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So how true is this report, really?

Are you cool? Oddball questioning of Oxford, Cambridge applicants

LONDON, Oct 13, 2006 (AFP) - At what point is a person dead? And how does a perm work? You may need to talk your way out of questions like these to get into Britain's elite universities, a survey of applicants showed Friday.
They were some of the more curious questions pitched by interviewers at Oxford and Cambridge looking to find the very best among the thousands of students trying to get on courses at the prestige institutions.
The survey of around 1,200 students by Oxbridge Applications, which advises applicants, showed the interview process was living up to its reputation for being notoriously tough.
Among the questions reported by students included:
-- Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it. (Biological Sciences, Oxford)
-- Are you cool? (Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Oxford)
-- At what point is a person "dead"? (Medicine, Cambridge)
-- Put a monetary value on this teapot. (Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Cambridge)
Other questions, though it was not clear who asked them, included: What percentage of the world's water is contained in a cow; of all 19th-century politicians, who was most like Tony Blair?
Jessica Elsom, of Oxbridge Applications, said the interview process was "notoriously eccentric" as the universities try to recruit the sharpest-witted among youngsters with flawless British school-leaving exam results.
"With the increase in the numbers of students excelling at A-level, the Oxbridge interviews are one way of finding out who really cuts the mustard," she said.
The Times Higher Educational Supplement's World University Rankings, published earlier this month, ranked Cambridge as the second best, followed by Oxford in third place.
Harvard University in the United States topped the list.

I personally never had such questions for my interview last year, but what about you? I don't think this phenomenon is as widespread as the article makes it seem to be.

Curiously enough, the article also mentions that Cambridge offers PPE. :wink:

Reply 1

RichE

15

"When is a person dead?" hardly seems an unreasonable question in a medicine interview.

The Blair question is, I think, a brilliant one, being open ended enough to get a candidate talking about all the 19th century politicians they know whilst showing how much they know of current politics. Seems tough, but maybe they reserve it for people daft enough to apply to Cambridge for PPE!

In my subject, Maths, questions, even when ridiculous, tend not to make good soundbites because the general reader and/or journalist doesn't understand them and/or isn't interested. e.g. "here is a side of a4, prove the Riemann Hypothesis" might only generate a letter to the telegraph from candidate's agitated parents because the interviewer didn't say please and so fazed young Jonny/Jenny with their lack of manners.

Reply 2

Alan Smithee

Jessica Elsom, of Oxbridge Applications, said the interview process was "notoriously eccentric" as the universities try to recruit the sharpest-witted among youngsters with flawless British school-leaving exam results.

Simple as, innit.

Reply 3

dragons_circle

Oxbridge Applications is known for misleading advice. It seems to me that they are deliberately distributing this sort of nonsense to boost numbers for their training weekends, which cost £850.

I heard all these, "Cambridge will ask you to describe a banana, throw an apple at you to test your reflexes, blah blah," but ultimately my interview was strictly maths based, and I reckon most people (and definitely most scientists) will have subject based interviews. As it should be.

Reply 4

sophal

and the questions really are not that outlandish, at least the example that they listed for biological sciences. most of the people in my year got presented with some sort of biological object (for me, that was a collection of snail shells, a friend of mine got a giant seed) and were asked to talk about it. it really makes sense though, because it asks you to apply what you have learned to a real example and tests whether you understand the general concepts of biology or whether you just learn everything by heart.

Reply 5

MatthewH

3

Yes, it's just a huge advert for Oxbridge Applications. People assume that just because they have Oxbridge in the name they are somehow a reliable and sensible group. They're wrong. Nice one AFP.

And yes, those look like perfectly decent questions.

Reply 6

-mb-

6

dragons_circle

Oxbridge Applications is known for misleading advice. It seems to me that they are deliberately distributing this sort of nonsense to boost numbers for their training weekends, which cost £850.

I heard all these, "Cambridge will ask you to describe a banana, throw an apple at you to test your reflexes, blah blah," but ultimately my interview was strictly maths based, and I reckon most people (and definitely most scientists) will have subject based interviews. As it should be.

Quite right. While some of those questions may have been asked, the whole thing is motivated by the greed of 'Oxbridge Applications'.

It's pure self-publicism, and undoes some of the good work that Cambridge Access initiatives try to achieve. 'Oxbridge Applications' are only trying to muddy the waters to make applicants more worried about the interview process, and convince them to throw money at them.

Reply 7

-mb-

6

And the bloody BBC has carried the whole story too...

Reply 8

OldMan

My questions for NatSci were subject based but slightly off-centre.
"Why do you sing better in the bath?" and "is there more carbon on the land or in the oceans?". Someone else I spoke to got "why don't plants have brains?"

The idea is to ask something you will not have prepared for and that has a fairly open answer so they can prompt and push to see how you think.

Reply 9

shady lane

16

Do you think the questions you are asked in the interview (eccentric ones) properly reflect how you are taught and what is expected of you while at Oxbridge?

Reply 10

estel

18

shady lane

Do you think the questions you are asked in the interview (eccentric ones) properly reflect how you are taught and what is expected of you while at Oxbridge?

Should they? Aren't they supposed to be an indicator to the interviewer of your suitability to how the course it taught, and what you are expected?

Reply 11

Alan Smithee

More to the point, has anyone ****ed up the answer to these questions and still got in?

Reply 12

Teebs

16

All of the four questions where they named a subject, seemed reasonable to me. The fact that one of them is listed as being asked of a PPE applicant at Cambridge makes me suspect the whole thing was made up though.

Reply 13

holdencaulfield

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6046878.stm

This article is so unbalanced I wonder if the author is Oxbridge Applications. The BBC’s reporter was evidently too lazy and thick to realise that these so-called ‘experts’ have a financial interest in talking about ‘increasingly eccentric’ interviews given that they can pocket £800 for interview ‘preparation’ weekends to tackle those ‘eccentric’ questions…

On the BBC’s article there is no mention of the use of the personal statement and/or essays at interview…It’s a completely inaccurate representation and gives a false impression. Complain to the BBC!

Reply 14

$Avatar for sTe\/o$

sTe\/o

16

RichE

"When is a person dead?" hardly seems an unreasonable question in a medicine interview.

I second that. We had a whole lecture on this at Oxford a couple of days ago, so clearly Oxford and Cambridge are agreed that it is important to understand what makes someone dead. :p:

Reply 15

Kicky

2

I think that all those questions seem perfectly reasonable. They're probably looking to see how you respond to seemingly random questions and they make the process fairer IMO as you can't be coached to answer those
:smile:

Reply 16

Swinely

2

Just out of interest why can't you light a candle in a spaceship? Hopefully i'm not being really stupid here but i can't think of the answer...

Reply 17

Alexander

12

As well as PPE at Cambridge, they also mention Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Cambridge (that's an Oxford course too), and on their website they mention Nigella Lawson studied "Medieval and Modern Languages" at Oxford (when in Oxford they just call it Modern Languages). All this does imply that they don't know as much about Oxbridge as they claim.

Reply 18

Drogue

19

shady lane

Do you think the questions you are asked in the interview (eccentric ones) properly reflect how you are taught and what is expected of you while at Oxbridge?

Yes, in style. When it comes to exams and essay questions, they tend to be on the exceptions to the rule. Slightly strange cases. I've had questions asking me to examine the demand for addictive goods (a very common first week microeconomics questions), ones looking at the optimal life of a patent, the reasons for criminal behaviour, etc. These would all seem a little off in an interview, but are designed to make people think in a certain style.

Asking those questions above makes someone think, rather than give an answer they know. That means you get to see the way they think, how they come to their answer. That's exactly what tutors want to see.

Reply 19

username68316

3

This is a piece of propoganda released by 'oxbridge applications' designed to scaremonger people into buying their services. Sure, some of these questions may have been asked, but i think theyve been seriously taken out of context, and don't represent the sort of questions that would usually be asked.

So how true is this report, really?

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