Test taken: TSA

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day (two consecutive mornings)

Length of interviews: 25-30 minutes each

In my first interview, I was asked a little about the books I had written about on my personal statement for Economics, and which bits I had liked the most. I was then questioned a little on asymetric information, because I had talked about this in my personal statement. Then the politics tutor took over, and asked me a little about arguments against democracy, which I had written about on my personal statement. She then questioned me thoroughly about justice and criminal responsibility, which I had never studied or read about, but was eased into.

My second interview was a philosophy one. I was initially given some verbal information about logic and then asked a series of increasingly difficult questions about what I had been told. I found this really hard but also quite fun. I was then given a minute to read a passage on ancient philosophy and summarise it verbally, before being asked a few basic questions about it.

I looked at the website for the TSA intially, which has all the past papers and a guide for the essay writing. Essentially, I completed all the past papers, the latter half under timed conditions. I also got hold of a TSA practice book which had more practice questions and some tips and techniques. Most of the difficulty with the TSA is time. I fully reccommend making sure you practise timed papers, because it is a really tight test for time.

For preparation, I focused on rereading the books I had talked about in my personal statement. I also looked at the guide on the Oxford website, which had a suggested reading list, so I tried to get hold of some of those books and have a skim through. I also brushed up on some of my maths skills in case the economics interview called for them.

My school gave me two practice interviews, but they didn't resemble the real thing at all, and were mostly questions about my motivations for applying, which didn't come up in my real interviews at all.

My expectations were pretty much met. I thought the interviews would be hard but reasonable and they were hard but reasonable. I was pleasantly surprised by them asking about my personal statement so much. I also was happy at how little they expected me to already know. I didn't study any of the relevant subjects for A Level so had little base knowledge, and was worried that would disadvantage me. In fact, the tutors just mostly seemed to be interested in hearing my opinions, why I liked the subjects, and in testing how I reacted to new information that I had not come across before. They also liked testing whether I would change my opinion when presented with new information- something that is really important to do in tutorials!