Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4

[Lightsabre]

New thread as our dc start the rollercoaster ride of interviews.

My son had two maths interviews on Thursday. The first one he said went ok but he was very down after it.
He pulled himself together and the second one went better.
I feel sorry for those who only had one interview cos' my son was so nervous before the first one that it must have affected his performance

My DS’s interview ran over by 10mins last week and the interviewers said they had to wrap it up. We are also seeing it as a good sign. But who knows!

They could have atleast provided a definitive answer.

I'm taking it as a hopeful sign. The interviewer said he lost track of time because he was really enjoying exploring maths with him!!

My state school educated DD applied to an old college and was reallocated to what was a women's college. She is delighted with where she has ended up. Just finished her first term...

DS had his two interviews today (engineering).
Came out extremely deflated from the first one. Decided to go into the second one thinking he had nothing to lose and it went much better, he genuinely enjoyed it (which he knows is probably a bad sign).
He’s convinced this is the end of the road because of how the first one went, needing so many prompts and giving very dull answers to the non academic questions. He can’t stop thinking about it and the more he thinks about it the worst he is feeling.
I’m so proud of him regardless, how hard he’s been prepping and how he pulled himself up for the second interview.

@bluetides not a bad sign! My DD is still going over her two from last week. Felt it was actually question then answer then next question - not the challenging 'conversation' everyone says it will be, and therefore worries she was too pedestrian in her answers and didn't get a chance to showcase her knowledge (and all those hours of preparation). But who knows? It's done now. All we can do is show cautious optimism and support - while also looking at the likely alternative offers, where we know our kids will be just as successful!

@bluetides if it is remotely helpful, DS felt similar after his first engineering interview - said that they'd had to steer him a lot and as he got to the end of one of the questions, realised that there was a FAR easier equation he could have used, but he went (a LOOOONG way) around the houses; when penny dropped, he said - oh bother, I could have just done it that way - and they agreed that he'd made life far too difficult for himself. He was convinced that he'd blown it...but, he's currently in his second year, so you just don't know until the offers are out. They aren't necessarily looking for the right answers - they are looking for how you think, and whether you have potential, how you cope with the tutorial/supervision type approach - they aren't looking for someone who knows it all now...!

@bluetides my DS has had a similar experience to your DS, but for Maths. So similar to your DS @ShellfishCellar .Yesterday he was very stressed and therefore couldn't focus properly and had lots of prompts. Today's interview had far more challenging questions but he wasn't so stressed and he feels he did well today; he came out really happy. A different college tomorrow! Does anyone know where there are first and second college interviews (booked as such in advance) do the colleges confer? Do they simply average scores for interviews? If so my DS is probably out of the running for college 1. With second college interviews for Maths, am I correct in thinking the people that chose that college are the ones likely to get the spaces and it's only if they haven't got a full house, that someone who has been allocated it as a second college will have a chance?

@Heavyeyelids that sounds horrific, good luck to your son for today . I'm sorry to hear @bamboowarrior about your son's stressful experiences too.

DS had his second set of two interviews today and said they were more difficult and less friendly than the first set.

He seemed to be coping well, asked me to drive him to the shops to buy a suit for his winter ball in two days and now seems paralysed. The stress has to come out somewhere. I am apparently very annoying. I am sitting on a bench in Next, on a workday, trying not to be annoying while we wait for the girlfriend to respond with her opinion 🤣

They are such amazing and competent teenagers. Still teenagers.

Can so relate to that Catherine. It is amazing how wise a range of events I am, apparently, solely and personally responsible for. All negative events, obvs

Teenagers so true. Mine is exhausted and limping towards the end of term. So am I!

@OxfordInterviewer thanks for stopping by! For subjects requiring two interviews with two different colleges (organised prior to interviews starting), does the second college get briefed by the first college on the outcome of the first interview prior to the second interview starting? Or are they independent to avoid being influenced?
Thank you!

DS had 4 interviews today at 2 colleges

He was sick in-between each interview

Both interviews went far better at one college than the other.

He thinks he could have a chance with this one but doesn't think he does does with the other

He think all candidates get asked the same questions.

I bloody hope so otherwise it's unfair.

@mushroom3 @bluetides the admissions reports from previous years will give you some idea how second college interviews are taken into account in the selection process for the relevant subject. DD has her Oxford second college physics interview tomorrow. The physics admission reports explain that the scores from all 3 interviews (2 at first college, 1 at second) are used to calculate an average interview score, and this and the PAT test results are then used to determine an overall score and ranking. This is used to define three groups. The top group are highly likely to get in, the bottom group very unlikely to get in, and the middle batch considered on an individual basis. So all three interviews are taken into account. My guess is that Maths would follow a similar process?

I will be very very glad when tomorrow’s interview is over and she can start focussing on her schoolwork and mocks which are at the start of January.

Thanks @InvestedButNotOverinvested

That's interesting about the second college interviews. I had been wondering and what the odds of getting in from one are. DD didn't get a second college interview in E&M.

DS got all the maths questions right for both colleges it's just that one college had harder questions so he worries about that side of it.

@Silkiefloof the physics compulsory second college interviews are a different category to the E&M optional call backs, so not relevant for your daughter's process.

DC was given a math question which seems unsolvable. The interviewer later said he may have misremembered the question and moved on.

With all the talk of further interviews at additional colleges it would be natural to assume that one might not have been successful with your application if you haven’t been called by other colleges.

DD had just the one interview for English at the college she applied for. I don’t think I have seen any other Cambridge English applicant on here or TSR mention being called for interview by another college so maybe this doesn’t happen for English at Cambridge? Or maybe it does but just not for DD. Potentially we can read something in to this and assume that DD hasn’t been pooled which could mean her college want her or it’s an outright rejection. Or maybe even she has been pooled but the additional college don’t carry out further interviews. Who knows! Either way I am glad that DD isn’t dwelling on all of this. What will be will be.

That's interesting about the second college interviews. I had been wondering and what the odds of getting in from one are. DD didn't get a second college interview in E&M

For subjects which don't have second college interviews as standard, the odds of getting an offer from interviewing at a single college are - massive broad brush here - probably even (top third in, bottom third out) with the few in the middle being sent around to colleges who haven't filled their places. That's very simplistic because of course there are standardisation second college interviews too, and also the quality of any pool of interviewees will differ so some subjects at some colleges may not pool on at all. But interviewing at a single college only means the interviewee is either top cut or bottom cut, that's the one given (not helpful!).

Rollergirl11 it's just a different system at Oxford. Cambridge is quite different.