Why do a cat's eyes appear to 'glow' in the dark? Interviewer: Liora Lazarus, St Anne's College. If there are any adjustments you need because of a disability, make sure that the college which has invited you to interview knows about these as soon as possible. 3) Youdidhave evidence of the homeless mans guilt in the murder of the young woman, but you knew it would be rejected by the court on a technicality of evidence rules? Some people's first guess is 2/3 of 100, i.e., 66 or 67, in which case I'd ask them what numbers everyone else would have to pick for them to win. Can archaeology prove or disprove the Bible? I worry that not all candidates might have the same access to a wide range of literature, and I am careful to judge them on what they know, not on what they don't know. Interviewer: Thats correct. Tutors will understand that you may be nervous and will try to put you at your ease. Why have you excluded going along the right or top faces? Hard, fun and very relevant. We are looking for observation, attention to detail, both at the large and micro scale. This question delves into the role of the law in society and what is meant by justice. We would also invite them to consider the distinction between experiencing and doing/acting: could actually carrying out those pleasurable activities be a better measure of a good life than merely experiencing those pleasures? Interviewer: Ok, yes, but that doesnt sound very formal. What does validity even mean? It could also be answered extremely well from contemporary or current affairs knowledge. and observational analysis about how birth order might affect behaviour and therefore performance on IQ tests. Other typical questions might be about why so much of theOdysseyis about Odysseus return to Ithaca, rather than the adventures at sea that everyone remembers, or whether Achilles or Hector is the real hero of theIliad? Having established the second possibility as more being more plausible, the interviewer would probe to see whether the candidate recognises the significance of giving photoreceptors two chances to capture light as rays pass into and then out of the eye and why at night this might enhance vision. Interviewer: Roger Benson, St Edmund Hall. Decisions regarding additional interviews will be communicated to applicants by 5pm on Friday 9 December. You will also need a touchscreen device and basic universal stylus so you can access and write on a Miro whiteboard. Do they help us to work out a view about individual responsibility in those cases? I dont really know how we could do it without cases? And should government do something to limit how much they get? Do we really believe that bankers are so much better than other workers in terms of skill? They need to demonstrate that they have recognised the various issues that arise. The Truth about Oxbridge Maths Interviews This section will go through three different maths interview questions, with a scripted model interaction between the interviewer and the student working through the solution. They want you to feel able to be yourself in the interview, and to allow you to demonstrate your skills and abilities. We advise you to do lots of problems, on and near your syllabus, so that you really understand the mathematics you are learning. The interviewer might finish the discussion with a rather more difficult question, such as is a molecule only stable if all the carbons form four bonds?, thus challenging what is taught at school and getting the candidate to think critically about the nature of a chemical bond. If you can prepare well, and are able to talk through your thought process, youll be well on your way to success. Oxford, LSE or Imperial for math and stat? caculate the distance of hte shortest route the ant can take to the furthest vertex from the starting point. Candidates might then think about how law makes other peoples behaviour more predictable so that we can plan our own actions, or how the law might serve functions like punishing wrongdoing. Candidates will probably recognise that the water could push the dam over. Normally you will be interviewed by two tutors, occasionally more. Rather, the interview is about candidates ability to think critically, to deal with counter-examples to the views they put forward, and to draw distinctions between important concepts. Likewise, you might be asked to display any rough working using your computers own camera. The Student Room and The Uni Guide are both part of The Student Room Group. They are looking for evidence that you are willing to engage with new ideas, and that you can be flexible in your thinking. For interviews in this tier, you will also need access to an online virtual whiteboard via the website or app, Miro (www.miro.com), on the same device on which you are accessing Microsoft Teams. [Silence; this is natural during difficult steps of the questions]. Download thefull transcriptof the Tier 3 video. As soon as you receive your invitation to interview/s we suggest that you discuss with your school or college where you would like this/these to take place and to make arrangements accordingly. So eventually they will fall back on maths, and try to model the situation using equations. Other factors might include trade restrictions by the rich world on poor countries exports, civil wars, disease (eg AIDS, malaria) etc. is it a first-person or a third-person narrator, and what effect does that have? What is a hero, and is that category in opposition to folly? How many ways are there to cover a 2 x n rectangular grid with 2 x 1 tiles? Have a look at the tips we give on theHow can I prepare? This would require the candidate to think creatively about alternative sources (and their drawbacks), such as, for instance, criminal court records in which people who could not write were required to give oral testimony as witnesses. Can't decide between Natural Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, or a Maths course. You can find out more by looking at theinterview timetableon our website, which has the interview dates for each course. Is the heroism of those who respond to the needs of the sportsperson more heroic still? In other subjects, you might have initial interviews at your first college, and then you might be invited to an additional interview at another college after these have taken place. In some subjects, you will be invited to interviews at more than one college before your interviews start. Tuesday 13 December and Wednesday 14 December. Thursday 8 December to Wednesday 14 December. ); how they respond to hints and suggestions from us (can they take a hint or two and run with it, or do they have to be dragged through every step? Decisions regarding third college interviews will be communicated to applicants by 10am on Wednesday 14. The Mbius function itself doesnt come up in first year mathematics, but the reasoning used in this question about factors, comprimes etc. oxford Philosophy, Politics and Economics help! Interviewer: Alison Salvesen, Mansfield College. Additional interviews will be on Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 December. If you have any concerns about accessing technology, get in touch with the college inviting you for interview. Answers could relate to the racial/class/gender relations in society (who played the sports, and which sports, at any given time); international politics/empire (which countries were involved, did groups of countries play the same sport); economic development (the technological development of sports, how sport was watched); the values within a society (bloodthirsty sports to more genteel sports); health (participation rates); or many other issues the list is long. We do not expect the student to know the answer to this question straight away, and in fact getting the correct answer isnt important here. The hope is that the discussion allows candidates to show their understanding of, and enthusiasm for, history, and most importantly their ability to think independently, flexibly, and imaginatively about the past. Some interviews for overseas candidates will take place in the week commencing Monday 5 December. You might be asked to read a passage or an article before your interview, which will be sent to you by email. This issue might also be something we discuss when we read an extract or poem in the language together during the interview. After establishing that the applicant understands that light is detected by photoreceptors in the eye (and exploring and explaining this concept if it is a new one), the discussion would consider how the glow might be advantageous to the cat, seeing whether the applicant can appreciate that it may help the animal to see in the dark. Have a look at theSample questionstab of this page and familiarise yourself with the kind of questions tutors might ask in your subject. However extra-curricular activities will not be assessed unless they help to demonstrate how you meet the selection criteria for your course. Questions in practical ethics come up here to do with euthanasia and the like. These can often be dated by scientific means (and so appear more objective than literature), but we still frequently need additional information such as inscriptions or evidence from other similar sites in order to make sense of the ancient remains. Friday 9 December and Tuesday 13 December. to record interviews, I agreeto take part in the interview myself and not to ask or allow anyone else to impersonate my identity fraudulently. Tutors love their subject and they want to teach people who feel likewise. Top Tip: Often the interviewer will ask you whether youre sure about an answer, regardless of whether its right or wrong. Interviewer: Dan Grimley, Merton College. Given these lower levels of literacy, we could then talk about what sources historians can use to learn about the lives of the majority of the population in sixteenth-century England. A few candidates were inclined to think that it might be possible to lie without intending to; most reckoned that one could unintentionally mislead. Possible explanations for the glow would be discussed with an expectation that applicants might recognise that the light could be generated within the eye or alternatively that light entering the eye is in some way reflected back out. So if pirate A bribes pirate C with 1 coin, pirate C will vote in favour. One might reflect upon the importance of having an unelected second chamber to which all really important business could be delegated. How many different molecules can be made from six carbon atoms and twelve hydrogen atoms? Tutors are looking for your self-motivation and enthusiasm for your subject. You can only use words which you have defined mathematically and properly. Interviewer: Before you work it out, do you have any instinct on what m(35 x 66) might be? Mathematical Institute The sampleinterview timetableis available to view. Can you think of any other examples of a multiplicative function? And so on. First college interviews will take place between Wednesday 7 and Friday 9 December. Most first and second college interviews will take place on Monday 12, Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 December, although some interviews for overseas candidates will take place in the week commencing Monday 5 December. A successful applicant will make the connection that an elevated level of glucose in the blood in diabetes leads to increased filtration of glucose by the kidneys and saturation of the carriers that perform the reabsorption, resulting in overspill of glucose in the urine. Try our extensive database of FAQs or submit your own question detailed guidance on how to connect to Microsoft Teams, Download the Archaeology and Anthropology video transcript, Guidance for interview candidates who are taken ill, ProspectiveContinuing Educationstudents, Prospective online/distance learning students. (submitted by Oxford applicant). In this final stage (although you can continue indefinitely!) We hope that this will be either in your school or college, or your home or similar environment. Shortlisted applicants may have more than one interview with more than one college, For some courses, all interviews will be arranged in advance, In other courses, there will be an initial block of pre-organised interviews which may then be followed by additional interviews, Where additional interviews are possible, the timetable gives the time by which you will be informed about them, and the days they may occur on, You should be given at least 24 hours' notice of any additional interviews, Where times are given in this timetable, they are given as UK time (GMT), Candidates may be asked to attend interviews outside of the timeframes given in this timetable, Should an interview need to be rearranged due to technical difficulties or similar, then the rearranged interview may occur outside of the timeframes given in this timetable. If your course isn't listed here, please refer to the questions for other courses which are most similar to yours. Interviewer: Jan Schnupp, St Peter's College. Students should appreciate that, in binding glucose, the carrier will share properties with enzymes, about which they will have learned at school: the capacity to reabsorb glucose is finite because once all of the carriers are working maximally, no further glucose reabsorption can occur. Most applicants would instinctively answer 'Yes', but it is the 'because.' that interests me, and can help to distinguish critical thinkers. Candidates will also have the opportunity to present any special factors that they would wish to be considered. (The Student Room), If you could have half an hour with any mathematician past or present, who would it be? More often people first guess 2/3 of 50 (= 33), which seems intuitively more likely. or, differently posed, 'what makes a short story different from a novel?'. An example might be that because the law makes murder illegal and those who kill are punished, I can expect that I can leave my house and generally not expect to be killed, so this allows me to decide its safe to go outside. Please talk to the college inviting you if you think you may have any difficulty accessing the equipment or the technology outlined below for your online interview. The extension to this question asks the student to interpret some graphical data and requires a more technical introduction. Candidates will have interviews at their first college on Monday 12 and second college on Monday 12 or Tuesday 13. Question: The Mbius function, (n), is defined as follows for natural numbers: m(n) = 1 if n is square free and has an even number of prime factors. Interviewer: Do you know a way of making it always positive? But whether or not I make a given plane journey, the plane will fly anyway. I'd expect students to be able to use their general knowledge plus their common sense to come up with an answer no detailed knowledge is required. Candidates may have come across examples of viruses that jump from non-human animals to human hosts in this way. There is no single 'right answer' to the question; most answers given serve as the basis for further elaboration. What we want to know isn't that they've read a certain number of texts to prove their interest, but that they have the aptitude for studying texts: that they're able to think carefully and imaginatively about whatever they've had chance to read (poems, prose, drama) that's interested them, in any language. TSR Decisions Drop In 17th April - 5th May, A-Level Option Help ( for Economics/PPE degree), Can I still get into oxford? Candidates who have grown up on Harry Potter might have read Rowling's new book and have thought both about Rowling's change of audience and their own change as readers from child to adult. Is it a judgment about content or style? We wouldn't expect students to get the right answer on their own, and in fact that's not the point: the point is to see how they apply their understanding of social and cultural factors in health and illness to a problem of epidemiology. I want to see how students respond to guidance and how they correct themselves, hopefully less by guessing than by thinking through what they know and what I've told them. Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Classics and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Religion and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Some plain paper and pens to take any notes (you may also be asked to share on screen a written response to a question), A copy of your personal statement, and any written work you submitted (you may be asked about these). to record interviews. You are quite likely to have more than one interview. Then candidates could think of problems caused by living in the sea, such as high salinity, high pressure, lack of light etc. Interviewer: Owen Lewis, Brasenose College. Monday 12 December to Tuesday 13 December. As with many of our questions, we dont want candidates necessarily to tell us the right answer straight away. Additional interviews will take place between Thursday 8 and Tuesday 14 December. Please refer to theTechnology pageto see which tier your subject is in. Discussion may well lead into areas which could crop up during a degree in philosophy, including questions in ethics, the philosophy of mind and of language. They might discuss urban planning and regeneration, ethnic segregation and migration, or issues of environmental management. Wednesday 7 December to Friday 9 December. How would you design a gravity dam for holding back water? (Cambridge university interview, The Student Room), Why do you play table tennis? So the question moves on to: 3 x n rectangular grids and 3 x 1 tiles, to 3 x n rectangular grids and 2 x 1 tiles. ), I agreenot to research online any materials shared with me as part of a pre-interview task (unless explicitly permitted to do so by the interviewers), I agreenot to record interviews (in either audio or video format), or to permit others (including but not limited to teachers, family members, etc.) Overseas candidates may have interviews in the week commencing Monday 5 December. Try and think of the interview as a conversation about your favourite subject with people who share your interest and know a great deal about it. Mathematical Institute Tutors will, in addition to assessing aptitude and technical skills, seek in successful candidates. (They have already paid for their return flights and for their hotel room.) We would also bring in more general questions at the end of the cactus discussion, such as what are the problems faced by plants and animals living in very dry habitats such as deserts. The precise solution students suggest matters much less than evidence of the refining of ideas and of self-correction where necessary. Your email or letter will usually come from the college you applied to. +(91)-9821210096 | paula deen meatloaf with brown gravy. The other part of the mortality rate calculation is of course the age of the population: we would ideally steer the conversation towards a discussion of why a wealthy but older country like Japan might have a higher mortality rate, while a country like Bangladesh which many people might initially expect to have a high mortality rate due to relative poverty as a country actually has a relatively lower mortality rate because of its young population. This question is really very open-ended, and I'm interested in answers which demonstrate a critical imagination at work--what kinds of sounds do instruments/voices make now, and how might these be imaginatively extended/developed? You wont be asked to write out complex mathematical notation. You will be asked during registration to give your company name and role but here you can instead just enter your full name and when asked for your role, click on the option 'Not company-related'. Occasionally candidates are able to give examples of famous lines or quotations that risk being misread when translated into English. #tomrocksmaths #BBCone #BBCtheoneshow, NEW VIDEO: I'm interviewed by my student Fred about what it's like to study @oxford_uni, and why @StEdmundHall is the best college (of course as a tutor at Teddy Hall I may be 'slightly' biased)! I would hope the student would pick out this connection between memory and how easy to spell or pronounce a word is, and how that relates to spelling and pronunciation in Welsh versus in English. We may not have had the budget for the real thing, but a 3D-printed model and a fish tank in the @stedmundhall library is a pretty good substitute. The computer will need to be able to run Teams and Miro in separate windows (tablets using App versions may not allow this functionality). What are some stereotypes that get made about your people. Another approach might be to reflect on the responsibility of the electorate; if they do not think in long-term ways, it may not be politicians who are to blame, and the problem may be down to education. Decisions regarding additional interviews will be communicated by 11am on Wednesday 14 December, and additional interviews will take place on Thursday 15 December. This line of discussion would draw out their capacity to respond to challenges to their position, their ability to amend their initial answer when it no longer seems sustainable, and their ability to think precisely. What shape does that middle rung trace out as the ladder falls to the floor? One can distinguish between the process of dying and the state of being dead. Literature forms an important part of a Modern Languages degree at Oxford, but we know that most candidates won't have studied literature formally before in the language for which they're applying. Theology and Religion doesn't require A-level Religious Studies, so we always want to find issues that enable us to see how a student is able to handle and unpick a question, relating the particular to more general concepts. And, in saying something true, had she deceived him, or had he deceived himself? Have a paper and pen, in case you would like to make notes. They are primarily looking to see how you think in response to these questions. And what are we trying to predict? Who gets to decide what is great? (answers in this book), for a circle inscribed in inside a regular n-sided polygon, what is the minimum n so that the ratio of the area of part outside the circle to the area of the circle is less than or equals to 1/1000? If the interview cant proceed then dont worry - the college will rearrange it as soon as they can. This question is testing how well you can formalise your own intuitive ideas of maximum and minimum, and using what you already know about modulus. Would it matter if tigers became extinct? If I were to visit the area where you live, what would I be interested in? You do not suspect he committed the murder. We would then encourage them to think about what interactions the specific compound might make first with octanol and then with water. A typical Oxford mathematics interview tends to last approximately 25 minutes. For each one you will be sent a separate Microsoft Teams calendar invitation, which you will need to accept by clicking Accept, Yes or equivalent (depending on your email client). Interviewer: Can you explain why you think it will always hold in cases like this? Whichever way the discussion goes, interesting topics branch off. If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make? Monday 12 December to Wednesday 14 December. Oriental Studies departmental interviews will take place on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 December. And can one know which? These observations can be used to discuss the history of cooling of molten rock. How do pirates divide their treasure?A group of 7 pirates has 100 gold coins. Student: Well, m(6) = 1 but m(6 x 6) = 0 m(6)m(6). If they get stuck we would ask them what shape the ladder makes with the wall and floor, and theyll eventually spot that at each stage the ladder is forming a right-angled triangle. Problems living on land include extra support for the body, avoiding desiccation, the need for more complex locomotory systems (legs, wings etc) and hence better sensory and nervous systems etc. The solution involves looking at what happens with only 2 pirates, and working up from there. If we assume each person spent 3 hours in the pillory, and they were occupied 12 hours per day, how many people would have experienced the device (assuming no repeats)? If you can't find a video in your subject then watch one in the same tier as your own and for a similar subject. One approach to this question is to first consider the flat regions of the graph. If you can't find a video for your subject below, then we recommend that if possible, you watch one in the same tier (visit theTechnology requiredtab) as your own and for a similar subject. (Submitted by Oxford Applicant) Comments, Differentiate x^x, then sketch it. The main aim would not be to solve these problems, but to use them to find some new interest in a subject that the candidate already knows something about. Hence, if we have some idea about atmospheric pressure we can calculate the mass pressing down on a unit area. Is anyone applying to Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome) for medicine? Perhaps there isnt an answer that applies across the board to all of us considered as individuals some individuals' deaths are bad for them; some aren't. Our focus is on the candidate's reasoning how he or she formulates an initial definition, and how he or she then applies and refines that initial definition in response to hypothetical examples provided by the interviewers. This would be suggesting that the law is based on preventing harm. 'Alex and Brian are cousins. maths competitions/challenges/work experience. Don't worry if you don't know an answer immediately - see if you can work your way through it aloud. First college interviews will take place between Monday 5 December and Wednesday 7 December. For example, can you take a car without driving it, or even without moving it? You will need to be able to access this link on your touchscreen device in order to access the whiteboard you will use in your interview, so you should login to your email account on this device before your interview starts. Other parts of the interview may focus on the other things candidates included in their personal statement. The aim of this question is to see whether the student can understand a new concept and apply it to a problem. Although the compound becomes negatively charged, it does not become more soluble in water than octanol, this suggests that the compound also includes functional groups that interact well with octanol, such as alkyl chains or rings. Decisions regarding additional interviews will be communicated to applicants by 5pm on Friday 9 December.