Philosophy, Politics And Economics @ Pembroke, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

2x 1hr interviews, over 1 day

Interview content

Economics / Politics: Maths problem, politics discussion; Philosophy: two texts given beforehand

Best preparation

Practice papers

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Practised with teachers/friends; read experiences online; tried to relax during interviews.

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: 2

Skype interview: No

Both interviews on some day

Length of interviews: 1 hour each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview was split equally between politics and economics. The economics section involved walking through a maths problem, which was developed to include some calculus. The politics interview was about what methods we should use when studying politics.

My second interview was on philosophy. The first half hour was spent on reading two passages-one on language and one on ethics. I then had a half hour discussion about these two topics.

How did you prepare?

I used the practice papers online.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I practised with my teachers and with my friends who were also applying for PPE.

I mainly read experiences online from The Student Room as my teachers did not seem to know much about what the interviews would actually look like.

The best thing I did was to relax in the interview week. Some people locked themselves up in their room, ended up getting very stressed out, and did not get in.

Obviously it helped, but I am unsure how much preparation you can really do for the interview.