Philosophy, Politics And Economics @ Christ Church, Oxford in 2019

Interview format

3x 15 min interviews, over 2 days

Interview content

Interview 1: philosophy and economics questions; Interview 2: politics election graph discussion

Best preparation

Looked over online preparatory material and personal statement

Final thoughts

Try to avoid being boxed into a corner when answering a question

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: TSA
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: Between a few hours and a day
Length of interviews: 15 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked 3 questions, each lasting 5 minutes, for philosophy and economics. Then for politics, I was shown a graph of general election results and asked questions about it. The interviewers ranged from very friendly to quite scary and unsmiling, so don't assume they will make you feel at ease! My personal statement wasn't even mentioned once.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I read the preparatory material on the Oxford website, went over my personal statement and predicted what questions I could be asked about it.I also re-read the books I had mentioned in the statement.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Did practice papers, watched videos produced by Jesus College (very helpful)

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Be careful when asked a question not to choose your answer and then be forced into a corner where you have to defend it. Instead, explore the question in the allocated time and announce your position at the end. The answer you choose immediately is probably not the right one, and restricts you greatly.