HANDLING YOUR OXBRIDGE INTERVIEW

Is that terrifying date approaching? If your Oxbridge interviews involve an overnight stay, pack something that will take your mind off the challenges lying ahead. For some people, that will be a thriller, for others Rescue Remedy or their favourite chocs.

Once up, try to enjoy meeting fellow candidates (who may become fellow students), rather than just viewing them as potential rivals. Some will have read books or explored subject areas you hadn’t even heard off, but don’t worry now. Interview questions can usually be handled by drawing on a variety of materials.

If a personage or term mentioned really baffles you, check it out quickly on Wikipedia, but don’t spend hours trying to catch up. You want to stay fresh enough to display your own knowledge and engage with new ideas.  

Still worried that the interviewers might scare you witless? Remember that they are not doing so deliberately. They’re just experts in search of yet more students suited to the much loved course they teach.

Most will try hard to make you feel welcome, but don’t be put off by an interviewer who seems unfriendly or glum. It does not mean that black-gowned figure hates your accent, school or cutting-edge haircut. The poor soul may simply be exhausted after interviewing a dozen students in one day. Other great minds, however well-meaning, just lack the social skills to put a stranger at ease. Either way, they will still be taking in everything you say and discuss it with fellow interviewers later.

So, keep relating to what you are being asked, instead of fretting about the feel of the event.  And, if you really want to be liked, practise speaking up: whispering, mumbling students are the bane of a don’s life.

While doing so, remember the two key interview skills: giving yourself time to think before you reply to a question is one. Answering the question actually asked (rather than the one you would like it to have been) is the other. Also, interview questions are meant to be hard, so don’t despair if you got the odd answer wrong.

Need yet more last minute advice? Check out the six interview chapters of OXBRIDGE ENTRANCE: THE REAL RULES and, if relevant, its detailed sections on English, Medicine, PPE and Economics.