Test taken: TSA

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: 20 minutes each

My first interview was split into 10 minutes on Economics and 10 minutes on Politics. For Economics, I was given some basic stats problem-solving questions, which I first had to work out, and then discuss with the tutor. There were a couple of questions which I couldn't remember the stats techniques for, so I started working them out from the basics but ran out of time. I talked the tutor through how I would have gone about solving each question. For Politics, the interview was based around a single question on an issue of political theory. I first presented my initial reaction to the question, and then developed my response as the tutor questioned me. It was a little nerve-wracking responding to the tutor in this kind of tutorial-style way but once I settled into it I found it really engaging and used the tutor's comments to refine my answers.

My second interview was purely Philosophy. I was given a text, which I had 30 minutes to read and prepare my thoughts on directly before the interview. Initially, I was asked to give my reaction to the text and present a hypothesis based on what I had read. The rest of the interview consisted of a discussion (or argument!) about the points I had made at the beginning of the interview. I found it really cool to be able to discuss an issue in philosophy which really interested me and found it helpful to not hold back on what I was thinking, but talk my thought process through aloud. The tutor criticised my thoughts quite a lot, which was a little daunting, but I think it helped that I was able to respond quickly, and if I didn't know how to answer a question I began to think it through out loud, which usually gave me something to say. At the end I was asked if I had any questions, but I hadn't prepared any so I just asked the tutors what their favourite parts of the PPE course were!

At no point during either of the interviews did my personal statement come up. The interviews were entirely academic and I was not asked really anything about myself!

I did as many practice papers from the TSA website as possible!

It's a good idea to get in some interview practice, even if it's not directly related to the Oxbridge interview process. Talking to people in that intense situation can be quite daunting, so it helped that I had some idea how to act before I came in. It's also a good idea to talk to people about your subject whenever you can, so that you get a feel for engaging in intellectual debate. Anything you can do to make yourself feel a little less nervous is always a really good idea!

If I could give one piece of advice it would be to relax as much as possible during the actual interview process. It's a really intense situation so it's nice to go to the JCR and meet some of the other interviewees (this really helped me because they were all just as nervous as I was, and they were far more normal than I had been anticipating.) Interviews are such a great opportunity and it's best to treat them like that, rather than getting hung up on the idea that getting into Oxbridge is the most important thing in the world and these interviews are super important. Make the most of them!

For the admissions test, I would recommend doing as many past papers as possible and using the mark schemes to see where you are going wrong. For the TSA, the same type of question comes up again and again, so it's likely that it's a specific style that will be tripping you up. If you can crack those questions then you stand a much better chance of doing well on the day.