Philosophy, Politics And Economics @ Wadham, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

3x 30 min interviews, over 2 days

Interview content

Interview 1 (philosophy): text, logic problems, discussion; Interview 2 (politics): graph, discussion; Interview 3 (economics): game theory style problem

Best preparation

Practice papers, advice from Oxford website

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Had mock interview; watched 'Crash Course' YouTube videos; read up on basic game theory.

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: TSA

Number of interviews: 3

Skype interview: No

Interviews spread across 2 days

Length of interviews: about 30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

All three of my interviews had the same structure. Before or at the start of the interview they gave me a piece of text or a problem to talk through and discuss. For politics this was a graph, for philosophy a text, and for economics a game theory style problem. In philosophy they also asked me some logic based questions (based on quite simple deductive arguments). Then the interviews opened up into general discussion.

My philosophy interview was first and when I got into the interview my tutor told me I had understood the text incorrectly and so I panicked, but apparently other people did the same. I remember feeling really nervous for that whole interview, but I really enjoyed my politics interview and so by the time it came to my economics interview I relaxed a bit more.

How did you prepare?

In the week running up to the test I did a few practice papers and found some tips on the Oxford website.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

My school gave me one mock interview with a local lawyer that turned out to bear no resemblance to my actual interviews. I watched a lot of 'Crash Course' (the YouTube series by John and Hank Green) for philosophy and economics, and I also read up about basic game theory because people were saying on The Student Room that it might come up (and it did, so that was great!) The 'Crash Course Philosophy' video I watched on deductive arguments turned out to be really useful as well.