History And Politics @ Wadham, Oxford in 2016

Interview format

4x 20 min interviews, over 3 days

Interview content

History: sources, personal statement; Politics: discussion of themes (not requiring content knowledge)

Best preparation

Try to link together topics that seem separate when you first meet them

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Try to enjoy the 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

Test taken: HAT

Number of interviews: 4

Skype interview: No

Interviews spread over 3 days

Length of interviews: 20 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In the history interviews there were questions on sources and my areas of focus from my personal statement, but all intended to see how I thought about things they knew I knew.

In the politics ones there were questions on themes (e.g. democratic peace theory or trust in a democratic society) - things where not being familiar with the content was more helpful for theorising and thinking.

How did you prepare?

I looked at practice papers and refreshed my memory of my A Level courses.

Try to have a mock interview with someone who understands the process and ideally has done it themselves - they can be detrimental otherwise.

Be aware that you can’t prepare for the specific questions (and they’re not really looking for specific answers), it’s more about being curious and considering how you would approach questions that initially scare you. For this I’d mainly try and make links between things that seem separate when you’re taught them or see them on the news.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

It’s very important to enjoy the interview because they want to teach you, so try and be in a frame of mind where you can embrace it and have fun without any particular expectations. Consider it as the first time you’ve been able to let your thinking run towards the end of its capacity (beyond a syllabus or class restraints). Once I’d had my first interview and messed it up, I realised the importance of loosening up and letting myself think flexibly, rather than driving straight for an answer - enjoy the process and don’t try and get out of there as quickly as you can!