Psychology (Experimental) @ Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

2x interviews (45 mins each), 1 preceded by 30 mins pre-reading; 1 day apart

Interview content

Interview 1: pre-read article questions; Interview 2: personal statement discussion, probability questions

Best preparation

Past papers, mini mock interviews with friends

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Try to have a good understanding of basic statistics and of what makes a good experiment.

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: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1 day

Length of interviews: about 45 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In my first interview, I had a 30 minute pre-reading which was on a scientific article about an experiment relating to children's minds. I was given a sheet of questions to think about whilst reading, and was in the room with a couple of interview runners. After the pre-reading I was taken to the interview room, where there was a main tutor interviewer and a PhD student. They asked questions on what the paper was about, to describe the results, graphs etc. and it was quite fast paced - they clearly wanted to see how many of their questions I could get through. I got stuck on one question, as I didn't understand that part of the results, but then they explained it to me and we finished the interview.

In my second interview, they mostly asked about my personal statement and asked me to explain what I thought about some of the things I had done/read. Then they asked me a couple of questions about basic probability which were quite easy. This interview was slightly more intimidating as there were three interviewers - one tutor and two PhD students.

How did you prepare?

I read "The Ultimate TSA Guide" and used past papers. To prepare for interviews I read through my personal statement and did small mock interviews with my friends about my personal statement. I also read some articles and practised looking at the results section, summarising what was found, evaluating, etc.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

My advice would definitely be to prepare for admissions tests, and for the interview make sure you understand basic statistics and can explain what makes a good experiment. Also it's good to know why you want to study your subject and what particular interests you have within it.