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Eerrrr.....I win for the most disasterous interview ever.

Interviewer : Let's turn to the extract you were given, now tell us, what you thought were some of the main issues it raises
Me : eehhh.....I wasn't expecting an extract with so many pages...
Interviewer : ......Right.....(long pause).

Interview : "Okay, stop right there, now what you've said is this, which is actually nothing like what the author argues at any time in the passage, now can you tell what problem this poses for the way he has actually used it?"
Me : "what are you inferring?"
Interviewer : "I'm simply trying to make you think about what you've said, and what problem this poses for the way the author actually used the example !".
Me : "Is it about inheritance?"
Interviewer : "What ?"
Interviewer 2 : "Right I think that's about everything, is there anything you'd like to ask us?"
Reply 21
Leprechaun
Many of us probably feel like shooting ourselves in the head right now for the idiotic mistakes during the interivew (I remember meandering outside of King's mumbling "what's the point...?" for an hour)

So we may as well feel better knowing that we are not alone. I will begin.

Crash #1
Interviewer: how do you describe this portion of the graph? (should have said y > xxxxxx)
Me: Uh...above the line y = xxxxx?
Interivewer: that is geometry; now let's try again...

Crash #2
Interviewer: what kind of trend do you see in this graph?
Me: Hmm...the values seem to be about y=x
Interviewer: that's is a bit strong because y = x is a line!

.....

Crash #n
Interviewer: why do you think people before 19th century only have so much food?
Me: (with an acknowledging nod) well, because they were limited by natural resources such as land and minerals
Interview: yes, they were limited by the land, but this is the 19th centure, people don't use fertilizers yet.

By the way, can I apply again next year for first year entrance even if I am enrolling in another university?

wow, you're like so totally rejected.
Poops
I told my interviewer that I'd been pulled over on the drive down to my interview...

Interviewer: Did you? Oh... (Scribbles something on his pad with smile on his face)

lol!
Reply 22
iforgiveuforbeinganemo
Eerrrr.....I win for the most disasterous interview ever.

Interviewer : Let's turn to the extract you were given, now tell us, what you thought were some of the main issues it raises
Me : eehhh.....I wasn't expecting an extract with so many pages...
Interviewer : ......Right.....(long pause).

Interview : "Okay, stop right there, now what you've said is this, which is actually nothing like what the author argues at any time in the passage, now can you tell what problem this poses for the way he has actually used it?"
Me : "what are you inferring?"
Interviewer : "I'm simply trying to make you think about what you've said, and what problem this poses for the way the author actually used the example !".
Me : "Is it about inheritance?"
Interviewer : "What ?"
Interviewer 2 : "Right I think that's about everything, is there anything you'd like to ask us?"


Is that really all that happened in your interview?
Reply 23
Lol. At least you guys were prompted! My interviewers sat there and let me blab for ages, till I felt incredibly stupid and shut up :frown: . They weren't even looking at me; they seemed to be more interested in the wall behind me, which needless to say, was a bit off-putting. So I actually stopped mid-sentence in what I was saying to see if they were listening, and they didn't realise I'd stopped talking for a couple of seconds, then got this startled look on their faces like, 'oh, she's stopped talking,' and painfully changed the subject.

To be honest, I can't even remember what happened. I've just repressed the memory, and I've been getting flashbacks all week :s-smilie:
oy my god you poor things is cambridge interviewing that bad????
well i got an offer from the on eplace i didnt have a face to face interview at (see sig). it was all group based. so methinks mayb face to face interviews aint my forte.
tomoli
Is that really all that happened in your interview?

No, but those were the best bits.
Scary huh?
I answered one of my questions:

"Sorry; i'm confused". Rejection coming my way! :frown:
at least you got an invterview :frown:
Ah an applicant thread that is actually amusing to read for once.

Well at least y'all know that other people screwed up theirs too. One of my friends totally messed up her interview and got pooled and subsequently fished. Probably helps that on paper she's fantastic. Didn't choose to come to Cambridge anyway.

Oh and regarding posting interview questions, wouldn't be too specific if I were you as if interviewers have what they think is a really good interview problem they like to reuse it in subsequent years. My DoS moaned to us about this last year... "Oh, the yoyo question was one of the best interview questions I've seen... unfortunately we'll have to stop using it next year because word got out." (That was not because of me posting on here. Ahem. **runs**)
ObaMartins9
I answered one of my questions:

"Sorry; i'm confused". Rejection coming my way! :frown:


Haha don't worry about it....in mine (two years ago) I was asked a hard question and pretty much replied in gibberish: 'Oh...erm...oh. That's really hard. Erm. What do you think?' to which the interviewer replied 'Well it's not my interview...but I'll tell you briefly' and I got in. The rest of the interview went ok so if that's the case in yours, one poor answer (or just a complete lack of an answer in my case) doesn't matter.

Oh there was also the point where we were discussing Descartes' second Meditation and I managed to chat about the fifth one for a long time instead...to which both the interviewers looked really confused and told me to slow down and stick to the second one.
Reply 30
My general crash:

Interviewer: You've written about Newton's three laws in your personal statement and how the progression of physicists prove a new era in theory. How can you say Newton's theories may be proved incorrect?

Me: Erm.... (long pause)... I think that maybe his second law isn't that accurate because it doesn't concern everything in the physical system.

Interviewer: Such as?

Me: Er... (another long pause where I stare at the wall behind him to think hard)... the air pressure and atmosphere?

Interviewer: I thing you're confusing yourself. For example, can you use the laws to calculate the speed of a collision etc...?

Me: (Obviously defeated)... Yes.

Interviewer: Well done! You got there in the end didn't you?

Me: Yeah


Basically that's all I did which went wrong but the rest went pretty well I thought. He said I'd get an offer 2 weeks ago but it still hasn't come through UCAS. Anyone else in this situation?
Reply 31
thefish_uk

Oh and regarding posting interview questions, wouldn't be too specific if I were you as if interviewers have what they think is a really good interview problem they like to reuse it in subsequent years. My DoS moaned to us about this last year... "Oh, the yoyo question was one of the best interview questions I've seen... unfortunately we'll have to stop using it next year because word got out." (That was not because of me posting on here. Ahem. **runs**)


Haha yeah, our DoS asked us for questions he could use at the interview and he said that they circulated a set of examples of questions one could ask in the interview (NatSci) with answers amongst the fellows. Apparently in the examples there was everyone's favourite "What happens to the water level in a glass with an ice cube when the ice cube melts?" and the answer was "They've been asked this question 10^6 times before."
Reply 32
tomkat27

Basically that's all I did which went wrong but the rest went pretty well I thought. He said I'd get an offer 2 weeks ago but it still hasn't come through UCAS. Anyone else in this situation?

your signature seems to contradict this.
It is amazing how many people don't know they are in the Oxbridge board, isn't it?
HAHA! :p:
Reply 35
I've spoken to quite a few people now, who all report that some of their interveiwers had been hostile, aggressive, unecessarily intimidating or at very least off putting by rasing their eyebrows or rolling their eyes to even the most sensible points.

Why do they do this? They're hardly going to get an accurate idea of how someone would really perform in a supervision by being deliberately off putting and rude. This definately is not the way for getting the best out of people (which is what is claimed on the website). Is this just their way, as quite a few of my teachers have said, or driving out hoards of applicants who for whatever reason they've decided they don't want even before the interview?

At my college, hardly anyone goes to Cambridge (one person did last year out of 600), and yet it is one of the best sixth forms in the county. Last year, there were a few absolutely outstanding students, as I imagine is true of many colleges, who got rejected after having these sort of experiences at interview. (It's all very well saying they just don't have the room to offer every outstanding student a place, but not every student who does get an offer is outstanding; the average GCSE and AS results of accepted applicants are surprisingly low) I'm not suggesting that interveiwers are biased towards particular schools of course, but certainly they seem to be determined not to let some people in. I probably am completely wrong about this, I've only had a limited experience of the system; but from what I've seen of people at my school, this cetainly seems to be the case.
Reply 36
My brilliant idea of putting "The selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins down on my PS, then later to go on and say how rubbish he was at Oxford university! Meh....not such a good idea: p
Who said anything about rudeness or off-putting? Seems to me interviewees are going to be nervous and unsure of themselves or their knowledge and also that this year's crop is insanely obsessive and paranoid.
Galatea
I've spoken to quite a few people now, who all report that some of their interveiwers had been hostile, aggressive, unecesarily intimidating or at very least off putting by rasing their eyebrows or rolling their eyes to even the most sensible points.

Why do they do this? They're hardly going to get an accurate idea of how someone would really perform in a supervision by being deliberately off putting and rude. Is this just their way, as quite a few of my teachers have said, or driving out hoards of applicants who for whatever reason they've decided they don't want even before the interview?


Yeah i got an unnecessarily intimidating interviewer in one of my interviews as well who kept trying to show that he was smarter than me.
FadeToBlackout
I was talking about historical facts in mine.

I sat up and asserted confidently that "an historical fact, well.. something like the First World War happenned between 1939 and 1945. That's definitely an historical fact." And then, 3 or 4 minutes later, realised what I'd said. Ooops.

I also fell backwards into the very soft chair, and gave several weak limp sweaty handshakes.

And yet I got it nonetheless.

DON'T WORRY!


oops, lmao:smile:

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