Test taken: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: One day
Length of interviews: An hour to an hour and 30 mins
Online interview: No

My first interview began with settler questions about how I found my time in Oxford so far, about the college etc. The room was warm and the interviewers were kind, offering me a drink before we started. They began with a discussion of my favourite/area of interest in psychology, followed by a discussion on experimental methods about a given scenario. I was asked to draw a graph regarding the scenario. I was also given sources to discuss, take readings from and interpret. I was asked only one sweeping question on my statement. The interview felt light, I was quite relaxed as I was comfortable. It felt more like a discussion rather than an interview. My second interview was a lot more formal and structured than the first. We got into our discussion on my personal statement first - mainly about the reading I'd mentioned. We then discussed the interviewers area of expertise in psychology and what I thought about certain, general topics in that area. The next portion was about statistics. I was given a few questions where I had to complete some simple calculations and make a judgement on what these meant. The last portion was an unseen study, I had to look at the experimental design and think about what the study could be about, and how I could alter the study. I was then given results of the study, which I had to interpret. I felt a little more intimidated in this interview - it felt more like an 'Oxford' interview than the first - mainly because it was more structured and less of a discussion, so I felt less in 'control'.

I re-read my A-Level psychology notes - particularly topics I was enthusiastic about. I'd then have a 'self-discussion' on a piece of paper about the topic of interest, asking myself questions and answering them about anything surrounding the topics. This was useful for getting myself prepped for discussions in interviews, and looking at topics in psychology from a different angle. As the course is experimental, I looked often at experimental techniques that I'd learnt in Y12, just to make sure I was confident in these areas in case I was asked. I organised a few practice interviews with teachers in my school, just to get a feel for the interview situation I may be in and to get me comfortable with discussing my thoughts out loud. I got my mum (a psychology novice) to annotate my personal statement with any questions that could come out of my statement. This meant I felt comfortable discussing my statement and any potential questions around my statement during my interview.

I used practice papers of the Cambridge Assessment website and learnt how to answer questions using the book 'think you can think'. I bought a second hand copy.

I think, for my interviews, I was so fixated on saying things that were 'original, out of the box', I sometimes forgot to say the things that were obvious. The crux of the questions the interviewers asked were the 'obvious' things that needed to be mentioned first, then I to build on them with more perceptive ideas. Start with looking at things inside of the box, then look outside.