Interview advice for Oxbridge, Medical Schools and Law Schools

• Because your GCSE  marks, A-level predictions, UCAS Personal Statement don’t give enough information
  • about how you think. There’s lots more about this below
  • (in the case of career-facing degrees such as medicine) about your commitment to the profession
• Because they have too many applicants who look brilliant on paper
• NB Your UCAS form is still vital. It has to be impressive or you won’t get interviewed at all

• Will they enjoy teaching you?
• Will you cope with the demands of the course?
• Will you ‘add value’ – to the teaching, to the university community?
• Do you have a realistic commitment to your subject?

But they don’t have a stereotype or ‘ideal student’ to measure you against They want a diverse student body, not a lot of clones

• As fairly as they can. That’s why you’ll be seen by more than one interviewer
• They try to make the interview similar for all candidates, but also they need to follow individual thought lines as the interview ‘conversation’ develops.
  • So, they won’t ask anything needing knowledge of a special syllabus. Any background knowledge will be from the ‘core’ syllabus of the subjects you are studying
  • Any factual questions are likely based on first year sixth material though interviewers can’t assume every student has covered the same topics, so, they often ask questions based on material that will be ‘new’ to all candidates. This is the fairest approach. New material provides a good way to see if you:
    • Make connections between it and what you already know.
    • Can speculate sensibly
    • Are able to be critical / logical
    • Grasp new ideas quickly
    • Are ‘articulate’ – ie able to express yourself
• You may have to sit a test before the interview starts, or you might be asked to read something to prepare. Ask for details if the university / college website doesn’t tell you what the interview format is.
  • This is a skill you can practice
  • Don’t be intimidated by questions on something unfamiliar in the interview. Everyone is in the same boat.

• Expect the unexpected but prepare for the standard questions anyway (for egs, see later)
• Expect follow-up questions:
  • ‘why do you think that?’
  • ‘what would you say if…?’
  • ‘how do we know that…?’
• The first few questions may be mainly to relax you. Later questions are usually designed to start a dialogue, or/and teach you something new. They want to explore:
  • how you think
  • how quickly you learn
  • how flexible your thinking is
  • how logical you are

  these are all really important – not something you can easily hide / change, though practice may help you get a bit better and will make this more familiar / less stressful

• Questions on what you know:
  • Existing knowledge is usually tested indirectly.
  • The interview isn’t usually a quiz.
• Checking whether you are OK with the methodology of your subjects: how historians / scientists / mathematicians etc:
  • think
  • discuss
  • assess and use evidence
• The interviewer may challenge what you say. This doesn’t mean that you’ve gone wrong. He or she is just checking that you can handle counter-argument.

• Your first-year A-level work
• Something interesting from the news relevant to your subject. It shows that you’re aware of the wider context and that you go beyond the text-book
• Something extra about subject topics you are really interested in. At this level, you’re expected to show real intellectual curiosity and to want to explore for yourself.
• What you wrote in your UCAS Personal Statement:
  • You are very likely to be asked about your Personal Statement
  • Do you need to check on anything – eg re-read books you mention?!
  • Think about how your experiences are relevant. This is particularly important for career-facing degrees

• Check the university, college and department websites for:
  
  • Information about what will happen at the interview
  • Ideas to help answer the possible question of ‘why did you choose this college / university?’
  • More about the subject you’ve applied for
  • ‘Selection criteria’ which specify what admissions tutors are looking for
  • Good advice on interviews (eg Cambridge have useful videos of interviews)
  • Course details such as content, assessment, options
  • Ideas to help you explain why you are applying for this subject .
• Look at / sort out the ‘What you should know’ material
• Practice discussing your subject:
  • With friends (eg try to explain difficult ideas, solutions to problems etc)
  • with your teachers
  • with teachers you don’t know. After all, you won’t know your interviewers.
• Find out about your subjects’ methodology. Ask your teachers about this!
• Practice reading and understanding short articles about subject topics, (Eg New Scientist, the Economist – whatever’s relevant to your subject)
  • What’s the article about? Can you summarise it?
  • What’s the article relate to? What’s the background?
  • What are the implications of the article?
• You’ll probably be asked if you have any questions
  • It’s not essential to ask any, but possibilities include details of course options, how your work is assessed, job prospects, accommodation and sports facilities.
  • Don’t ask about things which are fully dealt with in the prospectus / website!

• Relax and sleep properly the night before – no partying!
• Know where you have to go
• Eat enough a couple of hours before, but not so much that you get sleepy
• Be twenty minutes early
• Respect the occasion. Dress comfortably but make sure you look tidy

• I’ll do the best I can
• It will be like a one-to-one session with a new teacher who is about to make my UCAS grade prediction

• Look directly at your questioner, especially if there is more than one person in the room
• Concentrate hard, especially if you feel the interview isn’t going well
• Sit up straight and look attentive. This will help you keep alert as well as looking businesslike
• Pause for a moment to collect your thoughts before answering a tricky question.
• Say so if you really don’t know how to answer
• It is OK to say “I’m not sure but might it be … ?”
• Be enthusiastic about things that excite you.

• Get angry, dogmatic or very defensive
• Make very positive statements if you actually are uncertain
• Give one-word answers. Your interviewer will feel that you are hard work and unresponsive
• Dwell on your mistakes (everyone makes some). If you do you are more likely to panic and miss the next question as well.
• Talk for too long:
  • Say what you think and why, briefly. If they want more they will say so
  • If you are getting into a muddle it is better to stop than to keep talking.
• Rely on memorised answers to the standard questions:
  • You may not get any standard questions at all
  • Your answers will sound unnatural and not true to you as an individual

• Interviews are stressful so it is normal for you to feel tense beforehand. This is usually a positive thing – the adrenaline will help to keep you alert
• But too much tension and you may seize up.
• Prepare well and arrive in good time at the interview – so you know you’ve done everything right so far
• Realise that almost everyone makes the occasional mistake during an interview. It is not the end of the world and certainly does not mean failing the interview
• Interviewers expect you to get stuck and may push you to the point where you do get stuck so they can then teach you something new
• Don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know the answer – they can’t expect you to know everything
• If you feel you are making a mess of your answer:
  • stop talking as soon as you can,
  • take a few deep breaths,
  • concentrate as hard as you can on the next question.

Questions about the course and university

• • ‘Why did you choose this degree?’
  • ‘What features of our course do you like the look of?
  • ‘Why did you choose this university / college’?

You might not get asked any of them, but these are ‘standard’ questions to think about in advance

Subject-specific questions:

• • ‘Why are some materials elastic but others are not?’
  • ‘What are the disadvantages of giving the Bank of England independence from government?’

Ideally, you know your stuff and have done a bit of extra reading but there is no other direct way to prepare for this sort of question. If you really can’t handle it the interviewer is probably correct in deciding that you are unlikely to cope with the course! Do not be afraid to say so if you haven’t covered the topic yet

Questions about your interests & experience:

• • ‘What did you enjoy most about helping produce the year-book?’
  • ‘Do you still play the piano?’
  • ‘I see you collect coins – do you specialise in any country?’
  • ‘What’s the last book you’ve read?’

Questions from your UCAS statement are common. They may be just to relax you, but may also be exploring how much energy you have to do well outside class. You don’t have to be an expert in all the things you mentioned but be prepared to say something intelligent in response to questions about what you wrote.

Questions to explore your opinions:

• • ‘Do you think that people should get legal aid if they want to sue for libel?’
  • ‘Should policemen have the right to go on strike?’
  • ‘Are scientists responsible for the uses other people make of their discoveries?’

These questions can involve any area – your interests, current events, your subjects. Open-ended questions relating to your subject area are particularly common, especially on controversial topics (e.g. in medicine questions about abortion, euthanasia, the NHS are common). Keep your eye on the news and the quality press for relevant ideas. Your teachers will also be able to suggest points to consider. In general, interviewers are more interested in how you handle this sort of question than in whether you say the ‘right’ thing. You must be prepared to justify what you have said and to show that you realise there are often several valid view-points.