Music @ The Queen's, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

3x 20 min interviews & 1x 5 min audition, over 2 days

Interview content

Interview 1: text and compositions given beforehand; Interview 2: score; Interview 3: text; 5-minute audition

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Read; spoke to current students; relaxed; tried to enjoy 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

Number of interviews: 3

Skype interview: No

Interviews spread over two days

Length of interviews: 20-30 minutes each; 5-minute audition

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Interview 1: 15 minutes to peruse an extract of writing, and 3 or 4 compositions (although I didn’t get round to the last 2!). These were the topics of the interview, although I was first asked general questions. Then we discussed the text, and I was asked to evaluate the arguments in it. I was really nervous for this interview, but before the second, someone advised me that I should try to relax and enjoy the opportunity to talk to some world-leading academics about a subject you love - it worked as the second felt far better.

Interview 2: 20 minutes to peruse a 3-page score of some early classical piano sonata (although score did not specify any details of composer), and to analyse it in preparation for a 30/40 minute interview. We also discussed my personal statement and written work, and he asked me questions further to the things I wrote about.

Interview 3: 20 minutes to peruse one short extract of writing, summarise it, and form/justify some opinions of its arguments/points raised.

I also had a 5-minute audition at the faculty

How did you prepare?

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What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I did a lot of reading. I also spoke with current students. The best thing I did was to relax and to try to enjoy it; I believe this improved my performance.