Geography @ St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 2021

Interview content

Questions based on personal statement; Source-based questions relating to geography

Best preparation

Completed mock interviews; Went over personal statement

Test preparation

Completed practice questions in a workbook(with feedback)

Final thoughts

Practice and look through the practice papers for the TSA as much as possible, know your personal statement inside out and create potential questions for 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

Test taken: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Both interviews started by going through questions about topics I had mentioned in my personal statement. then there was a series of images and I was asked about them and their geographical significance in many respects.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I had mock interviews with a tutor which were very useful. the more practice the better. I also found many resources online with practice questions that could come up in the interview.

I created lots of questions around the topics I stated in my personal statement, and was very clear about explaining everything that I had mentioned in them which was very useful as you feel as if you have a foundation of knowledge that you are certain you know about - it makes for a good beginning in the interview.

Other than that it is just simply an intellectual discussion, so just practice speaking in this manner with anyone you can about the topics you're interested in. Personally, I wasn't very used to this and didn't practice it much, but it would have definitely helped to have done more.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Past practice papers were the best. Then there is a textbook for the test which can be found on Amazon, which had many similar questions - both multiple choice and for the written section.

I found someone within my college who could mark my essays and give me better feedback and also help with some sides of the critical thinking and understand what it actually is.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Practice and look through the practice papers for the TSA as much as possible, know your personal statement inside out and create potential questions for it. Push your thinking when confronted with intellectual problems - e.g. when reading a news article think what I could be asked and answer it. other than that there is little to do