Law @ Exeter, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

2x 20-30 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

Interview 1: general questions, passage given beforehand; Interview 2: general questions, application of law

Best preparation

For essay section of LNAT, have discussions with people and write practice essays

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Stay calm; be yourself.

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: 20-30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In both interviews I got given a short passage with some questions and 30 minutes to prepare; both passages are used to initiate discussion in the interviews.

In one interview I discussed a rather controversial topic. I think the point of this interview was to see how well I could argue my case; the atmosphere was a bit intimidating, as the tutors are expected to challenge you, but they were really nice to me.

The other interview was more technical, where I was asked to apply a certain law to different scenarios. I think the point of this interview was to test my ability to understand and analyse a piece of legislation in context. We didn’t discuss my personal statement in the interviews, but I was asked a couple of general questions at the beginning.

How did you prepare?

I had lots of practice from past papers! It’s the only way to prepare for the first part of the test. For the written part, engaging in discussions with people around you and/or writing essays is very useful.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I didn’t really prepare for my interview and I don’t think you can prepare much. I don’t think reading law articles/books is useful; the tutors don’t expect you to know anything about law. The best thing you can do is engage in as many discussions as possible on a variety of topics (remember, however, that interview is not a debate, you’re not aiming to win an argument). Most importantly, stay calm and be yourself; there is not one type of student the tutors are looking for. What they really want to see is passion and potential.