TEN WAYS TO SHINE IN YOUR OXBRIDGE INTERVIEW

  Oxford University 

The news that all Oxbridge interviews will be conducted online this year has actually been welcomed by many of this year's applicants, though rumour has it that some elderly dons were less thrilled. Detailed information about the extra tech which students may need for this, especially in STEM subjects, has been put online and can be found here for Oxford and Cambridge. Applicants unable to afford extra IT kit are told to contact  the college interviewing them or the admissions department for practical alternatives or financial help.

 Applicants have also been encouraged to sit the interview not at home but at school, as IT support can be on stand-by there. However, computer-savvy students (preferably without any noisy siblings around) are still free to do so from home.

Should all this work well (and successful  IT mocks have already been carried out), the success chances of a bright, hard-working applicant should be as good, or even better than in a face-to-face situation.  After all, many teachers have been virtually communicating with their students for months. Moreover, sitting in a familiar classroom or at the kitchen table may well prove less stressful than taking a cross-country train to answer questions while sitting on a rickety mahogany chair in a medieval building. 

Even better, the scary practice of having students interviewed by two or sometimes three subject tutors at once does not work well on the small screen, so interviews this year are more likely to be one-to-one.  Even a nervous student, then  should welcome this development, temporary as it might be. 

HOW TO CALM DOWN BY REVISING

What if your heart still starts hammering at the thought that this online encounter could determine your entire future, as some parents claim? Well, these days quite a lot of people manage to  build great careers and a happy life also after attending universities other than Oxbridge or, heaven forbid, none at all.  Do also remember that the interview itself is not a life-or-death matter. Your personal statement, school references and test results, if any, will co-determine whether you are offered a place.

 Googling your prospective interviewers can be calming at this stage too. Not only will they seem less like strangers when you meet online, but a special interest mentioned by them can suggest topics that might come up. Don't, though, spend ages trying to familiarise yourself with it. You need to be fresh and rested at your interview.

So, instead of fretting, just try to raise your game a little further. What this can mean is skimming a book or essay you mentioned in your UCAS statement, but this time focusing on methods rather than findings or facts. How exactly did Gregor Mendel discover the genetic basis of heredity? How might an archaeologist research the lives of illiterate, long dead people?

Smart STEM applicants now revise their GCSE science and maths. A student aiming for MFL, meanwhile, may want to use the time left to expand his knowledge of French poetry beyond a couple of poems by Rimbaud and revise his French grammar.  Many an Economics applicant comes a cropper at the interview because she has forgotten the most relevant bits of algebra, calculus and differentiation. An engineering applicant may want to make sure he remembers enough details about that exciting engineering project he had mentioned in his UCAS statement

Note that while being familiar with the periods covered in your A-level history is obviously essential for History applicants,  it can also enable you to talk more intelligently about a Victorian novel if aiming for English Lit. or about the country whose language you will be studying as part of Oriental Studies at Oxford or Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge. You may even want to think about why some historic events resonate with us far more than others.

An applicant for a course requiring students to solve maths-related problems may also need to practise explaining how they arrived at the solution. It is not enough to just present the interviewer with it on paper or board.  An ability to not merely interpret but also construct a simple data table may also be expected not just in STEM subjects, but also in subjects like Economics and Medicine.

On the verbal front, meanwhile, a wise student will try to make sure that s/he can understand, define, spell and confidently use the main subject terms. You don’t want to muddle up fission with fusion (or allusion with illusion) on that long, stressful day.

     Google-check you are up-to-date on major developments in the subject area you expressed an interest in. Have there been great new discoveries in virology or the causes of hurricanes? What have architects or engineers learnt about cladding?       

                                                   

Emmanuel College, Cambridge

 HOW TO HANDLE THE UNKNOWN

      This problem is most likely to arise when a student is faced with a test based on an unfamiliar scenario at interview. What would have happened if Churchill had died in 1939? Was there ever an economic theory which absolutely did not work in real life? 

 T You are not actually invited to just venture a blind guess here. The right strategy now is to try and remember what happened in the year mentioned in the first question, so you can think of the relevant political scenario and deduce the most likely outcome. As for that economic theory, it can be handled by talking about another topic addressed in the History syllabus, the disastrous response of  world leaders to the Great Depression. Both topics will have been covered at school.

Reassuringly, sample questions released by Oxbridge in the recent past suggest that question topics are  steadily broadening to allow for very different backgrounds, class sizes and access to academic support: while interviewers still  expect a familiarity with the structure of organelles (or the definition of an iambic pentameter), the ability to give strong reasons for your views or look at an issue from more than one simple angle now often counts for much. 

What this means is that a Law applicant may have to state why she believes certain traditional practices (let's say  hunting) should or should not be illegal.  A would-be philosopher, meanwhile, could be asked to give ethical reasons for caring about the environment. The idea is to see if the student can apply what s/he has learnt to a different scenario.

STILL WORRIED YOU MIGHT EMBARRASS YOURSELF IN FRONT OF THOSE CLEVER INTERVIEWERS?

Do remember that this is actually not what they’re trying to achieve. They’re just experts looking for yet more good learners keen on the much loved course they teach. Most will try to make you feel welcome, but don’t be put off by an interviewer who seems unfriendly or glum. It doesn't mean that daunting 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, merely lack the social skills to put a stranger at ease. Either way, they will still be taking in everything you say and discuss your answers with fellow interviewers later.

Wise students, though, are aware that interviewers, irrespective of mood, expect fairly detailed answers. Just "yes" or "no" is never what they're looking for.  So try to  cover "what, why and how" in an answer whenever possible. 

TEN WAYS TO DO WELL IN YOUR INTERVIEW

Reassured that online Oxbridge interviews do not pose insurmountable challenges? If so, the next step is to remind yourself of the key skills you need to give good answers.

·    1. Listen carefully. Does your interviewer want you you to discuss what happened in the First or the Second World War? Are you being asked for a fact, an explanation or your opinion? 

·    2. Order your thoughts before replying in a few, reasonably short sentences. Should you realise that you're barking up the wrong tree, don't just ramble on. Say so instead and ask if it's OK to start over again. It usually is.  

     3. Make sure you can understand, define, spell and confidently use the main subject terms. You don't want to muddle up fission with fusion (or allusion with illusion) on that stressful day. 

·    4. Avoid any text-speak and make sure to write in full, grammatically correct sentences in any written test. 

    5.  Know that it's OK to  speculate when faced with an entirely unfamiliar scenario, but try to give a   reason for your guess.  If you really have no idea what your interviewer is talking about, admit it and ask for more information. 

6. If applying for a STEM-related course, make sure you can do quick, basic sums in your head. .

7. Economics and Medicine applicants, as well as STEM ones, should be able to draw a simple numerical table or make sense of one they are shown. 

8. Remember that answering interview questions is not quite the same as trying to win a debating contest. Don't just rush in, since you may also be expected to give a reason for your view or offer a fact supporting it.   

9.  Be aware that giving a good answer often means looking at a problem from more than one single  angle. 

10. Speak in a clear, audible voice. as the sound quality or your interviewer's hearing may be less than perfect. Whispering, mumbling students are the bane of a don's life, and there is no point in giving a brilliant answer that nobody can hear. 

Finally, keep in mind just one more, absolutely key interview skill when laying out your stall:  this is answering the question you were actually asked, rather than the one you would  have liked it to have been. 

Once it's all over, too, don't panic at the thought of possible mistakes. Interview questions are meant to be hard, so there's no need to despair if you got the odd answer wrong.  

So, best of luck and if there's still time left, note that you'll  find lots more detailed advice in the six interview chapters and course-specific sections of OXBRIDGE ENTRANCE: THE REAL RULES, still available on next day delivery from Amazon.  Best of luck!