Theology applicants for 2016

Again, well done for getting into Oxford! I just wanted to ask how much knowledge did they expect you to have at interview about Theology? I've studied Religious Studies before but never Theology so I wasn't sure

I was in the same position as you, I studied A Level RS but had no experience with Theology and I didn't do massive amounts of reading around it. I found the 'Very Short Introductions' series really helpful, I think you can get them quite cheaply on Amazon!

I really wouldn't worry too much about it, most of my interview was based around the contents of my personal statement, so just make sure that you're comfortable talking about everything that is in there and just try and find areas of theology which interest you because that makes them much easier to talk about! Hope that helps!

Hi, I know I'm a little late now the Oxbridge deadline has passed and most of you seem to have applied, but I'm a first year Theology student at Oxford if anyone has any questions or anything they want to know about interviews etc. (I also had offers from Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds and Lancaster if anyone has applied/ is thinking of applying to them.) Good luck with your applications!

Hey! My interviews was quite similar to that, in my first interview I was given two parallel accounts of an event in the OT (can't quite remember which section but it wasn't a very well known part) and I had to compare the presentation of God in the two texts. For my second interview I had a synoptic presentation of three of the gospels (again, can't remember the exact section and I think they took my copy off me!) and I had to compare/contrast them. That probably took up the first 5/10 minutes of the interview and then most of the rest of the discussion stemmed from topics that were raised during my analysis.

Maybe just practice this with different parts of the Old and New Testaments? I asked my school for help and they set me a comparison between Genesis 1 and 2 which was really helpful!

If you have any more questions, let me know! Good luck!

Hi Everyone,

I applying to read Theology in Sept 2016. Received offers from KCL and Exeter. Praying for an interview from Oxford. Waiting to hear from Durham and Edinburgh. Anyone else in a similar position??

Hey, I was wondering if you remember or know how likely it is for one to get an interview for Theology? Also is learning Greek really hard?
Thanks xx

Hey! According to the website for last years entry 83% were interviewed with a success rate of about 33%, I think they take around 40 a year.
I'm learning Hebrew so I'm not too sure about Greek, and it's challenging but definitely impossible! The people I know doing Greek seem to be doing okay, it's just incredibly fast paced and there's so much vocabulary to learn! Hope that helps!

Switch Edinburgh for St Andrews and we are literally in the exact same position!

Haha, cool. Have you heard back from Oxford yet? Which college are you going for? I've applied to Oriel.

I've just seen this thread and I'm glad I found it to be honest, I'm wondering if it's okay with you guys to join in? Some information about myself: I've applied for Theology and Religious Studies at Trinity College Cambridge, Exeter, Bimingham and Nottingham; I have received offers so far from Exeter, Birmingham and Nottingham University

Welcome! I've also applied to Trinity!! it's nice to find someone else who has! I've also applied to Birmingham!

I've only had the 'Thanks for applying' and 'Thanks for the written work' emails. I so almost applied to Oriel, but went for Keble in the end. What sort of grades are you applying with, if you don't mind me asking?

Cool - I hope to apply to Oriel College for Theology and Religion next year - good choice. Do you mind me asking what AS Level grades you got? - just to see if I'm good enough to apply. Thanks and good luck.

Good choice of unis, very well done on your offers and I hope you get Oxford and Durham too. Just out of interest - did you declare your AS Level grades on UCAS? It's just I got similar grades at AS and hope to apply to similar unis but am not sure whether if I declare my AS grades I won't get interviews/offers. Thank you very much.

I am right in saying that the only Russell Group universities which interview for Theology are Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester? Thank you very much.