Test taken: TSA

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: a few hours

Length of interviews: 20-30 minutes each

My first interview was for Politics. The tutors started off with some questions about my personal statement, specifically about a book I’d read and one of the newspapers I’d mentioned. I was also asked about why I wanted to study PPE. Then I got some more abstract questions about things like the relationship between theory and practice. The tutors would move on quite quickly from one question to the next, and, when I struggled, they helped me along by giving me some tips to approach the question.

Later on, I had my second interview, which combined Philosophy and Economics. There were tutors for both present, and it lasted 30 minutes, compared to 20 minutes for the Politics one, roughly 15 minutes for each subject. For Economics I was given a set of statistics and asked some analysis and evaluation questions on how they were collected, and what conclusions could be drawn from them. I struggled quite a bit with the questions, but the tutor would guide me and then move on if it was clear I didn’t really have anything else to say. The Philosophy interview was very different and a lot more fast-paced; it was essentially a series of quick-fire questions on topics like morality, with the tutor constantly following up on his questions in a stimulating way. I very much enjoyed that interview, which made up for the fact that I felt like I’d messed up the Economics part.

I used practice papers and a book with tips.

To prepare, I read some books from the recommended readings for my subject during the summer, and then practised for the interview process after I found out I’d got mine.

For the reading, it’s important to take time to reflect a bit on what you have read, as what matters is your opinion: what you think about the books.

To practise interviews, I sat down with my Mum and she asked me some practice interview questions from the university website. What I found most helpful was having to work through my answer with someone in front of me, which is very different to answering a question in your head and I think really prepared me for the actual interviews.

Another tip would be to record yourself while you answer a question: although it’s really awkward, it makes you aware of tics in your behaviour, like running a hand through your hair every time you’re contemplating a problem or something of the sort.