Am i allowed to discuss Cambridge interviews?

Of course you can.

Actually, you can't...

OP, you may have signed a data protection form after applying to Cambridge. The Trinity College form states, "I understand that the College expects me to retain confidentiality and not to share interview questions and unseen work with other applicants, or to discuss them publicly before the admissions round is complete at the end of August. This includes communication indirectly or directly by email, websites, chat rooms and texts with other candidates. The College will treat any breach of confidentiality as a very serious matter and appropriate action will be taken."

I assume other colleges have similar text in their respective data protection forms.

Hey all,

I finished my Cambridge Interview and i was wondering; can i discuss the questions which came up with my classmates and teachers or am I not allowed to?

I vaguely recall something about not being allowed but cant remember.

thanks

The OP didn't say other applicants, he said teachers/people at school. There's nothing wrong with talking about your interview in person with friends, just don't talk about it online. OP, you can, ignore h3110.

The OP didn't say other applicants, he said teachers/people at school. There's nothing wrong with talking about your interview in person with friends, just don't talk about it online. OP, you can, ignore h3110.

It says 'directly or indirectly'... If you discuss questions with a teacher or friend, what's stopping them from passing the information on to one of their friends who has an interview next week?

Discussing the questions in a group is the very definition of "publicly" and, even with individuals, of breaking confidentiality.

Stop trying to scare the OP.

Clarifying the meaning of "breaking confidentiality" is not scaring the OP. Note the use of the word "indirectly" too.

I understand that the College expects me to retain confidentiality and not to share interview questions and unseen work with other applicants, or to discuss them publicly before the admissions round is complete at the end of August. This includes communication indirectly or directly by email, websites, chat rooms and texts with other candidates. The College will treat any breach of confidentiality as a very serious matter and appropriate action will be taken.

Can't believe I'm debating this, you should know better.

I repeat, it is perfectly fine to talk about Oxbridge interviews with school friends/teachers. It happens in every school, it isn't a big deal. As long as you're not telling other applicants what to expect, or posting it online where anyone can read, there's no problem. Stop trying to scare the OP.

Discussing what has been going on at these interviews has been going on since time immemorial. It's not like the university has a team of crack snatch squads waiting to drag you into darkened 4x4s and interrogate you in an abandoned warehouse.

We can all bold words. Discussing questions is not necessarily directly with other candidates, as indicated by "or". Indirect communication includes telling one person who can then pass on the information to a candidate.

Your assumption that "or" refers to non-candidates seems pretty unlikely in my opinion, but even supposing that to be the case, that does not mean the OP cannot tell their friends/teacher. It only says applicants must not discuss their interview publicly. A conversation between friends is not public.

With regards to indirect communication, it states clearly that this only applies to email, websites, chat rooms and text messages - if it meant spoken conversations it would have said so.

However, Cambridge would certainly regard it as a breach of the obligations entered into by the applicant.

True but:-

1 the internet has changed things. 20 years ago a candidate or a candidate's boyfriend's brother had no way of publishing information to the world, short of buying an advert in the personal column of a national newspaper;

2 interviewing processes have become more streamlined and professional and so questions are much more likely to be used with more candidates; and

3 admissions processes are more complicated. I suspect most of you think the Cambridge admissions deadline was 15th October 2015 but admissions to Lucy Cavendish, let alone the date for interviews, don't close until 1st March 2016.

So you think Cambridge would be totally fine with Applicant X telling Friend Y what came up in their interview, and then Friend Y publishing it on the internet during interview week?

Probably not, but there is nothing they can do about it. Applicant X did not sign the official secrets act after all.