Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA); x2 interviews
reading around my areas of interest; revising some IB Economics content; re-read my personal statement
past papers
Do your research, as Land Economy is quite a niche course, and try to read around topics which interest you.
Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.
Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.
Test taken: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) - completed Section 1 only due to technical difficulties.
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: None
Length of interviews: 15-20 mins
Online interview: Yes
In the first interview, we discussed a variety of topics - including development economics and environment. Questions were framed mostly as “What do you think about [specific topic]?” The discussion flowed naturally so that the interviewer’s questions built upon the previous question and my responses to it. I was a bit nervous at first but I genuinely found the questions and discussions to be very interesting, so I started enjoying myself very quickly. If you really love the subject it’s just very fun talking about it, and the interviewer leads you in directions you might not have thought about before. The interviewer was quite nice throughout, however it's worth noting that I had an additional person in the 'room' writing notes - which was
I read articles on urban planning policy in different countries, gentrification and its solutions, and a little bit of environmental policy related to urban planning (e.g. carbon emissions from traffic) - as these were areas I was interested in. I also revised some IB Economics content, and re-read my personal statement.
I practiced using some past papers for Section 1 of the TSA from the official website.
Land Economy is very specific and you likely wouldn’t have done anything like it in high school, so really try to go beyond what you learn from your high school curriculum and explore interesting books and articles relevant to the subject. A good starting point is the reading list suggested on the department's website, which might help introduce some topics you aren't familiar with - e.g. urban planning.