2x 30 min interviews, over 1 day
Both interviews: motivation and interests, personal statement, problem-solving (graphs, pictures)
-
-
Know your personal statement; practise speaking about your subject; practise problem solving.
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.
Number of interviews: 2
Skype interview: No
Interviews all in one day
Length of interviews: 30 minutes each
Both interviews split into three. The first section was an introduction, so basic ‘ice-breaker’ questions about why I enjoy geography, the ‘turning point’ for choosing geography as a degree, my favourite topics and so on, in order to help me relax. The next section was on my personal statement and what modules interested me, and in the final segment I was given some problem solving questions to do: graphs, pictures etc.
The two interviews were split into human and physical geography.
-
Read over your personal statement and be consistent! A peer of mine was asked about a book on his personal statement which he didn’t read, and he completely froze up about it and obviously it did not look good, hence he was not given an offer. I’m glad I looked over mine.
Practising speaking about your degree or interest to somebody like a teacher I found to be really helpful, especially because then on reflection you can reword your answer so you have it ‘ready’- this helped me sound and feel confident in my interview.
I wish I did more practice in terms of problem solving, which is more tricky to prepare for, and to be fair they do want to put you on the spot. If you can, ask your subject teacher to help or even just read some articles outside of the curriculum which give you ideas / examples to use in your interview.