opportunity to converse with the absolute experts in the field.

How did you prepare?

I used the free online tests on the LNAT website.

Read around your area as much as you can, and keep up with the news as your interview draws closer.

Even if your school doesn’t provide practice Oxbridge interviews (mine didn’t), place yourself in a conversational setting with somebody that you don’t know (e.g. a teacher you don’t know) and talk to them about your subject so that you get comfortable exploring these subjects with a stranger and explaining your ideas.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

If you don’t know anyone that went to Oxbridge, that is so okay! I was really worried about this, as I didn’t know what to expect, but there is no cardboard cutout Oxbridge student.