Biology @ Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 2015

Interview format

2x 30 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

Both interviews: general biology questions; LMH: personal statement, testing a given hypothesis; Brasenose: discussion of object, graph

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Reread personal statements and books mentioned on it. Don't worry about not getting the right answer in interviews.

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.

Interview Format

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: 30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

LMH: We spoke about my personal statement briefly. Then they asked how I would design an experiment to test a hypothesis that they gave me, as well as general biology questions.

Brasenose - There were 3 biology artefacts on the table (stick, strawberries, skull) and I had to discuss one of them. I had to describe the results shown on a figure they provided and then some general biology questions.

How did you prepare?

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What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

I did not really prepare, except for rereading books mentioned in my personal statement and reading through my personal statement.

I know now that interviewers aren’t looking for the right answer and are there to guide you towards it- often there isn’t a clear right thing to say and that’s the point.