2x 20 min interviews, a few hours apart
Interview 1: economics maths questions and scenario, philosophy reading given earlier; Interview 2: politics reading given earlier
Practice papers, guide books
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Be yourself!
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: 2
Skype interview: No
Time between each interview: a few hours
Length of interviews: 20 minutes each
Philosophy and economics were in the same interview. I was given some pre-reading for both: for economics, I was given maths questions and, for philosophy, a reading. The philosophy part consisted in discussing the reading. The
For economics, the tutor created a scenario and asked me to analyse it. It was enjoyable and I started to relax more. In the end I think it is much more about how you articulate and defend your arguments under pressure than about how original or defensible they are.
Politics was a separate interview, where I was also given a reading about 20 minutes beforehand to read through and discuss in the interview. It didn’t feel very formal and I let myself relax and enjoy the conversation. Just think that it’s not everyday you get to talk about these things that interest you with the people at the top in the field!
I did some practice papers from online and found
Be yourself - there isn’t one type of “Oxbridge student” that the
They want to see potential more than knowledge - it is more about showing how you think than what you know!