History Oxford interview 2025

pburrow07

3

Heyyy, hope everybody's interviews went well today !!! How did you all find them

Reply 1

kaelithea

6

Original post

by pburrow07

Heyyy, hope everybody's interviews went well today !!! How did you all find them

I had mine this morning - I think it went well, it was a lovely discussion and I don’t think the questions were too hard! I gave alternative perspectives and clarified anything that i didn’t understand, the only issue was that i wish it was longer so i could answer more questions😭

Reply 2

avs07

1

Have you been informed of a second interview? I'm just wondering if only getting one interview for history has been a widespread thing this year. I'm not sure if this is true, but I was told that colleges have given out more interviews in general to even the playing field due to issues with the HAT, and that this means more people are only interviewing once.

Reply 3

TheWord

8

My daughter only interviewed once and is convinced this is bad news! But all the experienced Oxford people on here say you can't judge anything by it.

Reply 4

Tara17

2

Original post

by kaelithea

I had mine this morning - I think it went well, it was a lovely discussion and I don’t think the questions were too hard! I gave alternative perspectives and clarified anything that i didn’t understand, the only issue was that i wish it was longer so i could answer more questions😭

hi. I am applying for history at Oxford for 2026 entry. I would really appreciate if you can share any two tips / kinds of questions asked, source analysis etc. due to tech issues Oxford has removed the hat this year so there is only an interview. Many thanks in advance

Reply 5

BetaVersion2.9

9

Original post

by Tara17

hi. I am applying for history at Oxford for 2026 entry. I would really appreciate if you can share any two tips / kinds of questions asked, source analysis etc. due to tech issues Oxford has removed the hat this year so there is only an interview. Many thanks in advance

Top tip, practice thinking out loud. Find a history story in the news and explain it to your friends, teachers, family etc. Why is it interesting, how does it change our view of history etc.
Questions, prepare to be questioned and probed over your answers. For source analysis look at past HAT papers if they're still on the website and think about the questions being asked. Who was the text written for, what message is being presented, is the author influenced by a patron, etc.

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Also, be prepared for tutors being poor interviewers. By which I mean asking vague and woolly questions. The dogma from the department is that they shouldn’t ask you anything you already know about, and this makes for a tricky interview that can descend into vague hypotheticals. If this happens, answer basing yourself on concrete and specific situations or examples. Effectively rewrite the question into something clear and answerable. If they want something different, they will then probe further. That’s what my son failed to do in interview with first college(which he had absolutely set his heart on), but written work (HAT - sorry !) got him interview at 2nd college which ignored the rules and let him shine. He finished this summer with a resounding first. First college’s loss, but sadly his too. But a useful lesson for you, I hope.

History Oxford interview 2025

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