History and Economics at Oxford

Hi, Wadham history and econ offer holder here! Anything in particular you're interested in (HAT, interview structure, requirements, etc)?

Hi and congratulations! Would you mind telling me something about your interview? Such as what kind of questions you were asked, and how did you prepare for them. And how was HAT like btw? Was Question 4 a twisted maths problem😂? Thx!

Regarding the HAT, the first part (the one on understanding and condensing a text) was on Enviromental History and how it has waned in popularity but the author thought it still had a role. The past papers had led me to expect an historical argument rather than something more about the study of history so that's something to keep in mind.

The source question wasn't ridiculously far in format from the past papers, it was about what we understand about the slave-state relationship in the French colonies from a Code Noir extract.

The economics one was about fat and protein in different kinds of milk - there were 10 mini questions involving lots of sketching graphs and saying which people should choose if they wanted to maximise protein, fat or both with a limited amount of money. Lastly, it asked about a new milk entering the market and the price it should be. Kinda weird and took longer than it should have!

For the interview my sixth form did a couple of mocks which weren't useful, they did outright attacks on my Personal Statement ideas rather than a discussion as it really turned out to be. Definitely make notes on how you'd back up any personal statement/written work points you made but don't try and memorise anything! Also, be prepared to interpret a historical picture you've never seen before, pointing out whatever you can tell just by looking at it (i.e. date, class, what's going on, nation, author intent). My first interview involved this and a written work discussion, the second was about wider historical topics. For me this was about the value of objects (related to my volunteering ). Economics was the worst, it was talking about immigration and something else as abstract ideas rather than in the real world and getting me to give my thoughts. Also had an interview at Pembroke plotting a graph from a mathematical equation and discussing the causes of the American Revolution (written work topic).

So yeah, hope some of that's useful!