Oxford demystified- Philosophy and Russian
Which resources did you use (please name as many as possible) Which books/journals did you read? Which did you like best, and why? What did they teach you?
I read quite a lot of books, as you certainly need to for any humanities degree. What I did, which I would advise everyone who is applying for any modern languages course at Oxford (since they are all very literature based) is find a book, ideally one that is fairly famous and is situated at a crucial time in that country's history. Something I found is that when you find literature from an important time (economically, ideologically, religiously, politically etc) the literature that surrounds it tends to be very rich in comparative critique. I initially read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which is obviously a very famous book (by and large, books that are really famous tend to be quite good). It tied in really well with my philosophy and through exploring the context behind it, it led me to the vast intellectual debates in 1860s Russia surrounding personal and political philosophy. This decade was arguably the most important in terms of shaping the ideological foundations for the revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Communist regime. I wrote an article in the school modern languages magazine which I founded and then edited (if there aren’t already student publications for the subject you want to do, start them! It looks really good when you do) I then read Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky, which I did an essay competition on, and it led me to 'What is to be Done?' by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the man whose philosophy (Marxist/Rationalist/Utilitarian/Materialist) Dostoyevsky was critiquing in CandP and NfU. I then also read 'Fathers and Sons' by Ivan Turgenev, which is definitely my favourite ever book and I recommend it to everyone I can! It talks a lot about, and critiques, nihilism as a rival political ideology to the older generation (since its mouthpiece is a young man)- I felt it tied into the Dostoyevsky/Chernyshevsky debate really well. I then did a research project at school about the radical vs traditional ideologies of the 1860s in Russia and came top 5 in the year group of 200+ which was nice. I also read 'the heart of a dog' by Bulgakov (which is funny yet contains an excellent and subtle political and philosophical message) and 'the Nose' by Gogol, which I actually mentioned in my second interview in relation to a prose I got given. I also read 'A Hero of our time' by Lermontov- not really to include on my personal statement or anything, just because it may be a good point of reference and it is a classic of Russian literature.
I also read a LOT of poetry- this is my key piece of advice really. Oxford modern languages interviews invariably involve unseen poetry. I read and memorised Pushkin, Pasternak, Rozhdestvensky (I performed a verse from his WW2 requiem at a Soviet victory day celebration for the Russian Orthodox Church in Manchester), Tsvetaeva. The best thing I did, which I would urge you all to do, is read deeply into the different poetic movements that occurred in the countries. I did this in the Russian and it massively helped me in all my mock interviews - I correctly guessed the poet in all 4 of my mock interviews for Russian. Unfortunately, however, I messed it up a bit in my first Russian interview because the poem was a real anomaly for that movement, and I guessed the wrong poet (though my reasoning for that guess was fairly sound and they acknowledged that), and I knew the movement of the poet who actually wrote the poem, despite him writing in a very different style to the rest of the poets of that movement. If you read into poetry movements a lot and read a lot of poetry, you should be able to guess the poets as well.
I also listened to a lot of Russian music, and treated that like poetry (in some cases, like with Molchat Doma, whose music and its relation to Soviet Architecture I did a lecture about at school, it is actually written by a Russian poet). I watched a couple of films like Stalker (I didn't really get it but it's meant to be good) and 'The Ironies of fate' (a Russian new year's classic- everyone in Russia watched this on NYE), I also watched the Soviet adaptation of Crime and Punishment which was cool.
For Philosophy, I read a lot on moral philosophy since it linked to my Russian. Moral philosophy is essentially divided into three categories- applied ethics, normative ethics and metaethics. We learn about all 3 in A level, and I was really interested in the relationship between normative ethics and metaethics. I read Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill and Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Immanuel Kant (yes, I did read a Kant, and yes, it was really bloody hard, and yes, I only read 5 pages a night for my mental health). I compared them both and read some various pieces of critical literature about them, which mostly consisted of journal articles. I also read a journal article (by an Oxford DPhil student no less!) about the relationship between utilitarianism and metaethical prescriptivism, which I enjoyed comparing with emotivism (I did a bunch of essay competitions and magazine articles on this- I edited the school philosophy magazine). I also read some general philosophy books like Bertrand Russell's 'the problems of philosophy', which I would only read if you have a basic level of philosophical education because parts of it (especially towards the end) are fairly difficult. I was a part of the school's philosophy reading group as well, so we got used to that seminar style of reading and discussion which I'm sure will be useful at Oxford.
Definitely do as many essay competitions as you can- it forces you to read loads of material and the content for your personal statement ticks over rather nicely. For the philosophy side, my personal statement was basically just an intellectual journey structure (look at James Rutland on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn etc he has really good advice on personal statements)on normative ethics and metaethics based on the content that I had covered in essay competitions. I also got to the finals of one, and I met some really cool friends who also have Oxford offers at the winners' conference!
I read quite a lot of books, as you certainly need to for any humanities degree. What I did, which I would advise everyone who is applying for any modern languages course at Oxford (since they are all very literature based) is find a book, ideally one that is fairly famous and is situated at a crucial time in that country's history. Something I found is that when you find literature from an important time (economically, ideologically, religiously, politically etc) the literature that surrounds it tends to be very rich in comparative critique. I initially read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which is obviously a very famous book (by and large, books that are really famous tend to be quite good). It tied in really well with my philosophy and through exploring the context behind it, it led me to the vast intellectual debates in 1860s Russia surrounding personal and political philosophy. This decade was arguably the most important in terms of shaping the ideological foundations for the revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Communist regime. I wrote an article in the school modern languages magazine which I founded and then edited (if there aren’t already student publications for the subject you want to do, start them! It looks really good when you do) I then read Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky, which I did an essay competition on, and it led me to 'What is to be Done?' by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the man whose philosophy (Marxist/Rationalist/Utilitarian/Materialist) Dostoyevsky was critiquing in CandP and NfU. I then also read 'Fathers and Sons' by Ivan Turgenev, which is definitely my favourite ever book and I recommend it to everyone I can! It talks a lot about, and critiques, nihilism as a rival political ideology to the older generation (since its mouthpiece is a young man)- I felt it tied into the Dostoyevsky/Chernyshevsky debate really well. I then did a research project at school about the radical vs traditional ideologies of the 1860s in Russia and came top 5 in the year group of 200+ which was nice. I also read 'the heart of a dog' by Bulgakov (which is funny yet contains an excellent and subtle political and philosophical message) and 'the Nose' by Gogol, which I actually mentioned in my second interview in relation to a prose I got given. I also read 'A Hero of our time' by Lermontov- not really to include on my personal statement or anything, just because it may be a good point of reference and it is a classic of Russian literature.
I also read a LOT of poetry- this is my key piece of advice really. Oxford modern languages interviews invariably involve unseen poetry. I read and memorised Pushkin, Pasternak, Rozhdestvensky (I performed a verse from his WW2 requiem at a Soviet victory day celebration for the Russian Orthodox Church in Manchester), Tsvetaeva. The best thing I did, which I would urge you all to do, is read deeply into the different poetic movements that occurred in the countries. I did this in the Russian and it massively helped me in all my mock interviews - I correctly guessed the poet in all 4 of my mock interviews for Russian. Unfortunately, however, I messed it up a bit in my first Russian interview because the poem was a real anomaly for that movement, and I guessed the wrong poet (though my reasoning for that guess was fairly sound and they acknowledged that), and I knew the movement of the poet who actually wrote the poem, despite him writing in a very different style to the rest of the poets of that movement. If you read into poetry movements a lot and read a lot of poetry, you should be able to guess the poets as well.
I also listened to a lot of Russian music, and treated that like poetry (in some cases, like with Molchat Doma, whose music and its relation to Soviet Architecture I did a lecture about at school, it is actually written by a Russian poet). I watched a couple of films like Stalker (I didn't really get it but it's meant to be good) and 'The Ironies of fate' (a Russian new year's classic- everyone in Russia watched this on NYE), I also watched the Soviet adaptation of Crime and Punishment which was cool.
For Philosophy, I read a lot on moral philosophy since it linked to my Russian. Moral philosophy is essentially divided into three categories- applied ethics, normative ethics and metaethics. We learn about all 3 in A level, and I was really interested in the relationship between normative ethics and metaethics. I read Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill and Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Immanuel Kant (yes, I did read a Kant, and yes, it was really bloody hard, and yes, I only read 5 pages a night for my mental health). I compared them both and read some various pieces of critical literature about them, which mostly consisted of journal articles. I also read a journal article (by an Oxford DPhil student no less!) about the relationship between utilitarianism and metaethical prescriptivism, which I enjoyed comparing with emotivism (I did a bunch of essay competitions and magazine articles on this- I edited the school philosophy magazine). I also read some general philosophy books like Bertrand Russell's 'the problems of philosophy', which I would only read if you have a basic level of philosophical education because parts of it (especially towards the end) are fairly difficult. I was a part of the school's philosophy reading group as well, so we got used to that seminar style of reading and discussion which I'm sure will be useful at Oxford.
Definitely do as many essay competitions as you can- it forces you to read loads of material and the content for your personal statement ticks over rather nicely. For the philosophy side, my personal statement was basically just an intellectual journey structure (look at James Rutland on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn etc he has really good advice on personal statements)on normative ethics and metaethics based on the content that I had covered in essay competitions. I also got to the finals of one, and I met some really cool friends who also have Oxford offers at the winners' conference!
Reply 1
One word...Brilliant!!! 🙂
Reply 2
@kingsleyartha This is brilliant, but half of the chapter you sent me is missing. I cannot edit it: only you can. Plus it will really help me to do a separate post for each paragraph so that I can comment on each one, rather than doing it all as one massive essay in the end. I am asking a mod how we can create a new thread and maybe call it Oxford Demystified - Russian and Philosophy. If you like, I can try and set the chapter up myself... just trying to get some technical help for us now.
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Why did you want to study your subject?
I applied for Philosophy and Russian, and I have wanted to study it at Oxford since I was in year 9! Ever since I started studying Russian when I was 13, I absolutely fell in love with it! The reason I wanted to study it in the first place was because I read an excellent book called 'From Russia with Blood' by Heidi Blake which was about Putin's murders of people living in British soil, specifically the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and defector Alexander Litvinenko. I suppose it satisfied my morbid curiosity, and I thought that the Russian alphabet looked really cool. When I started studying it, I had an aptitude for it because I think (even though we only speak English at home - my mum is the only natively bilingual speaker of a language) I have a linguistically orientated brain. On my first parents' evening for Russian in year 9 after I got 98% on my first exam, my Russian teacher (who has been teaching at our school for over 30 years and has sent countless boys to Oxbridge- and is just superb) told my mum that if I carry on the way I had done in the first term, then the only place I could possibly end up is Oxbridge! After that point, I never looked back and I fully wanted to immerse myself in everything Russian after receiving such a vote of confidence from my teacher. I also used to go to Russian scrabble club on Friday lunchtimes, and I remember being so impressed with how the older boys could speak pretty much fluent Russian (and I really looked up to them!) I think my Russian teacher got them to indoctrinate me into wanting to go to Oxford, since the boys I used to play scrabble with all ended up at Oxford as well.
My love of philosophy started in year 9 as well, since my teacher completely brought the subject alive for me! Our class reader was 'A little history of philosophy by Nigel Warburton' which I would recommend for anyone to read, it is so digestible and engagingly written, that 13 year old me was utterly smitten. I also thought that knowing about and being able to talk about philosophy was REALLY cool and the sign of a smart person. Another thing was that I realised that people only seem to care about philosophy when it is too late in their life- everyone on their deathbed seems to only think about philosophy- 'have I lived a good life?', 'what is meaningful about life?' etc. I thought I would like to be clever and find out the answers to those before I became old (though the more I studied I realised that there are no answers, only better and worse arguments). My teacher spotted my enthusiasm really early on, and he put me forward for the ISRSA Essay competition in 2022 which was on political philosophy, specifically 'is true liberty freedom from the control of others?' I came first in the country in that competition, and being a national champion gave me a huge confidence boost.
To summarise what I have said rather convolutedly, I began to love the subjects because I had amazing teachers who brought them alive and believed in me.
Why Oxford?
I have wanted to go to Oxbridge since I was 7, because I was very academic at that age, and I remember by dad saying to me 'you should try and go to Oxford or Cambridge when you are older!' and 7 year old me thought that Oxford sounded cooler because it had an 'x' in it. I started seriously considering it when I was in secondary school, around year 8 or 9, because I said to my dad that I realised that I would need to commit to the project from this age if I was going to get in. I was initially really interested in economics, as I won a school essay prize for it when I was in year 8 (against the sixth formers) which I was very pleased with, and my family constantly discuss current affairs and politics, meaning that I initially wanted to do PPE. I did a lot of research into it in year 9 and I pretty much came to the conclusion that I wasn't good enough at maths to be a good applicant for PPE (though I did managed to get a 9 in IGCSE Maths to my surprise), plus, our school doesn’t have a great track record for PPE, with candidates far smarter than I being rejected. When I decided I wanted to study Russian (after winning the Russian prize for my year group in year 9) alongside philosophy, I realised that Cambridge didn't offer this course and Oxford did, so from that point onwards I knew that I would put my everything into getting into Oxford!
I applied for Philosophy and Russian, and I have wanted to study it at Oxford since I was in year 9! Ever since I started studying Russian when I was 13, I absolutely fell in love with it! The reason I wanted to study it in the first place was because I read an excellent book called 'From Russia with Blood' by Heidi Blake which was about Putin's murders of people living in British soil, specifically the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and defector Alexander Litvinenko. I suppose it satisfied my morbid curiosity, and I thought that the Russian alphabet looked really cool. When I started studying it, I had an aptitude for it because I think (even though we only speak English at home - my mum is the only natively bilingual speaker of a language) I have a linguistically orientated brain. On my first parents' evening for Russian in year 9 after I got 98% on my first exam, my Russian teacher (who has been teaching at our school for over 30 years and has sent countless boys to Oxbridge- and is just superb) told my mum that if I carry on the way I had done in the first term, then the only place I could possibly end up is Oxbridge! After that point, I never looked back and I fully wanted to immerse myself in everything Russian after receiving such a vote of confidence from my teacher. I also used to go to Russian scrabble club on Friday lunchtimes, and I remember being so impressed with how the older boys could speak pretty much fluent Russian (and I really looked up to them!) I think my Russian teacher got them to indoctrinate me into wanting to go to Oxford, since the boys I used to play scrabble with all ended up at Oxford as well.
My love of philosophy started in year 9 as well, since my teacher completely brought the subject alive for me! Our class reader was 'A little history of philosophy by Nigel Warburton' which I would recommend for anyone to read, it is so digestible and engagingly written, that 13 year old me was utterly smitten. I also thought that knowing about and being able to talk about philosophy was REALLY cool and the sign of a smart person. Another thing was that I realised that people only seem to care about philosophy when it is too late in their life- everyone on their deathbed seems to only think about philosophy- 'have I lived a good life?', 'what is meaningful about life?' etc. I thought I would like to be clever and find out the answers to those before I became old (though the more I studied I realised that there are no answers, only better and worse arguments). My teacher spotted my enthusiasm really early on, and he put me forward for the ISRSA Essay competition in 2022 which was on political philosophy, specifically 'is true liberty freedom from the control of others?' I came first in the country in that competition, and being a national champion gave me a huge confidence boost.
To summarise what I have said rather convolutedly, I began to love the subjects because I had amazing teachers who brought them alive and believed in me.
Why Oxford?
I have wanted to go to Oxbridge since I was 7, because I was very academic at that age, and I remember by dad saying to me 'you should try and go to Oxford or Cambridge when you are older!' and 7 year old me thought that Oxford sounded cooler because it had an 'x' in it. I started seriously considering it when I was in secondary school, around year 8 or 9, because I said to my dad that I realised that I would need to commit to the project from this age if I was going to get in. I was initially really interested in economics, as I won a school essay prize for it when I was in year 8 (against the sixth formers) which I was very pleased with, and my family constantly discuss current affairs and politics, meaning that I initially wanted to do PPE. I did a lot of research into it in year 9 and I pretty much came to the conclusion that I wasn't good enough at maths to be a good applicant for PPE (though I did managed to get a 9 in IGCSE Maths to my surprise), plus, our school doesn’t have a great track record for PPE, with candidates far smarter than I being rejected. When I decided I wanted to study Russian (after winning the Russian prize for my year group in year 9) alongside philosophy, I realised that Cambridge didn't offer this course and Oxford did, so from that point onwards I knew that I would put my everything into getting into Oxford!
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Reply 5
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Which techniques did you use for the entrance test?
For the MLAT, knowledge of grammar is super important (learn some niche grammar as well it very well might come up). In the new format it is less important than the old one, but grammar is still around 40% of the marks up for grabs. Vocab is ESSENTIAL to know- go on perplexity/chat GPT and ask it to give you MLAT style practice translation questions and note down all the vocab you don’t know. Do EVERY past paper and try to notice patterns in the grammar structures that they test you on. Whilst they didn't come up in my MLAT, I would have been prepped if they did. Make a huge list of at least 250 words you don't know from doing the AI questions and memorise all of them. The new online MLAT is more vocab focussed though, so revise more of that. My friend and I would spend ages going through MLATs together and doing practices, my Russian teacher also had some ridiculously hard ones from the early 90s, which I know not everyone will have access to, but if you suspect you might, always ask because they are good prep for it.
For Philosophy, I just did a bunch of Past papers and got my teachers to mark them. Try and make your arguments clear, concise and well structured. Only namedrop philosophers when it is absolutely necessary/ hyper-relevant to answering the question- they want to see how you think not just how much you have read.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
Despite getting an offer from Lady Margaret Hall, I actually applied to New College. It is very popular with Russian applicants from our school and we have a good reputation there, so I thought 'why not?' It is also breathtakingly beautiful and I am a sucker for medieval architecture along with Soviet Avant-Garde (I know, a strange mix- I am really into Russian architecture as well and I talked about it in the interview as I did a huge art project on it when I was younger and designed some Soviet architectural posters), and their new annexe the Gradel quad is done in the style of Melnikov house which was pretty cool. I was also really into the interests of some of the academics there, Stephen Mulhall for philosophy and Margarita Vaysman for Russian. I also have a group of older friends there, so that always helps. I visited New a couple of times- one of my dad's friends is Master of St. Catz, so we visited her and looked around New, then I went with my mates for open day which was fun. I was initially torn between New and Magdalen (with hindsight, maybe I should have applied to Magdalen!)
LMH is beautiful as well, though, it has gorgeous gardens and river access, plus its remote location is good for removing yourself from the Oxford drama in the city I suppose.
I would say that you shouldn't try and be too clever with which college you pick. If you are good enough to get into the university, you are good enough. The state school/ private school intake is a fairly important factor in some instances. I go to private school yet I still got into LMH, which is 64% state school- if you are good enough to get into the university, the college you apply to won't change that. One thing I did which is decent is to look at the academics from your top 3 choices of college and decide whose research interests interest you the most and apply there- that way you are more likely to match each other's energy in interview.
One of my best friends said she really wanted to apply to Christ Church, but she applied to Pembroke because she thought Christ Church would be too competitive, and now she kind of regrets not applying to Christ Church. For context, she is one of the smartest people I know and did the best in the country on the HAT- she could have easily gotten into Christ Church. Moral of the story is, just apply wherever you want to apply!
For the MLAT, knowledge of grammar is super important (learn some niche grammar as well it very well might come up). In the new format it is less important than the old one, but grammar is still around 40% of the marks up for grabs. Vocab is ESSENTIAL to know- go on perplexity/chat GPT and ask it to give you MLAT style practice translation questions and note down all the vocab you don’t know. Do EVERY past paper and try to notice patterns in the grammar structures that they test you on. Whilst they didn't come up in my MLAT, I would have been prepped if they did. Make a huge list of at least 250 words you don't know from doing the AI questions and memorise all of them. The new online MLAT is more vocab focussed though, so revise more of that. My friend and I would spend ages going through MLATs together and doing practices, my Russian teacher also had some ridiculously hard ones from the early 90s, which I know not everyone will have access to, but if you suspect you might, always ask because they are good prep for it.
For Philosophy, I just did a bunch of Past papers and got my teachers to mark them. Try and make your arguments clear, concise and well structured. Only namedrop philosophers when it is absolutely necessary/ hyper-relevant to answering the question- they want to see how you think not just how much you have read.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
Despite getting an offer from Lady Margaret Hall, I actually applied to New College. It is very popular with Russian applicants from our school and we have a good reputation there, so I thought 'why not?' It is also breathtakingly beautiful and I am a sucker for medieval architecture along with Soviet Avant-Garde (I know, a strange mix- I am really into Russian architecture as well and I talked about it in the interview as I did a huge art project on it when I was younger and designed some Soviet architectural posters), and their new annexe the Gradel quad is done in the style of Melnikov house which was pretty cool. I was also really into the interests of some of the academics there, Stephen Mulhall for philosophy and Margarita Vaysman for Russian. I also have a group of older friends there, so that always helps. I visited New a couple of times- one of my dad's friends is Master of St. Catz, so we visited her and looked around New, then I went with my mates for open day which was fun. I was initially torn between New and Magdalen (with hindsight, maybe I should have applied to Magdalen!)
LMH is beautiful as well, though, it has gorgeous gardens and river access, plus its remote location is good for removing yourself from the Oxford drama in the city I suppose.
I would say that you shouldn't try and be too clever with which college you pick. If you are good enough to get into the university, you are good enough. The state school/ private school intake is a fairly important factor in some instances. I go to private school yet I still got into LMH, which is 64% state school- if you are good enough to get into the university, the college you apply to won't change that. One thing I did which is decent is to look at the academics from your top 3 choices of college and decide whose research interests interest you the most and apply there- that way you are more likely to match each other's energy in interview.
One of my best friends said she really wanted to apply to Christ Church, but she applied to Pembroke because she thought Christ Church would be too competitive, and now she kind of regrets not applying to Christ Church. For context, she is one of the smartest people I know and did the best in the country on the HAT- she could have easily gotten into Christ Church. Moral of the story is, just apply wherever you want to apply!
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How did you find the interview process?
I did about 10 mock interviews- our school trained us well and I looked for some outside of school as well so I could get used to the feel. My school ones were all in person so I wanted to try some in the online format.
Stressful for first interviews- I tried to be too ritualistic, I got an (as you can probably guess, uncharacteristically) great night's sleep, drank a cup of tea beforehand, meditated, went for a run etc. My philosophy interview went really well first time and he was, unusually for Oxford tutors, very complimentary of the arguments I put forward. Russian I was far too excited and made stupid mistakes despite doing fantastically well on the spoken Russian section and making them laugh after I told this anecdote.
Second round of interviews- I want to preface this by saying I did a RIDICULOUS amount of work the weekend leading up to it, and you shouldn't follow what I did, despite the fact that the second ones went WAY better than the first ones. Oxford meant so much to me that I was NOT going to squander my chance. I got a terrible night's sleep, I watched TV until about 1 AM. I had cereal and watched Rick and Morty until about an hour before the Russian interview and gossip girl between the first and second while I had my lunch. I performed much better because I was in a day to day state of little sleep, which I think made me far more sober thinking and less nervous than I was in the first ones. I also seem to debate much better when I am tired I don't know why. We basically just talked about all the topics that I love talking about in both of the interviews since they focussed a lot on my personal statement, and I really enjoyed the intellectual discussion!
Any interview tips?
Always stay calm, always signpost your answers. By signposting, I mean that you need to, at the beginning of your answer, say what it is specifically that you are going to address- this makes it easier for them to follow and easier for you to organise your thoughts. Have a pen and paper next to you and jot down key ideas that you want to address (very shorthand) whilst they are asking you the question. If they ask you a really difficult question, don't be afraid to ask them to rephrase or clarify, or even in your answer, answer 'what I think you're trying to ask me here is x'- they like when you do that because it shows you are paying attention and have an ability for concise reconstruction. Be confident with the spoken language section but remember the unseen literature is the most important for languages. Make sure you know EVERY book in your personal statement INSIDE OUT- this was where I know I really impressed in my Russian interview.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I'll be honest, after the second interviews I felt confident that I would get an offer, but I kept visualising the rejection letter so that I would be less disappointed if I got rejected. I knew that I wouldn't get a place at New College to be honest, but that wasn't a huge concern of mine because Oxford is Oxford.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
I was at home! Both my parents took the day off work and I was on study leave and I was there with them. My mum is American, so she wanted to do one of those American college admissions emails videos. As I was walking towards the kitchen to film it, I got a notification on my phone and it was the offer! I involuntarily blurted it out, but my parents tried to ignore me so they could film the video 😭😭- I ruined their proud parents moment ever so slightly! My mum started crying and my dad gave me the biggest hug! I was surprisingly nonchalant about it considering I have wanted this day with every fibre of my being for the last 4 years of my life- but that's probably because I was just processing it- I still am (my mocks have just finished and I was so stressed for those I couldn't really think about Oxford!) We called basically every member of our family- my grandma told me that I'm not actually the first in our family to go to Oxford and that her first cousin (not my great grandfather's, I made a mistake in the other forum) was the first Sri Lankan president of the Oxford Union! It was a very proud day for me and my family for sure- we went out for a lovely Italian to celebrate and I had a class of wine with Carbonara ( I am 18 btw I'm not incriminating myself lol)
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Of course! I already have a fair few friends there from the year above and I love the city. I am excited to make new friends and have the most interesting conversations. I also am really looking forward to strolls in the LMH Gardens and doing some punting. I'm really looking forward to reinventing myself at uni! I also quite liked the party scene ( I went down for one at Pembroke because my friend who's there invited me) and it was really cool- I'm pretty sure I am persona non-grata at Pembroke now though because of it- a story for another time.
I did about 10 mock interviews- our school trained us well and I looked for some outside of school as well so I could get used to the feel. My school ones were all in person so I wanted to try some in the online format.
Stressful for first interviews- I tried to be too ritualistic, I got an (as you can probably guess, uncharacteristically) great night's sleep, drank a cup of tea beforehand, meditated, went for a run etc. My philosophy interview went really well first time and he was, unusually for Oxford tutors, very complimentary of the arguments I put forward. Russian I was far too excited and made stupid mistakes despite doing fantastically well on the spoken Russian section and making them laugh after I told this anecdote.
Second round of interviews- I want to preface this by saying I did a RIDICULOUS amount of work the weekend leading up to it, and you shouldn't follow what I did, despite the fact that the second ones went WAY better than the first ones. Oxford meant so much to me that I was NOT going to squander my chance. I got a terrible night's sleep, I watched TV until about 1 AM. I had cereal and watched Rick and Morty until about an hour before the Russian interview and gossip girl between the first and second while I had my lunch. I performed much better because I was in a day to day state of little sleep, which I think made me far more sober thinking and less nervous than I was in the first ones. I also seem to debate much better when I am tired I don't know why. We basically just talked about all the topics that I love talking about in both of the interviews since they focussed a lot on my personal statement, and I really enjoyed the intellectual discussion!
Any interview tips?
Always stay calm, always signpost your answers. By signposting, I mean that you need to, at the beginning of your answer, say what it is specifically that you are going to address- this makes it easier for them to follow and easier for you to organise your thoughts. Have a pen and paper next to you and jot down key ideas that you want to address (very shorthand) whilst they are asking you the question. If they ask you a really difficult question, don't be afraid to ask them to rephrase or clarify, or even in your answer, answer 'what I think you're trying to ask me here is x'- they like when you do that because it shows you are paying attention and have an ability for concise reconstruction. Be confident with the spoken language section but remember the unseen literature is the most important for languages. Make sure you know EVERY book in your personal statement INSIDE OUT- this was where I know I really impressed in my Russian interview.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I'll be honest, after the second interviews I felt confident that I would get an offer, but I kept visualising the rejection letter so that I would be less disappointed if I got rejected. I knew that I wouldn't get a place at New College to be honest, but that wasn't a huge concern of mine because Oxford is Oxford.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
I was at home! Both my parents took the day off work and I was on study leave and I was there with them. My mum is American, so she wanted to do one of those American college admissions emails videos. As I was walking towards the kitchen to film it, I got a notification on my phone and it was the offer! I involuntarily blurted it out, but my parents tried to ignore me so they could film the video 😭😭- I ruined their proud parents moment ever so slightly! My mum started crying and my dad gave me the biggest hug! I was surprisingly nonchalant about it considering I have wanted this day with every fibre of my being for the last 4 years of my life- but that's probably because I was just processing it- I still am (my mocks have just finished and I was so stressed for those I couldn't really think about Oxford!) We called basically every member of our family- my grandma told me that I'm not actually the first in our family to go to Oxford and that her first cousin (not my great grandfather's, I made a mistake in the other forum) was the first Sri Lankan president of the Oxford Union! It was a very proud day for me and my family for sure- we went out for a lovely Italian to celebrate and I had a class of wine with Carbonara ( I am 18 btw I'm not incriminating myself lol)
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Of course! I already have a fair few friends there from the year above and I love the city. I am excited to make new friends and have the most interesting conversations. I also am really looking forward to strolls in the LMH Gardens and doing some punting. I'm really looking forward to reinventing myself at uni! I also quite liked the party scene ( I went down for one at Pembroke because my friend who's there invited me) and it was really cool- I'm pretty sure I am persona non-grata at Pembroke now though because of it- a story for another time.
Reply 7
Wow...what a brilliant insight!!! 😀
Reply 8
Original post
by kingsleyarthaWhy did you want to study your subject?
I applied for Philosophy and Russian, and I have wanted to study it at Oxford since I was in year 9! Ever since I started studying Russian when I was 13, I absolutely fell in love with it! The reason I wanted to study it in the first place was because I read an excellent book called 'From Russia with Blood' by Heidi Blake which was about Putin's murders of people living in British soil, specifically the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and defector Alexander Litvinenko. I suppose it satisfied my morbid curiosity, and I thought that the Russian alphabet looked really cool. When I started studying it, I had an aptitude for it because I think (even though we only speak English at home - my mum is the only natively bilingual speaker of a language) I have a linguistically orientated brain. On my first parents' evening for Russian in year 9 after I got 98% on my first exam, my Russian teacher (who has been teaching at our school for over 30 years and has sent countless boys to Oxbridge- and is just superb) told my mum that if I carry on the way I had done in the first term, then the only place I could possibly end up is Oxbridge! After that point, I never looked back and I fully wanted to immerse myself in everything Russian after receiving such a vote of confidence from my teacher. I also used to go to Russian scrabble club on Friday lunchtimes, and I remember being so impressed with how the older boys could speak pretty much fluent Russian (and I really looked up to them!) I think my Russian teacher got them to indoctrinate me into wanting to go to Oxford, since the boys I used to play scrabble with all ended up at Oxford as well.
My love of philosophy started in year 9 as well, since my teacher completely brought the subject alive for me! Our class reader was 'A little history of philosophy by Nigel Warburton' which I would recommend for anyone to read, it is so digestible and engagingly written, that 13 year old me was utterly smitten. I also thought that knowing about and being able to talk about philosophy was REALLY cool and the sign of a smart person. Another thing was that I realised that people only seem to care about philosophy when it is too late in their life- everyone on their deathbed seems to only think about philosophy- 'have I lived a good life?', 'what is meaningful about life?' etc. I thought I would like to be clever and find out the answers to those before I became old (though the more I studied I realised that there are no answers, only better and worse arguments). My teacher spotted my enthusiasm really early on, and he put me forward for the ISRSA Essay competition in 2022 which was on political philosophy, specifically 'is true liberty freedom from the control of others?' I came first in the country in that competition, and being a national champion gave me a huge confidence boost.
To summarise what I have said rather convolutedly, I began to love the subjects because I had amazing teachers who brought them alive and believed in me.
Why Oxford?
I have wanted to go to Oxbridge since I was 7, because I was very academic at that age, and I remember by dad saying to me 'you should try and go to Oxford or Cambridge when you are older!' and 7 year old me thought that Oxford sounded cooler because it had an 'x' in it. I started seriously considering it when I was in secondary school, around year 8 or 9, because I said to my dad that I realised that I would need to commit to the project from this age if I was going to get in. I was initially really interested in economics, as I won a school essay prize for it when I was in year 8 (against the sixth formers) which I was very pleased with, and my family constantly discuss current affairs and politics, meaning that I initially wanted to do PPE. I did a lot of research into it in year 9 and I pretty much came to the conclusion that I wasn't good enough at maths to be a good applicant for PPE (though I did managed to get a 9 in IGCSE Maths to my surprise), plus, our school doesn’t have a great track record for PPE, with candidates far smarter than I being rejected. When I decided I wanted to study Russian (after winning the Russian prize for my year group in year 9) alongside philosophy, I realised that Cambridge didn't offer this course and Oxford did, so from that point onwards I knew that I would put my everything into getting into Oxford!
I applied for Philosophy and Russian, and I have wanted to study it at Oxford since I was in year 9! Ever since I started studying Russian when I was 13, I absolutely fell in love with it! The reason I wanted to study it in the first place was because I read an excellent book called 'From Russia with Blood' by Heidi Blake which was about Putin's murders of people living in British soil, specifically the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and defector Alexander Litvinenko. I suppose it satisfied my morbid curiosity, and I thought that the Russian alphabet looked really cool. When I started studying it, I had an aptitude for it because I think (even though we only speak English at home - my mum is the only natively bilingual speaker of a language) I have a linguistically orientated brain. On my first parents' evening for Russian in year 9 after I got 98% on my first exam, my Russian teacher (who has been teaching at our school for over 30 years and has sent countless boys to Oxbridge- and is just superb) told my mum that if I carry on the way I had done in the first term, then the only place I could possibly end up is Oxbridge! After that point, I never looked back and I fully wanted to immerse myself in everything Russian after receiving such a vote of confidence from my teacher. I also used to go to Russian scrabble club on Friday lunchtimes, and I remember being so impressed with how the older boys could speak pretty much fluent Russian (and I really looked up to them!) I think my Russian teacher got them to indoctrinate me into wanting to go to Oxford, since the boys I used to play scrabble with all ended up at Oxford as well.
My love of philosophy started in year 9 as well, since my teacher completely brought the subject alive for me! Our class reader was 'A little history of philosophy by Nigel Warburton' which I would recommend for anyone to read, it is so digestible and engagingly written, that 13 year old me was utterly smitten. I also thought that knowing about and being able to talk about philosophy was REALLY cool and the sign of a smart person. Another thing was that I realised that people only seem to care about philosophy when it is too late in their life- everyone on their deathbed seems to only think about philosophy- 'have I lived a good life?', 'what is meaningful about life?' etc. I thought I would like to be clever and find out the answers to those before I became old (though the more I studied I realised that there are no answers, only better and worse arguments). My teacher spotted my enthusiasm really early on, and he put me forward for the ISRSA Essay competition in 2022 which was on political philosophy, specifically 'is true liberty freedom from the control of others?' I came first in the country in that competition, and being a national champion gave me a huge confidence boost.
To summarise what I have said rather convolutedly, I began to love the subjects because I had amazing teachers who brought them alive and believed in me.
Why Oxford?
I have wanted to go to Oxbridge since I was 7, because I was very academic at that age, and I remember by dad saying to me 'you should try and go to Oxford or Cambridge when you are older!' and 7 year old me thought that Oxford sounded cooler because it had an 'x' in it. I started seriously considering it when I was in secondary school, around year 8 or 9, because I said to my dad that I realised that I would need to commit to the project from this age if I was going to get in. I was initially really interested in economics, as I won a school essay prize for it when I was in year 8 (against the sixth formers) which I was very pleased with, and my family constantly discuss current affairs and politics, meaning that I initially wanted to do PPE. I did a lot of research into it in year 9 and I pretty much came to the conclusion that I wasn't good enough at maths to be a good applicant for PPE (though I did managed to get a 9 in IGCSE Maths to my surprise), plus, our school doesn’t have a great track record for PPE, with candidates far smarter than I being rejected. When I decided I wanted to study Russian (after winning the Russian prize for my year group in year 9) alongside philosophy, I realised that Cambridge didn't offer this course and Oxford did, so from that point onwards I knew that I would put my everything into getting into Oxford!
There is always something that inspires us, that moves us to head down a certain path. A Cambridge medical student once told me the pattern is "one thing led to another" and if you are keen, you will follow that path right to the end, through many interesting twists and turns. And Oxbridge dons love keenness!
I feel the same way about Russia. I first saw the Blue Peter team in red square in the early 1980s on assigmnent. I fell in love with Russia there and then. I even acquired a boyfriend at uni who studied Russian. I could have listened to him talk forever. Later on, I went back to night school to study Russian at GCSE level, so you could say I share your passion (albeit at a much lower level).
Yes, you had a great head start with your school and teachers, but fantastic school lessons are only the start. The key words are "fully immersed myself". You are not just relying on the school. The icing on the cake is what you do outside school. I have to be honest. I have rarely seen so much icing on any academic cake.
As for the essay competitions, I would recommend them to anyone. Even if you don't keep winning them like Kingsley, it's worth entering because you will learn valuable skills, such as researching, crafting a decent essay, structure, original thought etc. Even if you don't win one single prize the practice is well worth it. In all my time amongst Oxford students, only one person I knew ever won a prize in any of these competitions and she ended up with a congratulatory first.
Reply 9
Original post
by kingsleyarthaWhich techniques did you use for the entrance test?
For the MLAT, knowledge of grammar is super important (learn some niche grammar as well it very well might come up). In the new format it is less important than the old one, but grammar is still around 40% of the marks up for grabs. Vocab is ESSENTIAL to know- go on perplexity/chat GPT and ask it to give you MLAT style practice translation questions and note down all the vocab you don’t know. Do EVERY past paper and try to notice patterns in the grammar structures that they test you on. Whilst they didn't come up in my MLAT, I would have been prepped if they did. Make a huge list of at least 250 words you don't know from doing the AI questions and memorise all of them. The new online MLAT is more vocab focussed though, so revise more of that. My friend and I would spend ages going through MLATs together and doing practices, my Russian teacher also had some ridiculously hard ones from the early 90s, which I know not everyone will have access to, but if you suspect you might, always ask because they are good prep for it.
For Philosophy, I just did a bunch of Past papers and got my teachers to mark them. Try and make your arguments clear, concise and well structured. Only namedrop philosophers when it is absolutely necessary/ hyper-relevant to answering the question- they want to see how you think not just how much you have read.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
Despite getting an offer from Lady Margaret Hall, I actually applied to New College. It is very popular with Russian applicants from our school and we have a good reputation there, so I thought 'why not?' It is also breathtakingly beautiful and I am a sucker for medieval architecture along with Soviet Avant-Garde (I know, a strange mix- I am really into Russian architecture as well and I talked about it in the interview as I did a huge art project on it when I was younger and designed some Soviet architectural posters), and their new annexe the Gradel quad is done in the style of Melnikov house which was pretty cool. I was also really into the interests of some of the academics there, Stephen Mulhall for philosophy and Margarita Vaysman for Russian. I also have a group of older friends there, so that always helps. I visited New a couple of times- one of my dad's friends is Master of St. Catz, so we visited her and looked around New, then I went with my mates for open day which was fun. I was initially torn between New and Magdalen (with hindsight, maybe I should have applied to Magdalen!)
LMH is beautiful as well, though, it has gorgeous gardens and river access, plus its remote location is good for removing yourself from the Oxford drama in the city I suppose.
I would say that you shouldn't try and be too clever with which college you pick. If you are good enough to get into the university, you are good enough. The state school/ private school intake is a fairly important factor in some instances. I go to private school yet I still got into LMH, which is 64% state school- if you are good enough to get into the university, the college you apply to won't change that. One thing I did which is decent is to look at the academics from your top 3 choices of college and decide whose research interests interest you the most and apply there- that way you are more likely to match each other's energy in interview.
One of my best friends said she really wanted to apply to Christ Church, but she applied to Pembroke because she thought Christ Church would be too competitive, and now she kind of regrets not applying to Christ Church. For context, she is one of the smartest people I know and did the best in the country on the HAT- she could have easily gotten into Christ Church. Moral of the story is, just apply wherever you want to apply!
For the MLAT, knowledge of grammar is super important (learn some niche grammar as well it very well might come up). In the new format it is less important than the old one, but grammar is still around 40% of the marks up for grabs. Vocab is ESSENTIAL to know- go on perplexity/chat GPT and ask it to give you MLAT style practice translation questions and note down all the vocab you don’t know. Do EVERY past paper and try to notice patterns in the grammar structures that they test you on. Whilst they didn't come up in my MLAT, I would have been prepped if they did. Make a huge list of at least 250 words you don't know from doing the AI questions and memorise all of them. The new online MLAT is more vocab focussed though, so revise more of that. My friend and I would spend ages going through MLATs together and doing practices, my Russian teacher also had some ridiculously hard ones from the early 90s, which I know not everyone will have access to, but if you suspect you might, always ask because they are good prep for it.
For Philosophy, I just did a bunch of Past papers and got my teachers to mark them. Try and make your arguments clear, concise and well structured. Only namedrop philosophers when it is absolutely necessary/ hyper-relevant to answering the question- they want to see how you think not just how much you have read.
How did you choose your college? Did you go to an open day and if so, did it help you to decide?
Despite getting an offer from Lady Margaret Hall, I actually applied to New College. It is very popular with Russian applicants from our school and we have a good reputation there, so I thought 'why not?' It is also breathtakingly beautiful and I am a sucker for medieval architecture along with Soviet Avant-Garde (I know, a strange mix- I am really into Russian architecture as well and I talked about it in the interview as I did a huge art project on it when I was younger and designed some Soviet architectural posters), and their new annexe the Gradel quad is done in the style of Melnikov house which was pretty cool. I was also really into the interests of some of the academics there, Stephen Mulhall for philosophy and Margarita Vaysman for Russian. I also have a group of older friends there, so that always helps. I visited New a couple of times- one of my dad's friends is Master of St. Catz, so we visited her and looked around New, then I went with my mates for open day which was fun. I was initially torn between New and Magdalen (with hindsight, maybe I should have applied to Magdalen!)
LMH is beautiful as well, though, it has gorgeous gardens and river access, plus its remote location is good for removing yourself from the Oxford drama in the city I suppose.
I would say that you shouldn't try and be too clever with which college you pick. If you are good enough to get into the university, you are good enough. The state school/ private school intake is a fairly important factor in some instances. I go to private school yet I still got into LMH, which is 64% state school- if you are good enough to get into the university, the college you apply to won't change that. One thing I did which is decent is to look at the academics from your top 3 choices of college and decide whose research interests interest you the most and apply there- that way you are more likely to match each other's energy in interview.
One of my best friends said she really wanted to apply to Christ Church, but she applied to Pembroke because she thought Christ Church would be too competitive, and now she kind of regrets not applying to Christ Church. For context, she is one of the smartest people I know and did the best in the country on the HAT- she could have easily gotten into Christ Church. Moral of the story is, just apply wherever you want to apply!
Yes, I do agree that grammar is VERY important in the MLAT. The grammar patterns will be familiar, sometimes something you may have learned way back in year 8. It's important to use a grammar book to practice writing sentences. As for vocab, it's worth reading newspapers or literature in the target language (if you can), noting down the words you had to look up and revise them for 10 minutes a day. The longer you do this, the fewer words you will eventually need to search for. Practising the MLAT - this is essential. No successful Oxford student ever gets in without doing as many sample papers as they can.
In my day, (1981) Oxford French candidates had to translate Dickens, for example, from English to French. Thank goodness those days are over!
It doesn't matter how many people are at state school at LMH (or, indeed, anywhere). My favourite "celebrity student" was at LMH. Her name is Varaidizo Kativhu or "Miss Varz". She went to an inner-city state school. She was worried the private school students may not accept her, but she ended up having friends across the social spectrum. Her best friend was even a Nobel prizewinner before she reached Oxford. Her name is Malala Yousafzai. Even though she was from a completely different background, this made absolutely no difference. If you are prepared to stretch out the hand of friendship to your fellow students, you will reap the social rewards!
Reply 10
Original post
by kingsleyarthaHow did you find the interview process?
I did about 10 mock interviews- our school trained us well and I looked for some outside of school as well so I could get used to the feel. My school ones were all in person so I wanted to try some in the online format.
Stressful for first interviews- I tried to be too ritualistic, I got an (as you can probably guess, uncharacteristically) great night's sleep, drank a cup of tea beforehand, meditated, went for a run etc. My philosophy interview went really well first time and he was, unusually for Oxford tutors, very complimentary of the arguments I put forward. Russian I was far too excited and made stupid mistakes despite doing fantastically well on the spoken Russian section and making them laugh after I told this anecdote.
Second round of interviews- I want to preface this by saying I did a RIDICULOUS amount of work the weekend leading up to it, and you shouldn't follow what I did, despite the fact that the second ones went WAY better than the first ones. Oxford meant so much to me that I was NOT going to squander my chance. I got a terrible night's sleep, I watched TV until about 1 AM. I had cereal and watched Rick and Morty until about an hour before the Russian interview and gossip girl between the first and second while I had my lunch. I performed much better because I was in a day to day state of little sleep, which I think made me far more sober thinking and less nervous than I was in the first ones. I also seem to debate much better when I am tired I don't know why. We basically just talked about all the topics that I love talking about in both of the interviews since they focussed a lot on my personal statement, and I really enjoyed the intellectual discussion!
Any interview tips?
Always stay calm, always signpost your answers. By signposting, I mean that you need to, at the beginning of your answer, say what it is specifically that you are going to address- this makes it easier for them to follow and easier for you to organise your thoughts. Have a pen and paper next to you and jot down key ideas that you want to address (very shorthand) whilst they are asking you the question. If they ask you a really difficult question, don't be afraid to ask them to rephrase or clarify, or even in your answer, answer 'what I think you're trying to ask me here is x'- they like when you do that because it shows you are paying attention and have an ability for concise reconstruction. Be confident with the spoken language section but remember the unseen literature is the most important for languages. Make sure you know EVERY book in your personal statement INSIDE OUT- this was where I know I really impressed in my Russian interview.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I'll be honest, after the second interviews I felt confident that I would get an offer, but I kept visualising the rejection letter so that I would be less disappointed if I got rejected. I knew that I wouldn't get a place at New College to be honest, but that wasn't a huge concern of mine because Oxford is Oxford.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
I was at home! Both my parents took the day off work and I was on study leave and I was there with them. My mum is American, so she wanted to do one of those American college admissions emails videos. As I was walking towards the kitchen to film it, I got a notification on my phone and it was the offer! I involuntarily blurted it out, but my parents tried to ignore me so they could film the video 😭😭- I ruined their proud parents moment ever so slightly! My mum started crying and my dad gave me the biggest hug! I was surprisingly nonchalant about it considering I have wanted this day with every fibre of my being for the last 4 years of my life- but that's probably because I was just processing it- I still am (my mocks have just finished and I was so stressed for those I couldn't really think about Oxford!) We called basically every member of our family- my grandma told me that I'm not actually the first in our family to go to Oxford and that her first cousin (not my great grandfather's, I made a mistake in the other forum) was the first Sri Lankan president of the Oxford Union! It was a very proud day for me and my family for sure- we went out for a lovely Italian to celebrate and I had a class of wine with Carbonara ( I am 18 btw I'm not incriminating myself lol)
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Of course! I already have a fair few friends there from the year above and I love the city. I am excited to make new friends and have the most interesting conversations. I also am really looking forward to strolls in the LMH Gardens and doing some punting. I'm really looking forward to reinventing myself at uni! I also quite liked the party scene ( I went down for one at Pembroke because my friend who's there invited me) and it was really cool- I'm pretty sure I am persona non-grata at Pembroke now though because of it- a story for another time.
I did about 10 mock interviews- our school trained us well and I looked for some outside of school as well so I could get used to the feel. My school ones were all in person so I wanted to try some in the online format.
Stressful for first interviews- I tried to be too ritualistic, I got an (as you can probably guess, uncharacteristically) great night's sleep, drank a cup of tea beforehand, meditated, went for a run etc. My philosophy interview went really well first time and he was, unusually for Oxford tutors, very complimentary of the arguments I put forward. Russian I was far too excited and made stupid mistakes despite doing fantastically well on the spoken Russian section and making them laugh after I told this anecdote.
Second round of interviews- I want to preface this by saying I did a RIDICULOUS amount of work the weekend leading up to it, and you shouldn't follow what I did, despite the fact that the second ones went WAY better than the first ones. Oxford meant so much to me that I was NOT going to squander my chance. I got a terrible night's sleep, I watched TV until about 1 AM. I had cereal and watched Rick and Morty until about an hour before the Russian interview and gossip girl between the first and second while I had my lunch. I performed much better because I was in a day to day state of little sleep, which I think made me far more sober thinking and less nervous than I was in the first ones. I also seem to debate much better when I am tired I don't know why. We basically just talked about all the topics that I love talking about in both of the interviews since they focussed a lot on my personal statement, and I really enjoyed the intellectual discussion!
Any interview tips?
Always stay calm, always signpost your answers. By signposting, I mean that you need to, at the beginning of your answer, say what it is specifically that you are going to address- this makes it easier for them to follow and easier for you to organise your thoughts. Have a pen and paper next to you and jot down key ideas that you want to address (very shorthand) whilst they are asking you the question. If they ask you a really difficult question, don't be afraid to ask them to rephrase or clarify, or even in your answer, answer 'what I think you're trying to ask me here is x'- they like when you do that because it shows you are paying attention and have an ability for concise reconstruction. Be confident with the spoken language section but remember the unseen literature is the most important for languages. Make sure you know EVERY book in your personal statement INSIDE OUT- this was where I know I really impressed in my Russian interview.
How did you feel after the interviews?
I'll be honest, after the second interviews I felt confident that I would get an offer, but I kept visualising the rejection letter so that I would be less disappointed if I got rejected. I knew that I wouldn't get a place at New College to be honest, but that wasn't a huge concern of mine because Oxford is Oxford.
Where were you when you got your offer? How did you react?
I was at home! Both my parents took the day off work and I was on study leave and I was there with them. My mum is American, so she wanted to do one of those American college admissions emails videos. As I was walking towards the kitchen to film it, I got a notification on my phone and it was the offer! I involuntarily blurted it out, but my parents tried to ignore me so they could film the video 😭😭- I ruined their proud parents moment ever so slightly! My mum started crying and my dad gave me the biggest hug! I was surprisingly nonchalant about it considering I have wanted this day with every fibre of my being for the last 4 years of my life- but that's probably because I was just processing it- I still am (my mocks have just finished and I was so stressed for those I couldn't really think about Oxford!) We called basically every member of our family- my grandma told me that I'm not actually the first in our family to go to Oxford and that her first cousin (not my great grandfather's, I made a mistake in the other forum) was the first Sri Lankan president of the Oxford Union! It was a very proud day for me and my family for sure- we went out for a lovely Italian to celebrate and I had a class of wine with Carbonara ( I am 18 btw I'm not incriminating myself lol)
Are you looking forward to coming up to Oxford?
Of course! I already have a fair few friends there from the year above and I love the city. I am excited to make new friends and have the most interesting conversations. I also am really looking forward to strolls in the LMH Gardens and doing some punting. I'm really looking forward to reinventing myself at uni! I also quite liked the party scene ( I went down for one at Pembroke because my friend who's there invited me) and it was really cool- I'm pretty sure I am persona non-grata at Pembroke now though because of it- a story for another time.
Making stupid mistakes during interviews - everyone does that. My younger son, who is about to become a medicine tutor at Oxford and applied to the medical school in 2016, said that "after the ice breaker question, I proceeded to make a fool of myself".
Your advice about interviews - flawless. I have nothing to add about that! Yes, know the books in your statement inside out. My elder son (for German) wrote about a Goethe book and the dons liked the mention so much, they parachuted in a PHD student who specialised in literary suicides (and the character does kill himself). The interviewer was loving it, asking question after question and having such a great conversation with my son. Imagine not reading all the book, or reading it years ago and forgetting most of the details!
Proud Oxford parents - I know that feeling! I think you've more than earned that carbonara!
You seem to like joining clubs and making friends, so I have high hopes for your time at Oxford. Yes there will be chess clubs and the Russian club, but you may want to try something completely new. During fresher's week, you will be invited go round the stalls and find something you like. In my childrens' time, there was free pizza as well (something they considered v important). Yes, you can re-invent yourself. You can be anything you want to be. That's the beauty of Oxford.
Well done, and congratulations to both you and your family, who have supported you so wholeheartedly. I am so excited for you, I almost wish I was a fly on the wall, so I could see how you get on.
Reply 11
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I regret my current university choice, is it too late to drop out?
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