Best Oxbridge Interview Tips (Part III) – How?
Have you got an interview?
Do you want to apply to Cambridge or Oxford University? Not sure where to start? We would like to help you. Optimal Oxbridge has been created by Oxbridge alumni for Oxbridge applicants. Optimal Oxbridge gives you insider information to guide your application and minimise stress. We will tell you all about the different colleges, offer you insight into the courses available, and provide practice interview questions and interview tips. Applying to university can be a daunting task – researching your course, writing your personal statement, as well as getting to grips with all the application platforms and forms. We are here to make this easier.
If your dream is to go to the University of Oxford or Cambridge, you also have one extra decision to make, one that can hugely impact your application success and student life – which college? At Cambridge and Oxford Universities, your first loyalty is nearly always to your college; it’s where you live and where, frequently, most of your friends come from. It is, therefore, vital that you choose a college where you feel at home. You want to feel you belong there, and this is one of the factors that Optimal Oxbridge Optimizer can help you with.
Did you know that you apply to a specific college, rather than Oxford or Cambridge University*? We can show you which colleges suit you best, based on your personal criteria. We can even tell you which colleges offer you a higher probability of application success using our proprietary algorithm, created by Oxbridge alumni, statisticians, postgraduates, and undergraduates. We’ve spent years designing this model and website to save you time and hassle.
*You can make an open offer, although we don’t advise this as you may end up at a college that doesn’t suit you. Furthermore, open offers have historically had a far lower rate of success
Choosing the right college that suits you best and gives you the greatest chance for success is an essential part of a winning Oxbridge application. There are 29 colleges at Cambridge that accept undergraduates (UGs) and 33 colleges and Permanent Private Halls that accept UGs at Oxford. The model asks you to choose the characteristics and qualities that are most important to you in a college. Are you hoping to be an academic, so you want a college that has one of the strongest academic records, giving you a better likelihood of a First? Do you wish for an old fashioned, typical Dreaming Spires type college? You can get to choose the age of your college. Do you want a college with a Darts team or a Lacrosse team? You can choose the sports that are most important to you, the wealth of your college (it can make a difference!), the chance of getting a room with an en-suite bathroom and the location of your college along with a multitude of other variables that will impact on your student life. Then, using data-driven research into trending Oxbridge admissions and predictive modelling (using Autoregressive Moving Averages), the Optimal Oxbridge Optimizer guides you as to which of the colleges that fulfil your criteria also offer the greatest chance of an offer.
Our proprietary tech combines current data, predictive modelling, insider information and trending insights to give you the greatest chance of getting into the college that is right for you.
What’s the difference? Is one better than the other? Is one more difficult to get into than the other? Which one is better at rowing? Which is better for which subject? Which is older? Which has the best setting? Which is more fun? Read our definitive guides here (Spoiler alert…everyone thinks their university is best and almost everyone thinks their college is the best).
Choosing your college can be confusing, complicated and time-consuming, just when you’re ridiculously busy with your personal statement and revising for exams. We know the process inside out, and we can help you with the mountain of data that is available and save you days, even weeks of time.
Whether you are applying to the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford, we are here to help streamline the application process and give you insider intel and a great advantage. You have a ~15 – 20% chance of getting into Oxford or Cambridge University (slightly higher offer rate for Cambridge, but often with more demanding conditions of acceptance). We can show you the colleges for your course where the offer rate could be as high as 50%! It’s said that you can’t play the numbers. Don’t believe this. You can take advantage of the differences in competition, and we will show how. We can’t guarantee that you will get an offer, but we are providing you with supersmart insider intel. Then it’s up to you.
All of our college bios, course summaries, interview tips, and questions are written by Oxbridge undergraduates and graduates, giving you fantastic insights from students who have been where you are now, and successfully gained their place.
The universities have recently banned prospective students from sharing their interview questions. With our extensive database of questions that predates this ban, we also have you covered with some of the best interview questions and tips available.
You want to be part of a college or university where you can thrive, be happy and reach your potential. From sport to social, from academia to clubs, your university experience is the bridge between education and the future life you deserve and the impact you will have on the world.
If not, we can help. We have course summaries for every undergraduate degree you can apply for at the University of Oxford and at the University of Cambridge, all written by Oxbridge undergraduates and recent graduates.
You can only apply to either Oxford or Cambridge in one application year. You cannot apply to both universities in one year unless you are applying for an organ scholarship.
Perhaps you already know which degree you want to read and which University you want to attend. If not, use the website to read about the different courses available and what each university is like.
Use the filters to define exactly what you want from your college e.g. location, size, age of college, academic standing (using the Norrington Table in Oxford and the Tompkins Table in Cambridge) and quartile ranking for state school admittance. We will give you advice as to why some of the filters may be important to you in order to help you make the best choices possible.
Read the bios we have written for each college (written by Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates and graduates) to get a greater depth of understanding as to what each college is like.
Benefit from our insider tips on how to apply and what to do at interview. We’ve collected course specific and general interview questions to help you prepare for your interview. Interviews are scary enough without worrying about what you might be asked. If you have a good idea of the type of question you may be asked and you’ve practiced answering these questions, you will feel more confident and should perform better. Less stress is a good thing!
Attend the Open Days, talk to alumni, hang out in the student rooms, make your decision, and go for it. Read the University and Faculty websites too. We are a good guide, but we cannot guarantee that things stay the same. The Official websites will be the places to announce any changes and they should be your definitive source of information.
Your Optimal Oxbridge Membership lasts until the 31st January following your application. Your application must be in by the 15th October, entrance exams (if you need to take them) will be in November and the interviews are in December. Cambridge can, however, invite you to interview in January for the Winter Pool. For everyone else, the whole interview process will be over by the end of the year, and you will be waiting to see if you have an offer. Offers normally come out in January. Good luck!
A small price to pay for what may be the best decision of your life
- One Oxford undergraduate course of your choice*
- Course descriptions and Insider Info
- Oxbridge Optimiser Model
- Ranked list of your top 5 colleges
- College Bios
- Insider Intel regarding course specific interviews
- Insider Info with General Interview tips
- Practice interview questions
- Access to 31st January 2024
- One Cambridge undergraduate course of your choice*
- Course descriptions and Insider Info
- Oxbridge Optimiser Model
- Ranked short list of your top 5 colleges
- College Bios
- Insider Intel regarding course specific interviews
- Insider Info with General Interview tips
- Practice interview questions
- Access to 31st January 2024
*For ultimate flexibility, you can purchase both Oxford and Cambridge universities, or more than one course, all under the same account for easy access. Just remember that you can only apply for one course and at either Oxford or Cambridge but not both (unless you are applying for an Organ Scholarship. Those applying for choral scholarships may only apply to either Cambridge or Oxford but not both).
**Our Optimal Oxbridge packages are currently available for undergraduates only. Watch this space if you are a postgraduate!
“When I decided to apply for Oxford, I was overwhelmed with the information online. I needed help! Optimal Oxbridge made my application process so much easier. ”
Maddie L
“Great experience using this site. I couldn’t find the information I got with this site anywhere else. I would recommend this to all of my friends”
Rami K
“A really easy to use website. With the purchase, I got so much great content that I couldn’t have found anywhere online. The interview questions made me feel much more confident.”
Anjum L
"I felt a lot more confident about which college to apply to after using this site. It’s an important decision and was making me stressed. Optimal Oxbridge told me which colleges fit my requirements, and which colleges I had the best chance to get into. Buying this was the best decision!"
Anonymous user
"I would recommend Optimal Oxbridge to any applicant. My son used this when applying for Computer Science at Cambridge- he ended up getting in! Great value, information and trustworthy."
John R
Check out our Insight for extra intel, tips, and hacks. All of our info and insider tips are written by Oxbridge undergraduates and graduates, giving you fantastic insights from students who have been in your shoes. Once you purchase the Optimizer, you will find many more tips along with course specific interview questions and those tricky general questions. Do they really ask, ‘What is a banana?’
Oxbridge Interviews Part II – What?
Last week, we discussed the