Test taken: N/A
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: none
Length of interviews: around 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

I had one human geography interview immediately followed by a physical geography one, both with two people asking questions. All were polite and perfectly nice, although some more comforting (saying 'that's a good idea', 'yes that's true') while others had poker faces throughout! You're so swept up in it that you don't notice that at the time, and if I didn't know something no question was dwelled on long enough for me to get too stressed about it.

The first interview was probably 50% discussing a text I had been emailed half an hour before, while the second was more data-based. I came away feeling relieved but not like I had impressed them in any way at all - I thought it was in no way a disaster but that there was no chance I had performed well enough to get in.

My geography teachers did a practice interview with me as well as the Oxbridge-support member of staff at my school - one was more subject-based and the other more random 'bizarre' questions. Neither were all that similar to my real interview, but they made me think more about geography as a subject and get used to answering tough questions when under pressure/nervous.

I wish I had practised reading comprehension (reading an article beforehand and being questioned on it) - I felt confident about this aspect until it actually happened and I found it really challenging! It's definitely a good idea to get used to being presented with new information, whether it's a theory, set of data, map, or image related to your subject, and being able to be imaginative about what its significance could be.

I think I also knew my personal statement inside out for example critique and details on the books I had mentioned - but my personal statement was not referred to once so this wasn't necessarily useful for me. That said, it made me feel more confident and definitely could come up in other interviews.

From my experience, lots of the example questions when you google 'Oxbridge interview questions' are completely inaccurate. Not one question was unrelated to my subject, and while they weren't too knowledge-based based they weren't so overly theoretical that I couldn't properly come up with some form of response. I think being imaginative within your subject is valuable - coming up with interpretations and theories and also being receptive to new information. Prior knowledge might make these interpretations more perceptive, but I think passion for your subject is really brought out in an interview, so don't start panicking a week before that you don't know enough.

If I could go back I'd worry less about the whole experience - my nerves didn't make me perform any better! I'm not sure I do know yet exactly what an interviewer is looking for in a candidate - I just trust they know what they're doing. Just know that you love your subject, why you love it, and that there's much more to love about it that you haven't learnt about yet.