In two previous blog posts, I covered some of the more practical steps that you can take to prepare for an Oxbridge interview in the arts and humanities.
The following advice is designed more to help you approach the interview in a frame of mind that optimises your chances of success.
1. Treat the interview as an opportunity to have a detailed, reciprocal discussion about the subject that fascinates you with those who share that enthusiasm.
Academic interviews become much more manageable when you start conceiving of them as opportunities to discuss topics that interest you with experts in those fields. These discussions will involve articulating your ideas but also listening to and learning from those who are interviewing you. You may well leave the interview thinking differently about the subject in question; your answers may also have given your interviewer food for thought. It's helpful to conceive of the interview as a chance both to exchange ideas and to develop them in the course of a conversation, rather than as an opportunity to 'showcase' a set of opinions that you already hold. Don't look to shoehorn in a set of impressive opinions or ideas: discussions often grow in surprising directions so allow them to develop in response to the questions asked by your interlocutors.
2. Recognise the limits of what you know.
You will have read a wealth of material in preparation for the interview but you are extremely unlikely to have comprehensive knowledge of any one topic. It's a sign of impressive self-awareness when an applicant acknowledges the limits of their knowledge by saying something like 'I would need to know more about sub-topic X before forming an opinion' or 'this is something I hope to explore in my future reading'.
Too many students feel that they need to express fixed and authoritative views on given topics, a habit fostered by the way that debating competitions are often judged. An interview, however, is not a formal debate and this habit is particularly irritating for interviewers when students are dismissive of perspectives which differ from their own. This is not to say that your carefully researched opinions should be discarded in favour of fence-sitting, but merely to counsel you that a hallmark of intelligence is the ability to understand the logic that underpins others' viewpoints.
On the same subject, don't make definite assumptions about the 'attitudes' of the writers of unseen poems to the characters that they depict. I can recall one student who, in a mock-interview, said 'I find it hard to understand why Tennyson should admire St. Simeon Stylites', a remark predicated on a mistaken presumption about the poet's intentions and one that simplifies the poem's gauged use of ambiguity to an attitude of 'admiration'.
(I use the word 'ambiguity' frequently in my writing but I can think of few literary discussions I have had which don't involve sustained contemplation of this idea.)
3. Don't worry about minor details of dress or interview etiquette.
I have never met any applicant who was dressed inappropriately for a university interview. If you have reached this stage of an Oxbridge application, you obviously have the ability to choose suitable clothes for the occasion.
Equally, Oxbridge applicants sometimes receive trivial advice about how vital it is to ask a question before leaving the interview. It really isn't. If you have a genuine question, feel free to ask it, but don't do so for the sake of appearing eager. Remain courteous in discussion, of course, but most other matters of 'self-presentation' are common sense.
4. Don't panic (or grow defensive) if challenged.
Prospective English students are sometimes asked to speculate as to the date of an unseen poem; applicants for Classics might be asked to discuss the significance of an image drawn from an ancient artefact. You are not supposed to know the answers to such questions but to apply a combination of knowledge and logic to make reasonable speculations towards them. Interviewers expect this process to take time so avoid answering too quickly and avoid resigning yourself to silence because you can't be sure of the right answer.
If you're struggling, for example, to guess the date of a poem's composition, you might ask:
Does its use of lexis or grammar suggest it was written after Shakespeare's era?
Does it seem to portray historical events which suggest a date before which it could not have been written?
Does it use vocabulary which you know to be coined in the twentieth century?
Questions like this are useful in establishing the broad parameters of your answer and are evidence of a candidate who can think methodically.
Equally, if challenged on an assertion you made in an essay with which you now disagree, it's fine to admit that you made a mistake and explain your re-considered view. An interviewer would much rather hear you explain the reasons for the subsequent revision of your opinion than an automatic defence of it. That said, if you do wish to justify a view that your interviewer challenges, feel free to advance a reasoned explanation rather than simply agreeing with their criticism for the sake of ease.
5. Don't cram.
While it's useful to re-read the texts that you cite in your personal statement and re-evaluate the essays which you submitted, an Oxbridge interview isn't the sort of test where you need to burn the midnight oil the night before. Your invitation to interview is the product of years of careful contemplation of various subjects and months of focused preparation. I am convinced that there is nothing that you can do overnight, beyond getting a decent night's sleep, that will make a significant difference to your chances of acceptance.
6. Take time to think and keep your initial answers relatively succinct.
I have found that some candidates find it difficult to keep their answers succinct.
A candidate may well have good ideas on a particular topic but panic can sometimes result in their being buried in a mound of extraneous information. In such a situation, my advice would be to pay close attention to the exact question that you have been asked and answer it precisely. It is preferable that your initial answer is a little too short than it is to give one which is much too long. Don't try to exhaust a topic in the first answer that you give and don't try to anticipate the follow-up questions that an interviewer might ask.
If your answer is too brief, your interviewer will ask you to develop it and you can build from the basis that it has established. If an answer is too long, it can become confusing for your interlocutor to comprehend the substance of what you are saying and thus difficult to credit you for the interesting ideas that you have expressed.
Also remember that communicating intellectual confidence is a matter of knowing when you have made your point satisfactorily.
7. Remember that Oxbridge is not the be-all-and-end-all of academic study.
To risk stating the obvious, Oxford and Cambridge are prestigious institutions with excellent academics working within them. Like everywhere else, however, they have their shortcomings and their approaches aren't for everyone. Rewarding though it was to study English at Oxford, if I had my time again, I suspect that I would have equally enjoyed studying the subject at other universities. Indeed, I know someone who attended an Oxford interview some years ago but, for various reasons, liked neither the city nor his chosen college. When the letter arrived containing news of his interviewers' decision, he threw it unopened into the bin, a decision he has never regretted. Social media is littered with similar examples of people who were once intensely emotionally invested in their application to Oxbridge colleges but have realised, retrospectively, that they wouldn't have enjoyed their time there. Some people make the mistake of treating Oxford and Cambridge Universities as though they were peerless in every regard.
8. Focus on other matters once you have left the interview.
Tempting thought it is, it is bootless trying to second-guess an interviewer's decision based on your interpretation of how the conversation went. Although waiting for news can be frustrating, the best advice that I can give is to focus on enjoying your studies and your leisure in the weeks that follow.
I wish you the very best with your application.
If I can be of any help, please contact me at swlondontutor@yahoo.com.
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