Hey guys! Got in for PPE, figured I'll be as helpful to others as I can.
How did you feel the interview went?
Badly. My very first interview (the philosophy section) I was cut off and challenged the second I spoke, and fumbled throughout afterwards. The second half of it was economics, which was okay except I at times was a bit all over the place. I thought my best interview was politics, except at the very end I realised everything I'd argued was bs and said, "I think I've got this wrong" as the interview ended. All round I was not confident.Guess it is just worth repeating that you really can't tell. I heard this advice so many times but came out of my interviews thinking I was sure my interviews went objectively badly. Turns out they weren't so bad at all.
How long was your interview?
Pretty much just under 20 mins each. Seeing as econ and philosophy was a joint interview, essentially I got about 9 mins for each of those. Ridiculously short and felt even shorter.
How many questions were asked?
All round they were very discursive. I was asked one central question to begin with for philosophy, then it became fairly back and forth. The exact same for philosophy, and same for my second half of politics. The first half of my politics interview was, "discuss what you want to", and that's the only part of essentially 3 interviews which was very much question then answer. In total I was probably asked 10 or so questions as part of a conversation.
How did you attempt to answer your questions, verbally expressing your though process, asking the interviewer questions?
I'd actually had quite a bit of prep before, but after that first moment in my interview I sort of panicked and forgot it all. But what I think I did do well was think out loud. Everything from signposting arguments/headlining points, taking a pause and all that advice is useful, but they are there to see how you think. Every time I thought I made a mistake (which was often lol) I not only said that I made a mistake, but explained why I thought that. It's also really useful advice, even though I could have followed it a bit more, to be open with your assumptions and why you have made the decision the way you have. Honestly I still don't think my interviews went fantastically, but if there is one thing which probably saved me it's thinking out loud.