Philosophy, Politics And Economics @ St Catherine's, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

2x 20-30 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

Economics: problem sheet; Philosophy, Politics: quick questions

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Do TSA past papers; relax and talk to other applicants at interview.

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

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: 20-30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked thinking-style questions, which didn't require any knowledge beyond basic calculus for economics. Discussion of my personal statement was minimal and not important. I was given a problem sheet for economics with a basic scenario that then grew more complicated during the interview. No material was given for philosophy or politics, just a few quick questions that I found hard to answer - I might have responded with "I don't know", but the interview still went well - so it's hard to judge how well you did. You don't know what the interviewers are looking for exactly.

The atmosphere was pretty chill. The interviewers were nice, and especially casual in economics. I wasn't too relaxed but I was still able to provide some sort of answer to the questions. I didn't actually get anxious about the interviews until after they were over and I felt like I hadn't cared enough before to prepare well.

How did you prepare?

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What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

If doing PPE: Prepare for the TSA by doing lots of past papers.

For interview relax and talk more to the people around you - I wish I'd done this more. I was too anxious to socialise much but lots of my friends made good friends during interviews, which is an opportunity to take.

Interview prep was essentially pointless, a mock interview can help you get into the right mindset but it won't prepare you for the actual content. Too much preparation can be detrimental.