Biology @ St Hilda's, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

2x 1 hr interviews, 2 days apart

Interview content

Interview 1: motivations, choice of 2 papers given beforehand, diagram; Interview 2: biochemical, diagram, interests

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Try to talk to teachers; read about things you find interesting; try to relax and enjoy it.

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: 2 days

Length of interviews: 1 hour each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In my first interview I had to read a paper half an hour beforehand, we had the choice between one that was more biochemical and one that was more behavioural/ecological (which I chose). First we talked about why I wanted to study biology and what I found most interesting, then we discussed the paper I had read, including interpreting graphs. They also showed me a phylogenetic tree and I had to comment on what stood out to me about it. I overall felt very welcome as my interviewer was very cheery and friendly.

The second interview I had was more biochemical based. I didn’t feel it went well, there were three interviewers and they seemed to be laughing at me. They showed me some phylogenetic trees to interpret, which we discussed. They also spoke to me about my favourite thing in molecular terms, although I am more ecology and behaviour focused.

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?

It’s good to talk to any teachers in the subject you’re applying for and see if they would be willing to give you a mock interview to practise your discussion skills. It’s also a good idea to really understand why you want to do this course and know that it’s right for you, I think it’s important and that they’ll be able to tell if you are really passionate.

Try and do some reading around things you find interesting, you won’t be able to guess what they’ll ask you about but it’s good to get familiar with, say, certain types of graphs, and get in the headspace of thinking about your subject.

Most of all, try to relax and enjoy it, they really just want to see how you think and what you’re like as a person to see if they would want to teach you, so don’t stress about not knowing all the answers or if you got things right, they just want engaging conversation.