Oxbridge Entry 2015

[Roisin]

Do we have a thread already?
ds1 has decided to definitely apply to Oxford to do Biochemistry. He will probably apply to St John's.

MadameJosephine- dd2 has been looking at some interviews online & comments from the interviewers. They seem to be very aware of having to put kids at ease - see this article (particularly the 'do nerves matter' bit). Quite comforting, as I really don't want dd2 to have a really horrible experience prior to going to whichever university she ends up at.

claireelmouden.com/2012/12/05/how-to-survive-the-oxford-interview/

MadameJosephine and Littleham, my DD went to an open day at a Cambridge college and because she was the only student doing this particular subject she ended up talking to the Director of Studies on her own. She said he was lovely and treated it like a mini interview it lasted an hour. They are used to dealing with nervous students. After the meeting she had, she cannot wait for an interview, she enjoyed the experience so much.

DS went to a taster course at cambridge for computer science earlier in the year and managed to talk to the tutors then and they were all really helpful. They must see hundreds of terrified teenagers every year so I'm sure it's nothing they haven't dealt with before. He's feeling hopeful but his panic attacks just come out of the blue sometimes. He had one right in the middle of his core 2 Maths exam in the summer and had to leave the paper unfinished such a pity because the marks he dropped would have taken his UMS over the threshold for autopooling but as it is he missed it by a fraction

Littleham DS had an interview at Cambridge last year. He was suffering from anxiety on top of normal interview nerves. I reassured him that they would put him at ease and that they wanted to enable him to do his best. Sadly I was wrong. He rated the whole experience as gruelling. There was no small talk, no introductory niceties and the interview was really like a verbal exam in his subject. They fired (subject) questions at him increasing in complexity until he couldn't answer.
He looked grim and shell shocked when he came out. It was a difficult journey home. Much to his surprise he got an offer, so whatever it was they were looking for they must have dragged out of him.

Must depend on the interviewer in that case! Blimey - your poor son. Just as well you were with him.

My dd2 is a sociable happy soul (my most extrovert child), so I think she would bounce back, but there isn't a good reason for conducting an interview like an interrogation. I really hope she gets another offer first, so she has that to fall back on.

I think it's wise to expect 'out there' questions. If you can reference them with something you have read all the better (even if you can't fully answer them). So for example in my finals there was a question about the biological significance of death. There are loads of ways to answer that. As I'd just read an entire book on extinction events I gave a quick intro, then launched into an essay that focussed on extinction events (and got a first for that paper - so the answer was fine). If I had been expert in cell death and diseases resulting from cell death (or not enough cell death) then I would have written an essay on that (as it was I spent about one sentence on that). There may not be a right or wrong answer, you can treat them as starting points to show how much extra reading you have done.

My interview is ancient history but sounds similar to one described above. We were given some data to look at as well, and then asked some questions which started in a very straightforward way but then became increasingly complex.

But don't be too shy to say 'I was reading an article/book which said' blah blah blah. Do treat the interview as an opportunity to show how you have read around your subject - that's one of the main things they're looking for.

One of DS's interviews for medicine had a very 'out there' history question........ All his interviewers were friendly but the questions became increasingly hard. The recorded interviews on the Oxford website do underplay the standard a bit, by focussing on the start of the interview more than the end.

Similarly DD1's law interview started with a dead easy question arising from the sport she'd put down on her ps and swiftly entered into much more difficult questions to do with an odd hypothetical case in tort law.

DD3 was asked a ludicrously easy question too (so easy that lots of people apparently missed the easy answer, as they were looking for something more tricky). Then the three tutors launched into some nightmare scenario which she still thinks she completely misunderstood. That was law too.

Is there anywhere online where people have posted the types of questions they were asked?

I shall tell dd2 to prepare for a medical question if she gets a History interview!

He looked grim and shell shocked when he came out. It was a difficult journey home

A fairly accurate description of DS1 upon his exit. He'd had one practice interview at school with a former Oxford academic which probably was more PS focused initially. The real thing did not mention anything from his PS, nor the three particular areas of subject interest he'd been asked to submit in advance. However over the next couple of weeks it became clear that whilst it had been tough, it had been designed to get the best out of him, and to that end had clearly worked. Almost akin to a top class tennis match. Booming first serve, but a return just about managed and increasingly deft shots exchanged thereafter. But like squirrel's DS he did not leave feeling full of confidence, but with a bit of reflection he was able to eventually conclude that he had more than held his own, and ultimately that secured an offer.

Anecdotally from DS1's school it seems that last year those who felt it was an easy ride did not get offers, whilst those who initially equated it with the Spanish Inquisition on a particularly bad day did. That is just an anecdote though not hard fact for every candidate.

Just to end on a less gloomy note now DS1 has started he certainly seems to be enjoying the environment. So very best wishes to all those applying this year.

boys3 extrapolating purely from my own DC I'd say emerging from the interview room with a large black cloud suspended above one's head was a positive sign. Then the time waiting for confirmation of rejection and remembering some particular idiocy, sharing it with siblings who agree that few people could be quite so idiotic - also a positive sign. So far no-one in the family has ever had anything approximating to an easy ride.

My DS seems to have had a different experience. He came home from his interview thinking it had been ok and the questions weren't too difficult. He had been expecting it to be much harder! There wasn't anything he couldn't answer. He even felt frustrated that the interviewers had helped him too much - he didn't feel he had been given the opportunity to show them what he knew. I was worried that he had found it too easy, but he got an offer.

I'm afraid they do need to be prepared to have an interview where the subject questions become increasingly difficult until you can't answer. This is done for a reason - to identify how you respond when outside your comfort zone and how quickly you pick up on leads from the interviewer. It is obviously better if you don't cry and run out of the interview but there have certainly been people at Cambridge who have done that and still got offers. I don't know how far into the interview they got but suspect it wasn't right at the start. Colleges differ in what weight they place on the interview.

My child didn't find their Cambridge interview too bad despite getting one of the superficially odd questions. I know there were some questions based on the personal statement and work experience. I think these came at the start and therefore gave the interviewee a chance to overcome their nerves by talking about something they know well (or should know well).

It's easy enough to find sample questions, there are some here oxfordsummercollege.ac/oxbridge-interview-questions/ and here, with an explanation of why they are asked university.which.co.uk/advice/10-odd-university-interview-questions-and-why-tutors-ask-them

Anecdotally from DS1's school it seems that last year those who felt it was an easy ride did not get offers, whilst those who initially equated it with the Spanish Inquisition on a particularly bad day did. That is just an anecdote though not hard fact for every candidate.

That makes sense. I sometimes interview people for academic jobs. The candidates that, after meeting them, we deem are still in the running are given stretching questions. We want to know how good they are. The candidates that strike us as unlikely are given a much easier set of questions.

It is not that the questions are all prepared in advance, but simply if it becomes apparent within an interview that the person is a weaker candidate, the follow-up questions are naturally less stretching.

Is there a difference between subjects? DS enjoyed his Economics interview but got quite flustered during the maths one, to the extent that he got quite easy questions wrong.

Most colleges don't require STEP for economics so they seem to use UMS scores and interview to filter. The only contemporaries who got through were very strong mathematicians, probably strong enough to earn a place to study maths at Cambridge if they had wanted.

Applicants need to approach this with the right mindset. It is a verbal exam but one in which it is impossible to get 100%. So you are doing quite well if you manage to keep going and don't dry up. You can even get a relatively easy question wrong if you don't let it affect your performance in the rest of the interview.

My child certainly didn't get the "right" answers to everything they were asked. They thought the interview went Ok because they kept talking, didn't panic and got some decent answers in for questions about parts of the syllabus they hadn't covered yet. Perfectionist students might have thought it was a bad interview.

Don't think there is much difference between subjects apart from maths, although in competitive subjects like economics you can't afford to get a lot of easy things wrong. The maths course is very difficult so they use STEP as a filter. It's a hard course even for those who do very well at STEP.

It is obviously better if you don't cry and run out of the interview

Thanks alreadytaken for those links. Thank you (I think!) for the summaries of your dc's interviews. What has she got herself into?

Also found the testimonies on this link really helpful as they outline a full interview.

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Oxbridge_interviews

DS,s application sent by school on Thursday, after DS pointed out that they hadn't added the specific information about his academic prizes & placings in his year group, despite DH & me contacting the guidance teacher by phone & e-mail providing info from Cambridge website about what they were looking for. A large chunk of the reference replicated his PS, despite his &DH's discussions about this with her. Fortunately the deputy head agreed to change it & added the information DS suggested & removed some of the duplication. I am seriously unimpressed we told them in December last year he was intending to apply so this wasn't sprung on them suddenly, they don't get many Oxbridge applicants (we are in Scotland, so there is a real cost implication) & even fewer acceptances. So fingers crossed he gets an interview, on a brighter note he got an unconditional offer from Glasgow University on Friday afternoon, based on his higher results ( although it's his 4th choice).

HMF1 I wouldn't worry about the poor quality of the school reference. It didn't hold DS back that his was badly written and not even by a teacher. (References are written by none teaching staff "in consultation" with teachers.
I didn't mention above that DS got not one single question about his Personal Statement, nor a single question about himself or his achievements. He also felt frustrated that he wasn't given chance to demonstrate his knowledge of the subject outside of A level.

I think, for Cambridge, it's all just about the grades. If they have very high UMS in every module that is far more valuable than anything else.

Secretsquirrels thank you for that UMS is about AS grades? He sat Scottish Highers & achieved 5 A band 1s & has been told by his school he got 100% in maths. He is applying for NatSci (Physical) & is now studying advanced highers I. Maths, Pysics & Chemistry plus a further higher in Biology. He also did a Nuffield Research placement this summer, so hopefully he is in with a Chance of an interview.

Secret, that seems to have been DS' experience as well. He is very interested in his subject and very widely read. His impression was more of an oral exam with a set list of questions. They seemed mainly to be looking for the very, very clever. The bar was very high and they ended up rejecting some extremely able applicants.

Oxford seemed to be offering places to a more quirky bunch.

The surprise to me was then how many did not make their offers this summer. More so in arts subjects, though obviously also maths. (Cambridge over-offer in a ratio of about 2:1.) One boy, who has battled with significant illness for a number of years and is impressively mature and interesting, missed his AAA offer by a couple of UMS and did not get through. Its tough.

For Maths at Cambridge (and elsewhere) it is all about the grades but this does not apply to all other subjects.

Yes I should add that it was Maths and in spite of getting 4A* at A level he didn't make his Cambridge offer because he missed the STEP grade.
He knows many others who did the same. Some got within a whisker of the STEP grade but were still rejected.