Your Ultimate Guide to the Oxbridge Admissions Process
The Oxbridge admissions process can initially appear quite daunting and intimidating. However, once you understand how the process works and what is required of you, the process should be viewed not as an obstacle but as a series of opportunities to show off your talents to the best of your ability. This Ultimate Guide leads you through key timelines for entry, choosing between the universities, application components and how to tackle preparation - everything you need to know to set yourself up for a future application.
How to choose your degree course at Oxford or Cambridge
Oxbridge admissions tutors are looking for students with a genuine passion for their subject. This means that course choice is absolutely crucial; you must be clued up on the specifics of the course and be excited about it! Courses differ quite considerably between the two universities - even if the core subject is the same e.g. History, often the course will have a different structure and include different modules. Research the differences. It’s important to have a thorough read through of all of the courses available at each university (A-Z of Oxford Courses and the Cambridge Course List). Many of them are unique and not subjects students have come across at school. e.g. Cambridge’s Human, Social and Political Sciences course or Oxford’s Archaeology and Anthropology course. It’s worth also considering Joint Honours courses e.g. Physics and Philosophy, History and Economics or Natural Sciences (a blend of multiple sciences and maths). You don’t need to select a course too early, but it’s important to start to narrow down your options in the year preceding application to ensure you have enough time to prepare your application. Of course, other factors come into play in deciding between Oxford and Cambridge e.g. size, location, reputation etc., but course choice should be right at the top of your list of factors when choosing between the two universities to have the best chance in application.
Our article on Choosing What to Study at University gives you more insight into how to consolidate your choice of degree.
The Oxbridge admissions process timeline
The admissions process runs from September to January. Once you have chosen your course at either Oxford or Cambridge, these are the steps that you will progress through:
Step 1: Test registration
Candidates should check on the relevant websites whether their course requires them to sit a written admissions test. The test dates are published each year on the university and admissions test websites for the relevant course.
Step 2: Submit UCAS form
Oxbridge candidates must submit their UCAS application form by 6pm on 15 October (this date is the same every year). This includes submitting your education history, personal statement, and academic reference.
Step 3: Submit SAQ (Cambridge only)
Candidates applying to Cambridge will need to complete the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ) in which you will be asked to provide more detail on your academic studies and will have the opportunity to write a further statement on why you are attracted to their chosen course at Cambridge.
Step 4: Take admissions test
The length of the admissions test and the date that it is taken varies depending on the type of assessment, but these tests are usually scheduled between mid-October and early November. These tests must be taken at authorised assessment centres (usually your school).
Step 5: Submit written work
Depending on your course and college requirements, you may be asked to submit written work from your A-level/IB course which demonstrates that you have the attributes to succeed on your chosen course. Deadlines for this vary but they are generally in November.
Step 6: Interview
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an interview. Interview offers are usually released between mid-November and early December, and most interviews happen in the first three weeks of December. For most subjects, you will have two interviews with the college that you applied to, but there is also a chance that you will be invited to additional interviews with colleges that you did not apply to (this is called pooling). When you are pooled to another college, it likely means they consider you to be the right standard, but would like you to interview at another college to see if you may be better suited there/ to give you another chance to prove yourself.
Step 7: Decision
The outcome of your Oxbridge application is typically communicated to you in the second week of January. The most common type of offer to receive is a conditional offer which will stipulate the examination results that you must achieve to secure your place at the university.
If you have applied to Cambridge, you may receive an offer from a college you did not apply to. This means your original college placed you in the ‘Winter Pool’. This is a system for redistributing applicants across the different colleges. If you receive an offer from another college, it means that this college has picked you out of the pool because they believe you are a strong candidate.
Preparation for Oxbridge success - start early
Having looked at the Oxbridge admissions process, we can now turn to how to ensure you are well-prepared for each stage of the process. It’s widely understood how competitive Oxbridge is and it’s advisable to think about preparing early. This doesn’t mean preparing for specific application components years before they take place - preparation can be exploratory, ensuring you are reading around your favourite subjects, pushing yourself beyond the curriculum and honing skills e.g. debating, problem solving etc. We have written a full article on preparing early for success.
This guide lays out key aspects of preparation for each main component: personal statement, admissions test and interview.
How should you prepare to write a strong Oxbridge personal statement?
What they’re looking for:
Oxbridge admissions tutors use your personal statement to judge your academic ability and whether you have a deep and genuine interest in your chosen subject. In particular, they are looking for ways in which you have engaged with your chosen subject beyond your school curriculum.
Best ways to prepare:
Tip 1: Think in-depth about what you have covered in your curriculum to date
Content from your A-level or IB curriculum can be a useful starting point for your personal statement, and you can include specific topics or modules that you found particularly interesting. You should think about what specifically intrigued you about this topic and what did you learn that was surprising or compelling? Most crucially, you should demonstrate how you then pushed your understanding of these topics further or applied what you learned to new aspects of your chosen subject. This is extra step is important as regurgitating the school curriculum won’t impress admissions tutors - they want to see how you have been motivated to explore your subject beyond the realms of school.
Tip 2: Broaden your engagement with your subject through co-curriculars
The most useful way to demonstrate your engagement with your subject outside of your course is through your co-curriculars. Co-curriculars consist of activities such as attending relevant exhibitions, finding university-level lectures or talks, or reading books on your subject from outside of your school curriculum. It is therefore necessary to research upcoming events which would be useful for you to attend or look on the Oxbridge websites at reading lists for first-year papers to find appropriate further reading. It is also worth noting that extracurriculars such as sports or music do not need to be included in your personal statement unless they help to demonstrate your motivation to study your chosen subject.
We have an entire co-curricular division to support students looking to engage beyond the curriculum
Minds Underground™ offers a treasure-trove of clubs & courses, masterclasses, summer schools, and work/ research opportunities, supporting students’ voyages of discovery into possible degree subjects.
Tip 3: Complete ‘super-curriculars’ to make your personal statement stand out
Often the most impressive parts of a personal statement come from your ‘super-curriculars’. These are activities such as entering Oxbridge college challenges and competitions or completing independent research projects. These are valuable because they clearly demonstrate your motivation for studying your subject and if you perform well, they can attest to your current academic ability. These competitions are mostly aimed at Year 12 students.
For more information on personal statement preparation, check out our article on writing a standout Oxbridge personal statement. Our Free Resource Library also includes a number of subject-specific articles on personal statements e.g. How to Write a Standout Biomedical Personal Statement.
SAQ preparation
An important thing to remember about the SAQ is that it is better not to write an additional statement than to write a poor quality one. However, the SAQ is also a good opportunity to show why you are deeply interested in the Cambridge course you have chosen. Make sure to research the course thoroughly, select an aspect of it that is unique from other university courses, explain why this is appealing to you and use something you have read or attended as evidence of this interest.
When to start preparing: It is useful to start thinking about your personal statement over the summer to give you enough time to read relevant books or complete other extracurriculars. It is advisable to have a final draft ready by the end of September to avoid last minute stress.
How should you prepare for admissions tests?
What they’re looking for: Admissions tests are evaluating your aptitude for the subject you have chosen rather than your knowledge.
Best ways to prepare:
Tip 1: Do practice papers
In a similar vein to A-level or IB exams, the best way to improve your performance on these tests is by doing the past papers provided on the Oxbridge websites. This will give you an idea of how these tests are structured and the types of questions that may be asked. You can begin by doing the first practice test untimed so that you can get a feel for the test before moving on to practicing in timed conditions.
Our Free Resource Library includes articles on preparing for the majority of admissions tests e.g. TSA, ELAT, PAT, MLAT, HAT and more. U2’s admissions test preparation service is also a useful way of gaining detailed feedback on your mock tests and developing a strong approach to tackling these tests. Book a free consultation via the Contact Us page to enquire about admissions test preparation.
Tip 2: Brush up on your course
It is difficult to revise for these admissions tests since they aim to examine your aptitude rather than your knowledge. However, for STEM subjects it is more likely that content you have covered in your curriculum will be tested, so it is useful to brush up on areas of the course that you find more challenging. Whilst it is more difficult to predict the content of the admissions test for humanities subjects, it can be useful to read books or articles that cover broad themes in your subject to expand your knowledge.
When to prepare: This depends on the specific date of the test but by starting in late September or early October you will ensure that you have enough time to complete the majority of past papers. For some tests, it can be advisable to start prepping earlier e.g. Many students tackling STEP or MAT tests for Mathematics and related degrees, may start preparing in the years preceding application by challenging themselves with UKMT Maths Challenge and Olympiad papers.
Looking for more degree-specific tips? Check out some of our admissions test resources:
Enquire with U2 Tuition for one-to-one admissions test preparation and group admissions test courses with our Oxbridge tutors.
How should you prepare for Oxbridge interviews?
What they’re looking for interview: Interviews are testing both your current ability and your potential. Interviewers will be examining the way you think, in particular whether you can apply logic and existing knowledge to an unfamiliar problem.
Best ways to prepare:
Tip 1: Practise verbalising your thought process
Being able to talk out loud about how you are approaching a question is crucial. Verbalising your thoughts will allow your interviewer to understand your thought progression and guide you during the interview. A useful way of practising this is by doing homework questions from your course out loud at home, either to yourself or to a family member.
Tip 2: Know your syllabus in-depth
It is very likely that during your interview you will be asked about topics from your A-level or IB course if the course you are applying for relates to a school subject (but in a way that pushes you to think beyond the syllabus). An excellent way of recapping your course and practising verbalising your thoughts is by writing out different topics from your syllabus on pieces of paper and putting them in a mug. Every morning, pull out a piece of paper and spend five minutes talking about that topic. You can also film yourself doing this to identify how you can communicate more clearly and confidently.
Tip 3: Be able to elaborate on your personal statement
For each point that you have made in your personal statement, ask yourself the question ‘so what?’ Asking this question will prompt you to think about how this particular project/ book/ lecture deepened your knowledge of your subject and how it will influence your approach to the subject going forward. If you are applying for a humanities subject, you can also go through your statement and pull out the big themes. For each of these themes, think about how it could be different in different contexts or how it links to other topics you have studied.
Tip 4: Practice looking at unseen sources
One of the most nerve-wracking elements of the Oxbridge interview can be when you are asked to look at an unseen source. To get comfortable with this, you can find graphs/ pictures/ objects from textbooks or newspapers to examine. Out loud, practise identifying the main elements of these sources and what they might be able to tell you.
Tip 5: Practise full-length interviews
The most effective way to build your confidence in interviewing is to complete practice interviews. U2 currently offers comprehensive interview preparation with experienced tutors to ensure that you can identify your weaker areas and improve them before the big day. This involves 1-1 preparation and also Oxbridge Mock Interview Days in November.
When to prepare: It is advisable to start interview preparation from late October or early November to have a solid number of weeks to hone your skills.
Resources
Subject-Specific Interview Prep Articles: Free Resource Library
How Can U2 Help Prepare You For Your Oxbridge Application?
U2's Oxbridge Mentoring programmes aim to advance students to the level required for success at interview through regular tutorial sessions and specific admissions preparation (for personal statement, admissions test & interview). In sessions, students are expected to orally communicate, defend, analyse & critique ideas or solve problems, in conversation with the tutor, as in an Oxbridge tutorial. This readies students for the challenging entry process and provides them with the tools needed to stand out amongst other strong candidates.
We offer some of the most comprehensive support available at present, with an entire interactive online platform, Minds Underground, built to take care of all students' co-curricular needs in preparation for university application and future careers, including research projects, masterclasses and summer schools.
This year, we are working with over 20 schools in the UK & internationally to support their own Oxbridge applicants, including Wellington College, Cheltenham Ladies College, Wimbledon High and Putney High amongst others.
The Process:
1) We suggest an Oxbridge-educated tutor as a mentor and send their full CV for review. Many of our tutors have studied at Master’s or PhD level and are deeply familiar with the admissions process to study their given subject at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.
2) We typically suggest beginning with a 1.5 hour informal assessment/ taster session, where the mentor will informally assess the student’s current performance level for admissions. Following this, we issue a report with feedback, and structure a plan to best prepare.
3) U2’s approach for regular Oxbridge application sessions: The main focus of tutorial sessions will be to explore material that can be discussed in the personal statement and at interview - this may sometimes stretch from A-Level standard to First Year Undergraduate. Tutors ensure each student refines their interests within their course of application, and is exposed to a range of high level ideas and new concepts, guiding students in their reading and wider subject exploration. Together, we build a case for the student, solidifying the stance and direction they will take during interview and honing skills for the admissions test if applicable.
Frequency of sessions can be decided between student and tutor. You work directly with the tutor to create an individualised plan for preparation given your specific timeline to application.
Sessions from £75/h + VAT.