Oxbridge English Interview Pack
Don’t know what to expect for your Oxbridge English Interview?
Interviews can seem daunting and hard to prepare for as you never quite know what to expect. However, they are extremely important: some candidates are successful based on interview performance alone.
This is an essential guide, prepared by U2's English tutors, all of whom graduated from the Oxford or Cambridge English courses. We walk you through how to prepare to ensure you stand out and increase your chances of success, as well as a number of tips on how to present yourself and communicate during the interview itself.
Core components of U2 Tuition's English guide:
The first section of our 33-page guide is dedicated to showing you how to build evidence of wider subject exploration to convey your passion and motivation for the subject. Our English graduates lead you through what to read (primary and secondary material), and how to cite key texts, or online resources e.g. podcasts, to justify your reasoning in answer to interview questions. We provide suggestions for books across every literary era and each book / resource recommendation comes with a thinking task - an interview question that responds directly to the text’s content. Note: ideally, this process should start at least a few months before you interviews take place so you have time to explore enough resources / material!
How to prepare for personal-statement based interview questions
What to expect in your academic interviews, including accounts from numerous successful English candidates. Each account will provide insight into the interview process, the precise questions they were asked, and preparation tips for tackling the different formats of interview (e.g. wider theoretical questions, unseen poetry analysis, questions around your personal statement, questions on the language component)
4 longer worked through interview questions. These include clues for answering the questions and further suggested readings in the area
Over 50 additional past interview questions: 6 further questions with clues, 20 wider theoretical questions, 10 questions on plays, 10 questions on poetry and 10 questions on prose
Final tips for success at interview
Looking for English Oxbridge / Russell Group mentoring to further direct your independent preparation?
Having an Oxbridge English tutor can present an invaluable learning opportunity - U2 has a wonderful network of Oxford and Cambridge-educated undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates, who would be delighted to host tutorial sessions giving you exposure to some of the key literary eras, support personal statement writing, admissions test and interview preparation. Book a free consultation on our Contact Us page for further details on our offerings and to discuss your university application.