A very extreme story!

I'll break away from the norm, and tell you a true story about my interview.

Err, when did you apply, and if this was last year, did you get an offer? ^o)

I assume that after all that, they still got down to a formal and professional interview though?

Err, when did you apply, and if this was last year, did you get an offer? ^o)

I assume that after all that, they still got down to a formal and professional interview though?

I'll break away from the norm, and tell you a true story about my interview.

I was the final interviewee on the final day of interviews at Trinity - the two guys interviewing me had been doing this solidly for a week, probably seeing 8-10 applicants a day. As you can imagine, they were a little bit bored of it all, especially as they'd seen so many people who were obviously completely unfit to study the course, and I don't think that they had particularly high expectations of me (given that I'd already caused them hassle by rearranging my interview).

So, they decided to have a bit of fun in my interview (and this is all 100% true, since I've spoken to them both about it since then). Firstly, they told me to wait outside until they were ready. After I'd been standing there for ten minutes and nothing had happened, I tentatively knocked on the door, only for one of them to open it and tell me that they'd been ready for the last 8 minutes. They told me that that was the first test - to see if I could apply logic to statements. I shouldn't have assumed that they would tell me when they were ready.

Then in the interview, they said that spatial awareness was very important to mathematics, and so they were going to test me by blindfolding me and making clapping sounds around the room, and I'd have to point to where they were standing. I was thinking that this was a bit weird, but I'd heard that the interviews sometimes were weird, so I went along with it. The strangest part of all came when they then said that they were going to tug on my trousers, and I'd have to kick out in the direction that I thought they were standing in. So they did this for a while, and then one of them actually grabs hold of my leg and starts tugging it... so I'm kicking out, but he's not letting go. He just keeps pulling and pulling my leg... just like I'm pulling yours.

Err, when did you apply, and if this was last year, did you get an offer? ^o)

I assume that after all that, they still got down to a formal and professional interview though?

one of them actually grabs hold of my leg and starts tugging it... so I'm kicking out, but he's not letting go. He just keeps pulling and pulling

2 Tales:
- An Oxford applicant is told by his interviewer to pick up the brick sitting on his desk and throw it out of the window. After slight hesitation, the applicant picks up the brick and throws it through the window, breaking the glass. The interviewer, unimpressed, responds with "why didnt you open the window first"!!
- A Cambridge applicant walks into the interview room and is greeted with an interviewer who looks him up and down, says nothing but "impress me", unfolds his newspaper, and begins to read. The applicant walks forward, sees a box of matches on the desk, strikes one, and sets fire to part of his newspaper.

i heard the rugby ball one too....although the rumour had grown, and i was told that the interviewer said if they caught it they were in, but if they threw it back they had a scholarship.

- An Oxford applicant is told by his interviewer to pick up the brick sitting on his desk and throw it out of the window. After slight hesitation, the applicant picks up the brick and throws it through the window, breaking the glass. The interviewer, unimpressed, responds with "why didnt you open the window first"!!

That one, surprisingly, has groundings in truth. What actually happened though, was....

Hmm, how do you know, though? That version might be just as much of an urban legend as the other one.

In response to the theory of automatic rejection if your PS starts with "the", mine did and I got in.

I heard of an admissions tutor that rejected everyone who had a "!" in their personal statement. To be honest, I can sympathise.

Oh for heaven's sake - all joking aside, even if the story the OP heard was true, would you really want to be accepted by a uni who followed such a nonsensical admissions process, Oxbridge or no Oxbridge? If that's what they are rumoured to be forced into, then it's a pretty sad state of affairs!