Biology @ New, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

2x 30 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

All interviews: personal statement, discussion of graphs / items (e.g. plants, pictures of insects)

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Know the stuff on your personal statement; try to relax and talk through your thought process.

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?

In both interviews they started with my personal statement and asked me some questions about it, which helped me to relax. Then they asked questions (which led to discussions) on various items including plants, graphs and pictures of insects. Sometimes I didn’t know the answers but with a bit of guesswork and some suggestions they helped me get there in the end. (We talked it through together.)

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?

Make sure you know about what you’ve written in your personal statement, otherwise you’re a bit stuck!

Mostly just try to relax and make sure you talk through your thought process because, even if the answers you give are completely wrong, if you can justify them that often doesn’t matter!