Thoughts on your Oxford interview thread

I thought it would be a nice idea to include a thread that has contributors reminiscing about their Oxford interview. Skype interviews are also welcome!

Is this just for this year's applicants, or can golden oldies contribute too?

@The_Lonely_Goatherd Are you going to contribute?

Yes sorry, got distracted from the laptop

I had three interviews for music in 2006 (having had one practice interview with what was then called the Oxford Access Scheme. No practice interviews with my school, though that was probably for the best ).

Things kicked off with me arriving and being taken to the Faculty of Music for my performance part of the interview process. I played a piano sonata movement that last just under 6 mins (we were given 6 mins maximum for our performance piece(s) slot, and you can't do much in that time tbh)

My first interview went really well: it felt like quite a natural conversation and I guessed the composer right for the musical analysis extract! The interviewers had my personal statement, so it was mainly conversations that develop from something I had said in my PS about my interest in world music.

My second interview didn't go as well as the first, but went OK (or so I thought). Some very big, open-ended questions were asked and there were some extra tests at that college (which fortunately I knew about in advance, having attended the open day. Not everyone who was invited to interview knew about it ), but I was able to muddle through things. Again, I got the composer right for the musical analysis extract.

The third interview was atrocious. The interviewers had not seen my written work or my personal statement, so they asked what written work I'd sent in and pretty much the whole interview was based around discussing that. The interviewers started laughing at one point in my interview, because I said something hilarious This made me think I'd absolutely blown any chance of getting into Oxford, so I left back home from London feeling quite bad about everything

Turns out that even though I was pretty shoddy on paper, my interview performance was the strongest of all the females interviewed at my first choice college that year And apparently the tutor who laughed in my interview really liked me!

Moral of the story: You're almost certainly the worst judge of how your interviews went

I had my interview on the 4th of Dec 2017 for Phil and Theo. It was sooo hard and difficult and they didn’t care at all about my personal statement. Zero discussion about Personal statement. They only asked questions that weren’t related to anything I’ve studied, presumably to avoid a rehearsed answer. When I left the room, everyone thought I was going to die because I was pale, speechless and lifeless. Expecting a rejection.

I witnessed 3 people burst into tears after their interviews.

Did I enjoy the interview? No.
Did I enjoy the city of Oxford? No, 99% of the time was spent being depressed.
Did I learn anything from the experience? Yes. Everyone who goes to Oxford is a God.
Did I gain anything? Yes. I gained debt (borrowed money for plane ticket).

Please make this less toxic. I could go about rambling how terrible my interview was as well! It defeats the purpose of this thread, which is to give people a general sense of what to expect.

Please make this less toxic. I could go about rambling how terrible my interview was as well! It defeats the purpose of this thread, which is to give people a general sense of what to expect.

Hey, if you dont mind me asking. Were the questions they asked you significantly difficult because you were on a gap year. Also did they ask you about your plans on what you will do to keep your math skills intact during the gap year?

You should do it, I would be willing to read it. I am saying that earnestly. Also, I don't think my post defeats the purpose because that is the truth. The truth is that most likely after your interview you will be depressed and want to commit suicide. That's what people should expect and it will happen and you know it. You could say that there are some who are happy with their performance but we all know that there are numerous people who experience the opposite.

Secondly, it is quite obvious how interviews are structured so there is really no point of a thread that only covers the structure especially when we are not allowed to talk about specific questions. The general sense is: You go in, they ask you why Oxford and why *insert course* and then they ask you questions that are somewhat related to your subject. If you do a humanities subject, then most likely you would have to read an extract prior to the interview. It is literally entailed in the definition of the word "interview". Everything you can expect is literally on the Oxford site or interview invitation. No offence but even the anecdote about the music interview is kind of superfluous because it didn't say anything that people didn't already know or have heard millions of times before.

So you did get an interview after all. Congrats!

I don't know if they cared about my gap year or not. Personally, I thought my first interview was a cakewalk (I received accolades from both tutors when I solved the problems). My second interview was hell. I only managed to butcher the first problem after my tutor corrected some of my basic mistakes (after and I barely managed to solve the second problem after guidance. However, the second interview lasted 50 minutes and the lead tutor confirmed that he gave me the hardest problem for my second technical problem.

Overall, I am pretty happy. I think I have a decent chance of getting in. However, Oxford is competitive, and I am not sure if my performance is good enough.

No man. I didnt get an interview
I was asking this because I am considering reapplying so wanted to know whether they treat reapplicants differently.
I am almost the same as you. I am 1 year younger than all applicants (turned 17 last month), and if I reapply I will be the same age as all other applicants.

I sympathize with you. I really do.

From your other post, you did good... That's a good thing but you can't really sympathise if you you're getting in and we're not.

I didn't apply previously.

I took a gap year simply because I had to get my basic qualifications in order as an international applicant (and do some other things of course). I only decided to apply to Oxford on October 10 of this year.

oh cool. Hope you get into Oxford.

Moral of the story: You're almost certainly the worst judge of how your interviews went