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Did any of you get anything wrong?

In your interviews did any of you get anything blatantly and obviously wrong. For philosophy I was asked of 2+2=4 was 'a priori' (meaning, knowable without facts/evidence/experience). I said it wasn't for some odd reason, and said "ahh its a special kind of...." to which she just said "it is a priori - I think you have your terminology confused".

Did anyone else get a simple, basic, started question just wrong, lol.

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Reply 1

ponjavic

This is a boat race, the boat has to travel to distance d to the other side than back.
How does the velocity of the water affect the boat?

"Umm how does the velocity of the water affect the boat?"

"I believe that was my question"

"No i meant is it + -?"

"Sure"

"Then it doesn't matter?"

"Well it was nice to meet you anyways!"

(Last a bit exaggerated but still that was what he ended with :P)
one of three interviews though...

Reply 2

Hash

I know someone who was asked to define an equilateral triangle, but described an isoceles one instead!!! He didn't get an offer to read maths at Oxford in the end :rolleyes:

Reply 3

khil

Juxtapiped I think you should CALM DOWN!!!! - stop creating paranoia threads I'm sure you did fine! - anyway we'll all see our fate in a couple of days and no amount of worrying will change their reply!

*huggles* relax.

And in response to your thread - yes I got everything wrong in my interview. Couldn't tell them how many grams a litre of water weighed ARGH! - and I've applied for Natural Science. Couldn't remember the basics of AS Biology and I had to tell them uncertainly what my answer was and though it was right, they had to confirm it and obviously could tell I don't know my stuff very well.

And to the question of "What ENVIRONMENTAL factors there were that affects Intelligence?" I answered - GENETICS! The guy then said "No. I said environmental factors."

So yeh. I'd say the whole thing went very wrong indeed. :smile:

Reply 4

Acaila

Look Juxtapiped, if Iris is telling you to calm down then you must be really worked up! :eek:

Seriously, it's been decided now, so all the interview postmortems in the world won't help. Just go and watch a film or something to distract you rather than getting all worked up.

Reply 5

SsEe

ponjavic. Was that at Pembroke? I got asked whether I liked boats or trains. I went for trains and got asked a similar sort of relative velocity question.
At the Pembroke interview I was asked:
A number is made up of only 5s and 0s. It has 10 digits and is a multiple of 9. How many possiblities are there for the number.
"So you can't say 0000000000 is a 10 digit number"
"no"
"so it must start with a 5"
"yes"
"the digit sum must be a multiple of 9"
"absolutely"
"so it must contain 4 other 5s to make the digit sum 45 and there are 9 possible spaces for 4 more digits....... *continue rubbish speak* "
"erm are you sure"
"OMG.... I think I'll just go home now. ok. so.... 8 more 5s. So 9 places to put the 0 so 9 possibilities"
"yay"
FAIL'D

Reply 6

khil

Acaila

Look Juxtapiped, if Iris is telling you to calm down then you must be really worked up! :eek:

Seriously, it's been decided now, so all the interview postmortems in the world won't help. Just go and watch a film or something to distract you rather than getting all worked up.

Hehehehe I guess that's true! :rolleyes:

Reply 7

lgs98jonee

My interview did not go too well. I even said cosine when it was actually sine but still some how got an offer. :eek:

So do not worry

Reply 8

TSR George

irisng

Juxtapiped I think you should CALM DOWN!!!! - stop creating paranoia threads I'm sure you did fine!

Lol! I've been quiet up until now, its all been penting up resulting in these 'paranoia threads'!

Reply 9

khil

Lol well I've been rambling so much about Cambridge I'm running out of things to say except scream :redface:

and my Cambridge reply dreams :frown:

Don't worry Juxtapiped *huggles*

Reply 10

synaesthesia

Nothing significant - but minor side questions I made some interesting errors in. I honestly did not know what unit fuses came in - the numbers, yes, but mA, A, KA? Looked rather stupid as something I presume most people could just recall I had to work out through power settings on our electric kettle.

Reply 11

TSR George

I think the two main reasons why I'm going to be dissapointed with a rejection are...

1) Having to tell people who had expectations of me (teachers, friends, etc - I'm the one at school that people keep saying "oh you'll get in easily" to etc)

2) Knowing that I would be capable of studying at Cambridge and that most people at my school who have got into Oxford are not significantly more intelligent than me.

That's it really...

Reply 12

gangsta1

I was asked to dra the electromegnative spectrum for my medicine interview. Then he asked to give him some uses os some of these waves in Medicine.
I talked about the obvious one-Xrays. Then he said Is that the only one you know of that is useful in medicine? Instead of saying 'Yes, thats all i recall at the moment', I started talking about Ultrasound. :confused:

I was asked how I would distinguis two identical looking powders without tasting them-one was salt and the other sugar. I talking about them having different melting points, densities and then I said you would do a chemical test. He asked what would the chemical test be? I said you would heat both powders seperately with Iodine in Potassium Iodide and the one that turns into a brick red percipitate is the sugar. :eek:

On the train back after going over the inetrview I realised I should have said Heat it with Benedicts reagent No Iodine in potassium Iodide.
When asked how I would prove Salt was ionic I said that you would react it with Flourine and that should displace the Chlorine. After asking my chemistry teacher I was told this does not prove anything. :hmpf:

The answer was that when molten Salt conducts electricity because of delocalised ions.
In the other interview I was given a simple graph and askedwhich one of the axis was the Dependant and which one was the Independant variable and I gave the answer the wrong way around.

I am not really bothered about these mistakes because the interviewers know you are Nervous and bound to make silly mistakes. They know you have the knowledge (AS grades), they just want to see how you are thinking. Just another 86 hours to go till the postman pushes that crucial letter through the door. :rolleyes:

Reply 13

ponjavic

ponjavic. Was that at Pembroke? I got asked whether I liked boats or trains. I went for trains and got asked a similar sort of relative velocity question.

Nah it was Girton, I liked your multiplication though, why not just say that you're using different axioms than the rest of the world or something :P
However if we both come in I'll visit you at Pembroke and we'll have a stupid applicants party, I'm sure many would sign up

btw, seems that people on the bord has taking a liking towards anime, atleast i've seen a coupe of avatars, :bebored:

Reply 14

iluvcheesecake

I managed to multiply sin^5x and sin^2x and get sin^10x initially, rather than sin^7x (totally out of nerves of course :redface:

), which should be second nature to anyone doing maths at A-level or degree (or indeed anyone who can remember GCSE), but I did correct it pretty quickly, and the interviewers seemed to be more amused than worried that I genuinely couldn't do it.

I also forgot to write '+ c' at the end of an integration probelm, but I'm sure I'm not alone there :wink:

Reply 15

gringalet

I think everyone must have got something 'wrong' in their interview – if they didn't, it'd be because they're a complete and utter genius, or that they weren't being given anything complex to think about.

Juxtapiped, you are an excellent candidate – the interviewers will have realised you were nervous, and won't expect you to know everything! Breathe in, breathe out...

Reply 16

whauden

gringalet

True

- calling Mussolini a 'Statesman' was a bit too much of a compliment, they didnt let me get away with it and threw it straight back, I caught it, and corrected myself, calling him instead a 'brilliant political operator' who could 'keep alot of plates spinning at the same time, the PNF, the elite, the Church etc', all the while I was making plate spinny movements with my arms, Andrew Marr-esque. :eek:

Reply 17

sixthirtythree

Read the game theory matrix wrong - said opposite of the answer (which is stupid, stupid because I know what the answer's meant to be and it's always the same...grrr). Tutor looked at me rather blandly and went all "ahem, you're the pay-off on the right?" "Aah..."

Reply 18

futurehealer

[QUOTE=gangsta1

I was asked how I would distinguis two identical looking powders without tasting them-one was salt and the other sugar. :

heh I had that exact question, didn't get it wrong but felt I needed excessive guidance through it
the one I got wrong was the concentration of pure water I explained how to calculate it alright then for some reason "knew" the answer was 1M and stuck there (its actually about 56 or something, have to check that)

Reply 19

NeuroticSurgeon

Hey don't worry - I had a philosophy interview at Girton, and they gave me 2 ethical scenarios (one where 5 people on one track and one on the other (Utilitarian) vs killing one person in a hospital to save 5 others (Kantian)), and I just sort of didn't pick up that it was passive/active. In the end he had to actually tell me because I was "umming" and "ahhing" and basically messing it up. So you're not the only one. Hoping it doesn't matter too much.

About 2 + 2 = 4 being a priori couldn't that be debatable? I mean I know some philosophers have argued that 2 + 2=4 ISN'T a priori....old philosophers though. Can't remember who it is...(and I might be way off target here). Although the general consensus now is that 2+2=4 is by definition true.