Law @ St Hilda's, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

2x 30 min interviews, 1 day apart

Interview content

Interview 1: application of statute; Interview 2: human rights judgement discussion

Best preparation

Practice papers

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Have fun and see interviews as an opportunity to see if the tutorial system is right for you.

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: LNAT

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: 30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

There was one question regarding the personal statement and one regarding how I learn in general, all the others were law-specific questions.

The first interview asked questions where we had to logically predict how a statute would be applied in different scenarios.

The second interview was about answering more abstract, big-picture questions on a judgement that touched upon human rights. Neither of the questions required any prior legal knowledge.

How did you prepare?

I used practice papers online and 'Arbitio'.

My school helped us do one mock interview but it was nothing like the Oxford one, it had more questions about us and less about the law.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I received some general advice from a previous student from my school who was studying a different subject, which helped calm my nerves but did not actually help with the content of the interview. I would give future applicants the following advice:
1. If you've made it to this stage, you're good enough to get in, don't panic about any doubts you have.
2. Everyone is in the same boat, some people are just better at hiding how nervous they are. Just focus on your own performance and don't be distracted by how anyone else claims to have done during the interviews.
3. The interviewers will push you and they want to see how you solve difficult problems, rather than whether you get to a 'right' answer. They're not looking for detailed knowledge about the law, they're looking for creative ways of solving legal problems and being able to back up your answer.
4. Have fun, see this as an opportunity to decide whether YOU enjoy the unique tutorial system here as much as the university is seeing whether you're a good fit for them.