How to Dazzle at Your Top Russel Group or Oxbridge Interview: An Oxford Psychology Graduate and DPhil Psychiatrist's View
Interviews can seem scary and hard to prepare for as you never quite know what to expect. However, they are extremely important, with many selections for school and university applications made almost entirely on interview performance alone. Luckily, there are a number of things you can do during the interview and in preparation that can really help you stand out. With School and University admissions deadlines approaching and interviews imminent, check out these top tips for success:
1. Conveying your passion and motivation is essential:
Interviewers want to work with people who they can trust to get on with work without needing to be pushed. Those with a genuine interest and passion are going to be more likely to do this.
How to do it?
Make plenty of eye contact throughout. It can be awkward if you’re not used to it or if you’re feeling anxious, but it will make you more persuasive and easier to listen to
Confidence and positivity (smiling) - try to carry a good amount of natural humour through your answers. This displays comfort and confidence in a way that isn’t arrogant. As well as making you feel better, it also makes the interviewer feel more positive towards you and makes you more likely to stand out
Be open in your posture and gestures. When we feel nervous it’s easy to retreat by looking down, fiddling with your hands and slouching. Sitting up and using your hands to gesticulate whilst you’re speaking this conveys a much more positive attitude and will help you feel more confident
2. Preparation is key:
There is no way of being prepared for every question. Part of the point is that they want to test how well you can think on your feet. But there are still some ways to make sure you are as prepared as possible. This will ensure you will be as confident as possible on the day. For tips and resource recommendations for subject-specific preparation, read some of the other blogs in our Free Resource Library, written by Oxbridge graduates in a range of subjects such as Politics, Law, Medicine, Linguistics and more.
How to do it?
Get used to talking about your subject (University) or preferred subjects (school). You may have spent plenty of time writing essays on your subject, but talking about it on the spot is a very different skill. Get your friends and family members to ask you questions about your topic. Practise explaining concepts concisely in a way that is easy to understand. If there are sums or formulae you normally work out on paper, try and see if you can practise working them out in your head. In an interview you may not be given paper
Interviewers will often end by asking if you have any questions for them. While it’s perfectly okay to say no, it can be a good opportunity to further show your interest. Think about whether you do have anything you would genuinely like to know. Don’t ask anything that you could easily find out yourself from google, or anything that’s likely to have a long and complex answer. But is there something you’d like a recommendation on? Or a concept you’d like to know the main application of?
3. Show your thought process:
A lot of interviewers are not looking for knowledge, they are looking to see if you’re motivated, and if you’re teachable. To see if you are teachable, they need to see how you think and how well you pick up new concepts.
In most cases they are not interested in the answer.
How to do it?
Before you answer out loud take a moment in your head to plan your answer. The silence might feel long to you but it won’t to them
Take your interviewers through the different steps of how you got to your answer
You can refer to things you’ve read in your answers so they know you’ve explored around the topic. But ultimately they want to know what you think, not what experts in the fields that you’ve read think – they already know about this!
Often there’s no right or wrong answer, so they just want to see how you get to your conclusions. They want to see that you can learn, not what you already know. They will first discover what you don’t know, then they will give you a clue or a bit of information and will expect to see how you use that information, combined with your prior knowledge, to reach the next step towards the answer. It is very important that you talk through your logical thinking. Not only does it display that you can learn on the spot, but it lets the interviewer see where your logical thinking has an error and correct it to help you reach the answer. This is how most learning happens at Oxbridge and is how tutorials/ supervisions tend to work. If there is a specific answer they’re looking for and you get it wrong, then if you’ve talked through the different steps you took they can see why you gave the answer you did, and help point you in another direction
4. Some useful links:
Both the Oxford and Cambridge University websites provide useful information and top tips on how to excel at interview. If you haven’t already it’s well-worth giving these a look. Applying to Cambridge & Applying to Oxford.
Cambridge University has a useful in-depth page on interviews which can be found here.
The Complete University Guide is provides another resource for some further information on Oxbridge applications in general. You can find it here.
Take a look at our U2 University Applications page here for everything Oxbridge related on U2!
Final Tips:
Remind yourself of the activities that you did on your personal statement, as these are likely to be asked about. Also check any claims of knowledge or understanding as they might be tested.
Research the course at the university so that you know the format and the different topics, especially for the first year. Don’t worry about understanding the topics, it can just be good to be aware of them and of particular projects throughout the course.
Research the interviewer and their main areas of study. Most professors have a small university biography that you can find by googling them. Then YouTube and Wikipedia are nice ways to get a quick and dirty appreciation for their subjects. Some professors might actually appear in some videos if you look hard enough (e.g. BBC like to get Cambridge professors to give opinions on things).
Prepare one or two questions to ask the interviewers at the end. These could be about the interviewer’s specialist subject, or about the university – you can use this as a way to show that you’ve done your research, just make sure it comes across as curiosity and interest, rather than ‘brown-nosing’!
One final tip is simply to try not to panic. There will be challenging questions that you don’t know how to answer. This is the point of an interview. If you start to panic at these then you won’t get to show either your passion or your knowledge. If an interviewer thinks you’re worth it they will push you. Therefore, the best interviews are often the ones that seemed to be the most gruelling and difficult. Don’t let this get you down.
By U2 Mentor, Poppy (Psychology, Oxford & DPhil in Psychiatry, Oxford)
Elevate Your Oxbridge Interview Preparation with U2 Tuition
At U2 Tuition, we specialise in Oxbridge application support - we match you with a dedicated Oxbridge tutor who specialises in your specific course of application. Our experienced Oxbridge tutors cover all potential question formats, ensuring you're ready to shine in your Oxbridge interview. We offer:
1) Immerse in Oxbridge-style Tutorial Sessions: In these engaging tutorials, you'll extend beyond the content featured in your personal statement, delve into subject-specific material that pushes to 1st year university level, and be taught new concepts poised for interview discussion. You will cover all the different question formats you may be tasked with at interview, and tutors will ready you for the Oxbridge interview-style of discussion, honing problem solving, critical analysis and discussion skills.
2) Oxbridge Mock Interviews: Enrol in our Oxbridge mock interview days for invaluable insights and practice. During each mock interview day, you'll benefit from a communication skills workshop and mock interviews conducted by different Oxbridge experts and graduates from your exact course. The full interview day details are published on our Classes & Events page as we approach the interview preparation period.
Get in touch to explore how we can support your Oxbridge interview preparation this year!