3x 25 min interview (+ 30 min reading time), over 2 days
All interviews: sheet given beforehand; Economics: game theory; Politics: scenarios, definitions; Philosophy: logic questions, thought experiment
Past papers, mock exam
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Interviews and tests usually designed to avoid requiring knowledge; basic reading and practice interviews helpful.
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.
Test taken:
Number of interviews: 3
Skype interview: No
Interviews spread across 2 days
Length of interviews: 25 minutes each, with 30 minutes reading time
Before each interview I had 30 minutes to read through a sheet of problems or questions and think about them.
Economics was Game Theory based questions about what would happen in a situation with two agents negotiating and a particular set of rules.
Politics involved a series of questions of why particular scenarios might be the case or defining words.
Philosophy had a set a set of pairs of statements, for which I had to say whether they logically entailed one another, and then a thought experiment about knowledge.
There was no way to really prepare for any of them or prior knowledge needed.
I completed all the practice papers and had a
For PPE the interviews and tests are usually designed to avoid requiring knowledge and instead test aptitude. Some basic reading is useful but not essential. A