21st December 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Since we’re called Blue Tutors, and most people are aware of our background, we receive lots of requests to help prepare students for Oxbridge interviews. We’ve written before that we don’t claim our tutors are ‘interview experts’ or that there is a guarded secret about how to succeed in an Oxbridge interview. What a student needs to do is exactly what one would rationally expect; display existing academic ability and the potential to be taught one to one by a tutor/supervisor and learn in that way. This is all the interviewers are looking for.
Something we see frequently is a misunderstanding from schools about how to prepare A Level students for an Oxbridge interview. Too often the interview is painted as a mythical process where the student needs to display something amazingly original to even be considered. Of course, the interviews are extremely competitive and a student does need to do well, but they need to be good at being a student, not at being great at interviews.
The interview cliches have become known as just that: catching a rugby ball when you walk in the door, throwing a brick out of a window, but opening the window first. Students know this isn’t what happens, but we’ve recently heard of schools giving advice like “disagree with your interviewers” or “crowbar in a question which shows enthusiasm”. Whereas these two things are not necessarily wrong, done at the wrong time they will seem unnatural and do more harm than good.
Oxbridge interviewers want to see how well a student can learn; how well they can think about a question asked and take their time to give a considered answer. Yes, sometimes they ask unusual questions, but they want to see how a student deals with a situation they have previously not encountered; it is still the way the student thinks which is being examined, not their ability to display false confidence.
It is difficult for state schools to prepare their students for an Oxbridge interview when compared to the best performing independent schools. Putting time and resources to one side, many state schools have no idea what the interview will be like and as a result their students are far less prepared. This isn’t the fault of the schools, and it wouldn’t be difficult to offer them a small amount of help which would radically increase their students’ chances of success.