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Odd interview questions...

Were any of you asked very odd questions in your interview. I know someone who was asked how many petrol stations she thought there were in america. In the same interview the tutor offered her a cup of coffee, she accepted and the fuse on the kettle went. She helped him to put a new fuse in... I think this impressed him and she got an offer. This was quite a few years ago but I have heard people say they have been asked some very random questions...
:smile:

Reply 1

Miss_Tiddly

There's always the one about the interviewer who said to the interviewee "Impress me"", then sat back in his chair with a paper. The interviewee then set fire to the paper, which supposedly got him/her a place. I think this is an urban myth, as it appears in all the Oxbridge interview books and newspapers around interview time.

My interviews were fairly straight forward, although in my general interview I had a conversation with one the tutors in which I spoke Swedish and he replied in Dutch! (We were learning our respective languages at the time, and I'd written about it in my Personal Statement.) I know someone who is an interviewer, and he likes to ask the candidate what they'd give him for dinner if he came round one evening - it's supposed to show that you're not just a robot force-fed on textbooks and syllabi (syllabuses?).

There must be loads of these stories that people can tell - every uni student I meet has some kind of wacky interview anecdote to tell when these conversations come up.

Reply 2

CamSPSer

theology question: if the human race died out could there be a second coming?

Reply 3

CamSPSer

http://education.guardian.co.uk/oxbridge/article/0,5500,966277,00.html good guardian article about funny questions asked at oxbridge. particuarly interested about the hormones one as women are actually more likely to get in to courses which are male dominated

Reply 4

figgetyfig

2

notyourpunk

http://education.guardian.co.uk/oxbridge/article/0,5500,966277,00.html good guardian article about funny questions asked at oxbridge. particuarly interested about the hormones one as women are actually more likely to get in to courses which are male dominated

That made me laugh, I'm a girl who's just been offered a place at Cambridge for Engineering. Not that I'd have a problem. Never met any mathematicians, but the prospective male engineers I met on the college open day definitely weren't "distracting" :rolleyes:

Reply 5

ThornsnRoses

11

I know this 6th former who got asked to throw a brick out of a window, in a cambridge interview. She refused to, which kind of sucks, because she got rejected.

I would have done it, because you really have nothing to lose. If you throw it and thats what they want, you have a place, and if you get rejected atleast you left your mark!

Reply 6

ThornsnRoses

11

"Would Ovid's chat-up line work?"

I like this one, i think he was referring to the 'manual' of love that he wrote...something about women swarming to courting places, carrying themselves the way ants carry their food...something dumb like that...i cant remember!

Reply 7

MyNameIsNeo

ThornsnRoses

I know this 6th former who got asked to throw a brick out of a window, in a cambridge interview. She refused to, which kind of sucks, because she got rejected.

I would have done it, because you really have nothing to lose. If you throw it and thats what they want, you have a place, and if you get rejected atleast you left your mark!

Stuff like that shouldn't be tolerated.

Reply 8

CamSPSer

figgetyfig

That made me laugh, I'm a girl who's just been offered a place at Cambridge for Engineering. Not that I'd have a problem. Never met any mathematicians, but the prospective male engineers I met on the college open day definitely weren't "distracting" :rolleyes:

to be honest im surprised its not the other way around. :wink:

if these were the good old days theyd reject all pretty girls (or send them to those girl's colleges where they can learn sewing) leaving only the men and the women who they thought were men

Reply 9

Bezza

2

I got asked to approximate the power of a cricket. Really struggled as I know nothing about crickets - mass, height jumped etc.

Reply 10

EmJ

2

ThornsnRoses

I know this 6th former who got asked to throw a brick out of a window, in a cambridge interview. She refused to, which kind of sucks, because she got rejected.

I would have done it, because you really have nothing to lose. If you throw it and thats what they want, you have a place, and if you get rejected atleast you left your mark!

Yes, I heard about that question somewhere on UKL. Apparently, one candidate obliged by throwing the brick out of the window, shattering the glass. The tutor told her that if she had thought more carefully about the question she would have opened the window first! :tongue:

Reply 11

Perplexed

8

ThornsnRoses

I know this 6th former who got asked to throw a brick out of a window, in a cambridge interview. She refused to, which kind of sucks, because she got rejected.

I would have done it, because you really have nothing to lose. If you throw it and thats what they want, you have a place, and if you get rejected atleast you left your mark!

They're testing you to see if you think for yourself. Obviously, no sane person would randomly throw a brick out of a window purely on someone's request, unless they were unthinking and had no will of their own.

She did the right thing, I reckon, and must have fell down in other areas.

Reply 12

CamSPSer

Alec

They're testing you to see if you think for yourself. Obviously, no sane person would randomly throw a brick out of a window purely on someone's request, unless they were unthinking and had no will of their own.

She did the right thing, I reckon, and must have fell down in other areas.

depends on the course? maybe they were looking for a no because [insert correct answer for this course] ie for medicine it might hit someone and break their tibia maximus (i dunno if that actaully exists but it sounds impressive)

just a thought

Reply 13

Perplexed

8

notyourpunk

depends on the course? maybe they were looking for a no because [insert correct answer for this course] ie for medicine it might hit someone and break their tibia maximus (i dunno if that actaully exists but it sounds impressive)

just a thought

Provided you could justify your reasoning as to why you did/didn't throw the brick they probably couldn't give two hoots which action you took.

Reply 14

Vivian

Alec

Provided you could justify your reasoning as to why you did/didn't throw the brick they probably couldn't give two hoots which action you took.

Unless the brick killed someone when it landed :frown:

Reply 15

figgetyfig

2

notyourpunk

to be honest im surprised its not the other way around. :wink:

if these were the good old days theyd reject all pretty girls (or send them to those girl's colleges where they can learn sewing) leaving only the men and the women who they thought were men

Maybe I'm more butch than I think then! :tongue:

I did make an effort to look feminine for the interview, I'm not sure why really, I guess I just didn't want to look like this stereotypical butch engineer girl, because I know I'm not like that really.