oxbridge interviews - personal statement

i’m in year 12 and i’m wondering if it’s true that oxbridge quiz you on books you mention in your personal statement?
if it’s true, how do they quiz you? do they just ask about what you learnt from the book or do they expect you to recall specific facts from the book? surely if you’re reading 5-6 books they’re not expecting you to memorise everything you’ve read, but i guess that’s just oxbridge standards
thanks🙏

i am currently in ox and had two interviews for arch and anth, so cant speak for other subject. i wasnt asked about my personal statement apart from one question about a site i visited. from talking to other students in other degrees, not many people were asked about their personal statement. also, interviews aren't meant to 'quiz' you (at least for a humanities degree), they're more to find out how you think and if you'd do well in a tutorial system. so they wouldnt expect you to remember facts, but if they asked you about a book you read it would more be along the lines of if you agree with a statement, or what you thought of the book, so just try and think of your own opinions and practice thinking things through out loud! probably a good idea to reread bits of the books, or re-familiarize yourself with concepts, but no need to memorize facts - its not a knowledge test.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment: I had a whole interview on (issues deriving from) my personal statement. That said, I applied to a subject where mentioning books in the personal statement isn't necessary. They just found something I'd mentioned in my PS quite interesting and it sparked off a big discussion! That's the organic, holistic nature of the interviews. Great advice from the posters above

They aren’t going to expect you to remember what the argument was on page 134 of the book you mentioned. It isn’t a test of factual recall. But if you say “Reading Book X particularly inspired me to think about the topic of Y” they may well ask what you mean by that and it is not impressive if you clearly haven’t read X or used it to reflect on Y. Similarly if you talk about how inspired you were to study English after reading the Brontes and then don’t seem to remember the plot of Jane Eyre it isn’t a good look.
Basically anything you put on your PS is an invitation to a follow up question and you need to be confident engaging in discussion about it.

thank you, i appreciate your response! out of curiosity, how many books did you integrate into your personal statement? i understand that there’s no ‚minimum’ or ‚maximum’ of books to include but i want to get an idea of what others included roughly

I literally did not mention a single book on my PS, but this was for music (where wider reading is not necessarily expected)! Remember you need to say something insightful about the books read, not just reel off a list. I wouldn't recommend trying to pack in more than 4 books/articles, unless you're applying for English Lit (that said, I'm aware the PS section of UCAS is changing, and am ill-placed to advise about how to structure a PS in whatever the new arrangement and format is!)

thank you for your reply! i think i’ll add 4 books (i’m applying for law) especially with the new format of the ‚personal statement’ - i don’t want to overdo it😓

thank you so much, this was really insightful! if you don’t mind me asking, for your personal statement, did you mainly focus on books or extracurricular activities related to (or not in relation) to your chosen subject? i’m aware that this year the format is different for personal statements- i’m just curious since none of my parents or cousins went to uni so i have nobody to ask… applying seems confusing hahaha😩 thank you once again for your reply

mine was mostly experiences/extracurricular with a few books (maybe 1 or 2?) mentioned! i tried to link every experience back to my subject - so when i mentioned dofe i said that it made me think about human and landscape engagement haha because that was kinda archaeology/anthropology related. the advice from my teachers was link everything to the subject. idk what the new system is like, but with personal statements i was told to think of it like an essay explaining why i was interested in the subject + what id done to prove that interest. just looking back at my statement now, (wrote it in 2022 so a while ago!) and some specific things i wrote about: the book sapiens, but linked to it making me realise i was interested in the human past, a dig i went on and what that taught me, the seren summer school i attended, making sure to mention how the project made me interested in my topic/studying at ox, and dofe! what subject are you applying for? let me know if you have any specific questions, im not qualified apart from having got in, but ive read over other peoples statements and had a lot of help with mine so i might be able to help you a bit!

once again, thank you for your reply, i am incredibly grateful that you’re taking the time out of your day to help me! i’m planning to apply for law and i’m yet to start writing my personal statement since im awaiting a response from the sutton trust summer school & some work experiences. when did you start writing your personal statement? i was thinking about writing it over summer as i know the deadline for oxford applicants is in october. also, i wanted to ask - did you do the epq / do you think the epq is worth it? i’ve had some mixed opinions. we had an oxford representative (i believe she works in the admissions department) come in and do a mini assembly for those students aiming for oxbridge and i asked her about the epq and she said not to do it. on the contrary, my friend who went to an oxford study day, one of the teachers told her it was worth it. i got accepted onto an oxford study day coming up in may so if anything i might ask some teachers there but i’m so torn about it. my epq topic is about law but idk if its better to divert my energy into drafting a personal statement, practicing for the lnat and grades. sorry for the long message 😭

My daughter, who applied to read law at Oxford and is about to begin her third term there, mentioned Tom Bingham's Rule of Law in her PS as a a lead in to discussion of (1) environmental law and human rights, referring to two cases then pending before the ECtHR, and (2) jury trials. She was not asked anything about her PS during her two interviews, which were technically-oriented discussions of a statute and a case. She was not being grilled on legal knowledge, but on her ability to construct an argument on a legal text.

The Oxford Dons whom I know tell me that they never ask about personal statements, not least because they can't be sure that the statements have been written by the candidates and not by their parents or teachers, but interview styles vary from Don to Don.

It will vary not only subject to subject but also between interviewers. Some interviewers will use something from the PS as a launchpad into the interviews. Others won’t mention the PS at all and will use something completely different to structure the interview, whether that is a piece of pre-reading send shortly beforehand or a general opening question about the subject.