Test taken: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: 1 hour between the first two; the third was a few days later.
Length of interviews: 10-25 minutes
Online interview: Yes

The first interview involved some basic game theory questions. It was quite intuitive, no game theory preperation really helped here. It was just important to speak through what I was thinking and when I went off track the interviewers gently pushed me back on track. The second half of the interview was a discussion about a graph, again quite intuitive and was genuinely just a chat between me and the PHD student (there was a tutor and PHD student). Both of them were lovely and made me feel very relaxed which helped me perform so much better.

The second interview was on management. I was given pre-reading 20 minutes before the interview. The text was not on management but a different discipline. The interview consisted of questions about the text and the theories it was about. Again, no prior knowledge was required and at the very end I was asked how it related to management. The tutor was lovely but I think I performed worse simply due to not properly reading the text. I decided to make notes which in hindsight wasn’t a good idea. I should’ve spent the entire 20 minutes understanding the text.

The third interview was at a different college. The previous two interviews were very relaxing and almost informal, this one was not. It started with an economics half where we were discussing a current affairs topic. The management half was with another tutor, it was a discussion about supply and demand. He seemed very confrontational and questioned every point I made. Looking back, he was allowing me to explain my points further but at the time it very much felt like a 10 minute argument with the tutor. The truth is, you do not know how your interview is going to be, they could be very friendly or very harsh. Neither is a reflection on how you’re doing, my advice on dealing with the latter experience would be to think before you speak. If you truly believe what you are saying, it doesn’t matter whether they disagree - you will be able to back your argument and if you realise you are wrong you can go back and amend it (which is actually very impressive). Also, do not doubt your own ability, the fact you have got to this stage categorically means you’re good enough. Try and remain calm and stay coherent. I know how annoying it sounds when people say stay calm in one of the most nerve-wrecking scenarios but just treat it as a discussion with someone who knows a lot about the subject you're passionate about, whatever the outcome it’s a great experience.

Current affairs!! This was my far the most useful preparation I did, it allows you to bring so many interesting ideas into the interview which demonstrates how you’re proactive which tutors love. If you don’t love reading through articles like me the Financial Times daily podcast is a godsend, 10 mins every day giving a summary of what’s going on in the world. I managed to catch up on 2 months of news in a week before my interviews (which I don’t recommend!) and every topic in my 3 interviews allowed me to bring something up. Other things I did included brushing up on A level Mathematics (calculus, statistics and graph sketching), learning some basic games in game theory. I also used LinkedIn to reach out to first years doing E&M, inevitably some won’t reply but from my experience most were lovely and gave me so much time and advice which helped a lot (a few even gave me mock interviews). Don’t hesitate to reach out, as I now realise people who have gone through the process love to help others through it.

I truly believe there is no point in paying for tutoring for the TSA, the resources freely available will be enough for the majority if you use them effectively. Personally I did one past paper a week leading up to the exam that are available on the Cambridge Assessment website. Then I spent a short amount of time going over the questions I got wrong. However I don’t think this is that important as, with the TSA, the questions themselves aren’t particularly hard but more a test of working under pressure and endurance. Questions 40-50 will always be harder solely because you will be worn out by this point. Also don’t worry about your score too much, different questions are weighted differently so you won’t be able to get an accurate score yourself. I also think having a clear mind is very important and relaxing on the day - again, it’s more a test of endurance and thinking logically under pressure. When it comes to the essay, my one piece of advice would be to think differently. I think the best way to stand out and score highly is to write a convincing argument about something others haven’t thought about. Also very importantly, do not force yourself to write up to the word limit. I remember a tutor saying that the best essays were a lot of the time half the world limit. Quality>Quantity!

Relax! Oxbridge REALLY isn’t the be all and end all. Think out loud - this allows the tutors to gauge where you are in the question and if you’re going down the wrong path, they’ll steer you in the right direction. If I could go back, I’d spend a lot less time on preparing my personal statement for interviews.