Oxbridge applicants 2026??

[Justlurkingmostly]

Is there a thread for this year’s applicants - I can’t seem to find with a search. Thanks for signposting 🙏

DD has got an interview for Cambridge - so pleased, relieved and excited for her! It's for one of the smaller subject areas so don't want to say which as potentially outing

Hope DCs still waiting hear about interviews/ other offers soon.
Sorry to hear your news @ArchitectureMum and any other DCs who have not been given an interview - it's a tough journey for sure.

I think a more relaxed approach to Oxbrige as taken by @Shodan and @pinkdelight DCs - where it's not seen as the be all and end all -is definitely preferable as there are loads of other amazing Unis (but not sure we've mastered the chill factor in this house!)

I've just found this group and am so glad to have found others to wait out this anxious time with. DS is applying for engineering at Cambridge. ESAT results yesterday are not what he was expecting. Does anyone have an idea of marks needed to be confident of an interview? Anyone already received notification of interview for engineering?

Well done to your DD @Spinningonthatdizzyedge - how exciting!! Can you say what college? Maybe you've said previously on the thread. Not for outing purposes, merely for interest in which colleges are sending invites out at mo.

Same but my DS won't tell me his score 🙄

Thanks so much @pinkdelight! I'd rather not say the college either (sorry!) both for outing reasons but also I'm not sure how helpful it would be. Just because my DD has been told about her interview offer doesn't mean everyone else who applied to her college has been...

If your DC has not had an outright 'no' then I reckon that means everything's still possible!

No word here - the college say they will let people know from 10th Nov and by the end of last week so I am assuming no interview.

I know this is not going to be the norm, but does anyone know any help for interviews outside of school. I know someone had a meeting today at school for Oxbridge invitees, but DDs school has nothing of that sort. They barely acknowledge this as anything, reason being “we are about a factory pushing kids to Oxbridge” whatever they mean? It is a GS! They do help with kids for medicine, but not for STEM, in a girls school where companies even promote women in Tech!!
Sorry about the rant, I am struggling to help with anything and just feels like we are in a minority with no help :(

@ArchitectureMum I'm sorry to hear this. My DS got an interview last year. Then rejected in Jan. And I really wish he had got straight up rejected pre interview...the excitement of the interview, loving the college again then the nerves waiting for the decision day. Then the rejection amd the self doubt ("why did other candidates interview better than me"). To be fair he picked himself up pretty quickly (I am so proud of the way he bounced back) and is now absolutely thriving elsewhere. But I really wished we'd had a straight up rejection as i think it would have been so quicker and easier to move on.

Aww thanks, @Mapletreelane . It is such a full on process and I imagine the rejections get harder the further on you go. Even worse to miss an offer in August.

@madnessitellyou I think they probably send out invitations and rejections at the same time. Hang on in there. Anyone with outside tests would be hearing from DD’s college sometime next week. If the college had said it would be by Friday then maybe contact them and/or check the junk mail.

@Newlease my DS's school doesn't do anything either, mainly as it's very low- achieving and no one usually applies to Oxbridge from there, but I'm making DS ask one of his subject teachers to do a practice interview with him if an invite comes through. Are there individual subject teachers who she could approach? Surely the STEM teachers would be really keen to help a girl to do her best. There are also external tutors you can pay for and sites like Zero Gravity but we've not used them so I don't know. DS is on a couple of widening participation schemes that have done online practice interviews but they wouldn't cover grammar schools. I think your best bet is a sympathetic individual at the school unless you want to pay for someone to do a session or two, if that's doable.

Oxford or Cambridge and subject?
My DCs school also do not offer mock interviews etc. Last year DC1 just watched a couple of mock interviews online provided by Oxford. This was for Maths and the interviews they had were all just solving math problems similar to the ones on the Olympiad Challenge Papers. No small talk at all, just three or four problems per interview.
If DC2 gets an interview I am assuming it will be the same format.
DC1’s friends all had similar interviews for STEM subjects both at Oxford and Cambridge.

Search Oxbridge interviews on YouTube Tube and go to the Oxford/ Cambridge undergrad admissions pages for more advice. Honestly your DD is not in a minority. DD's school offered her a practice interview with a graduate from Oxford Brookes who had obviously never ben through an Oxford interview.

The interviews are design to level the playing field regardless of prep. DD's interviewers took her background into consideration as she was applying for PPE and hadn't taken any of the subjects at A level. They started by checking she understood the Qs and built up to harder and harder issues.

Congrats to all those who've got interviews and so much sympathy to those who haven't - it's a brutal process and good on them all for having the resilience to apply in the first place.

Re mock interviews, it's so frustrating that some teens get much more practice than others. My DD has had one mock interview organised by her school (but given by a teacher at a local private school). For those whose schools aren't offering much, I wonder if it's worth contacting private schools who might offer them – as everything is online now, they wouldn't even have to be local.

I've also been googling tutors who offer interview practice and a few current students have come up offering that sort of thing. Otherwise, relevant Youtube / Instagram accounts etc seem to be a good source of info.

Something that seems to come up time and again is that they aren't looking for students who know all the answers already, they are looking for potential i.e. students who don't fall apart when presented with something they don't know the answer to and are willing to give it a go and work the question through with the interviewer.

That's a really good idea about the private school @deathbyprocrastination . This is the thing - it's one thing to watch some videos and that could be enough, but there's a confidence in talking through your thoughts aloud that has been fostered from day one in some schools and an ease that comes with it versus the opposite, if you're not used to talking about your thought process with educated adults, esp in an intimidating scenario. One could argue that they should have have skill or else not get in, but a practice run or two could make all the difference for some kids, so they can relax enough to show that potential.

Thanks all for your suggestions, I have also read that it’s more of a discussion and not knowing the answer is not the issue. DD is very good at her content and will be fine with questions mostly, but the subject itself is tough as it is, so few rounds of someone asking questions and prompting to answer, would help her to think quickly! More like a practice than someone going to teach her what to say, IYKWIM. On TSR someone say the interview was similar to the one they practiced, but then someone else had no questions about PS/ projects stuff they do. Like someone else say, it’s a hard journey as it is, we are just watching from sidelines, so just thought if there is anything we could help!

Honestly, they'll be fine. The tutors spend hours everyday with young people and they are simply talking through ideas to find out if the tutorial system will work for them. They are very used to people being nervous. Even after 3 years of their degree students still stumble!

I have also read that it’s more of a discussion and not knowing the answer is not the issue. DD is very good at her content and will be fine with questions mostly, but the subject itself is tough as it is

It definitely will be a discussion, and also it is good to remember that getting the answer wrong is not necessarily an issue. They want to see how people think and if they are readily teachable/able to make use of feedback. So if someone gets something wrong (it could even be something they don't expect people to get right), it might be also about how they respond to that and if they are able to take on a new perspective and use new information.

My older DS did engineering at Cambridge and his interview (in person as pre-covid) was entirely “do this problem” style. He had some problems to prepare in the 15 mins before the interview. There was absolutely no chitchat and no reference made to his personal statement. He had a mock interview at his (state) school but it didn’t really prepare him in any way.

PS The admissions test in those days was called ENGAA and I suspect the interview questions would be similar to those in the old exam. Here’s a link to past papers: www.physicsandmathstutor.com/admissions/engaa/

@Newlease @Jeffandpedro @girlwhowearsglasses No word of an interview here (yet!) for Engineering. Ds2's average score was 5.2, so a bit over the median, and very similar to his two friends who are also applying for Engineering at Cambridge.

But a low or lowish score doesn't necessarily mean no interview, according to posts on Reddit!

Having said that, I don't know when it would be time to assume there's no interview offer coming...

@Shodan that’s a good score. From what I read, it really depends on the college you applied for. And if there is no email yet, it’s good news too. Last year ppl got invited on 29th Nov, So there is still a lot of time. I don’t have any other experience, just reading old threads, this is my first round of applying.

@Newlease ds has says that he will get a mock interview at school but it will not be Oxford / maths specific so I don’t know how useful it will be.

He’s done some online free things with Uni Admissions and had an online interview with them but unfortunately their 1:1 support, seminars and mock interviews were just too expensive for us to sign up to so we’re back to looking at YouTube etc and him practicing talking his thinking out loud to anyone who will listen (even though we don’t understand it!).

If he gets an interview he’ll do his best and what will be will be. Luckily he seems pretty pragmatic about it all at the moment. That may change if he gets interviewed.

@Muchtoomuchtodo nobody needs to pay for anything to get a place. Promise! Don't feel guilty

@Muchtoomuchtodo Thanks you, I will have a look at those too. I have send her those videos from YouTube and Camb website. TSR has some points too, two kids taking about Churchill interview, have a look if that’s any help.
We didn’t get any help so far,she was doing it all alone. Being the last minute person and not wanting me to read before she finish, I didn’t even get to read her PS as she rewrote and submit during the school day, so there was not time!
@HewasH2O that’s very good to hear, I was thinking the same for a long time, but just don’t want her to be the only one never had a chance.
As someone else suggested, we will try and ask her physics teacher to do a mock .
Also this is just another step, that we can try and do our best. It’s a long stressful process. At times I am more stressed than her.

I thought I could just Google this, but think I am going to have to ask as don't wish to ask young person (super independent & keeping their application low key)....

When are the PAT results issued? AI seems to suggest January, but selection for interview must be anytime soon (I'm guessing). I've googled that the interviews are a week or two before Christmas... But surely they only interview candidates with a good PAT score? - or is it that all applicants not told PAT results until after interviews?

TIA