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Are "Oxbridge Interview" coursesany useful

From what I gather, these courses are very expensive and if you are academically capable and suited for Oxbridge, the application process will usually result in an offer irrespective of purposeful preparation.
However from people who have done these courses, how useful did you find them and were they worth the effort/cost?
Reply 1
Don't bother... save your (parents) money.
Reply 2
I saw a website oxfordinterviewquestions.com, are their books any useful? I dont find any review of this site anywhere...
Reply 3
I applied for maths at oxford and I went to the course (at OA in Holborn) for admissions test (MAT in my case) and already signed up for the course for interview (I got a discount of 50% because I signed up through my school). The course was helpful but it was not helpful in the sense that you are guaranteed to do better on your admissions test (in fact I got 16marks lower in the paper I did after I’ve attended the course). Pros: 1) you get 4 sets of papers that are exclusive and 2papers are marked by you ‘tutor’ 2) might be helpful for you to see who you’re competing with in real life (to motivate yourself perhaps) 3) for me it’s a trip to London so it was fun and it was really nice seeing other mathematicians. Cons: 1) it’s expensive and frankly it’s not worth the money 2)it’s badly organised and the papers you get given are badly worded with lots of typos 3) I don’t think they know the syllabus/types of questions well because it was clearly reflected in the papers. To conclude I don’t regret going and I’m still going to the interview one but if you’re on a budget there is absolutely NO point of going. It’s a waste of time!
Reply 4
Sorry, adding to my reply above, all we did on the day was doing past paper questions that I have already done or teaching us things that we can easily find out online/knew already. Hope this helps!
Reply 5
Original post by Reeb7911
Cons: 1) it’s expensive and frankly it’s not worth the money 2)it’s badly organised and the papers you get given are badly worded with lots of typos 3) I don’t think they know the syllabus/types of questions well because it was clearly reflected in the papers. ...

It’s a waste of time!


Seems like you've covered it perfectly. :yy:
Reply 6
If you are at a school which has experience of sending people to Oxbridge it is a waste of tine as they will prepare you. If your school doesn't then get your head of sixth form to contact a local school that does as they may well help. My daughter's (independent) school has track record of getting people in and they work with other schools (eg having mock interviews with people.you don't know). Am sure as their outreach activity they give advice to people from schools with less experience of applying.
Reply 7
Thanks everyone for your input. Here is what I ended up doing,- I found out that this website is also part of LondonScienceTutors and the tutors profile on that website sounded pretty good- trusting this I bought their Physics interview book. It only has about 10 questions discussed from physics (the 1000 questions claimed by the website seems to be across all subjects - if they are truthful!!!). The so called BOOK is just 70 pages in size and includes generic tips and some standard personal questions etc- I didnt find them too useful for my interview, definitely not for the price I paidI needed some reference as I am studying in India and my school doesnt have history of students applying for Oxford.I would rate that book at 10-15 GBP and not close to 40 they charged.
Reply 8
Original post by camper19
Thanks everyone for your input. Here is what I ended up doing,- I found out that this website is also part of LondonScienceTutors and the tutors profile on that website sounded pretty good- trusting this I bought their Physics interview book. It only has about 10 questions discussed from physics (the 1000 questions claimed by the website seems to be across all subjects - if they are truthful!!!). The so called BOOK is just 70 pages in size and includes generic tips and some standard personal questions etc- I didnt find them too useful for my interview, definitely not for the price I paidI needed some reference as I am studying in India and my school doesnt have history of students applying for Oxford.I would rate that book at 10-15 GBP and not close to 40 they charged.


The Study Help, and Cambridge & Oxford forums on TSR are better resources. And they are free :smile:

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