How to Increase your Chances of Success in an Oxbridge Interview 📈
Firstly, you must prepare. The more practice interview questions you have done, the better your chances are of getting in. Candidates that have taken the time to prepare with teachers and other candidates feel much more comfortable in an interview and are less likely to have that dreaded brain freeze. This article will outline some techniques that you can use to prepare and some top tips for impressing the interviewers. ✨
How do I prepare for Oxford and Cambridge interviews? 🎙️
Use Free Resources ✅
In order to prepare you need to do as many mock interviews as possible, at Circa tutors we have released free sample interview questions for you to try at:
Look at the University of Cambridge and Oxford official YouTube channels 🎬
Several mock interviews have been uploaded to various YouTube channels showing what interviews are like. They are designed to make the process much more accessible and it is useful to make a note of the interviewers' comments and the sort of style of questions that come up in these practice interviews.
We have linked a few here 🔗
Trinity College Engineering: https://youtu.be/f3lYdO0XYL4
General interview guidance: https://youtu.be/dUwN6GI-0EQ
Physics interview Churchill: https://youtu.be/gncFmrU5gNw
Computer Science Churchill: https://youtu.be/I03cCH-TG_w
Law Faculty: https://youtu.be/npEcenV-Y08
History and Politics: https://youtu.be/5F08vpo0yDk
Watching these interviews will give you a flavour for what to expect when going into your interview. It is helpful to pause the videos when the questions are asked and then answer out loud and then see how different the interview answers given are to the ones that you think of are.
Try and do practice problems out loud 📢
For example, with chemistry, if you take a difficult exam question or an Olympiad question, trying to solve the problem out loud in real-time can help you to identify your weak points. This will also force you to get into the habit of approaching a problem with a clear and methodical approach.
Want some questions to practice with?
Circa Tutors has practice interview questions at www.circatutors.com/questions
❌Common mistakes in Oxbridge interviews ❌
#1 Expecting to have the right answer
When going into an interview a lot of students expect that if they instantly answer everything correctly, they will get a place. This isn’t the case. The purpose of the interview is not to test what you know, rather it is designed to see how you think and how you can deal with new information.
#2 Thinking that it’s not okay to be wrong
Oxbridge interviews are designed to be tricky so it’s likely that some of the answers you give in your interview will not be correct. If prompted by the interviewer to reconsider you should do just that. It is common that candidates feel that they have to stick to their original answer to show that they truly believe what they are saying. The interviewer's job it to try and help you and assess your potential so don’t worry that they are trying to trip you up because they aren’t.
#3 Not listening to the interviewer.
In a Physics question for example there are lots of different ways to approach the problem. Conservation of energy, momentum or force analysis are just a few. If you start on a path and the interviewer recommends that you reconsider and choose a different path then you should listen to them. Remember, they are not trying to catch you out, if they nudge you in a certain direction, it is for your benefit.
#4 Repeating yourself
When an interviewer reframes a question or asks a different question entirely, candidates often repeat themselves hoping that their second roll of the dice will be successful. This is not a useful strategy. The interviewer has already heard the first answer so simply repeating the idea but using different words will not help further your cause.
#5 Going silent
This is a common complaint of interviewers. Many candidates when faced with a difficult problem fall silent. Why is this a problem? The interviewer cannot help you or see the way you think if you are not communicating with them. This is especially important for STEM subjects where a problem is often broken up into many different parts. Explaining your approach to the interviewer allows them to give you feedback about your approach and correct you if anything you do is incorrect.