By the TOG Team
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I know loads of you are starting Oxford Uni interviews tomorrow and the TOG student ambassadors have been busy writing down the questions they were asked in their Oxford interview, to give you a taste of what to expect.
Remember, there are no trick questions, the tutors just want to understand your thought process, see your passion for your subject and to see whether the Oxford teaching system is right for you!
History
(Was based on a source)
Who do you think wrote this source?
What can it tell us about structures of power?
Where is the power in this source?
When do you think this source was written?
Summarize the source for us.
English
(Was mostly based on my personal statement on which I had mentioned witches)
What popular texts include witches?
What is the first line Macbeth says in Macbeth - why is it significant?
What events influenced the writing of Macbeth?
What events influenced the writing of Frankenstein?
How can you see these influences in the texts?
Why might language be something that is difficult or uncomfortable to control?
Is it worth studying the psychology of characters when they are just fictional?
Are interpretation and experience the same thing when reading?
Is personal interpretation detrimental to the process of reading literature?
What is the difference between reading books and reading people?
Modern Languages
I remember being given a French passage that was full of euphemisms and being asked what all of them meant. They also asked me how I would define an interview text in terms of genre (which was pretty tricky).
In another interview they gave me an English poem to prepare then just said ‘tell me about it’ so I gave a line-by-line commentary for ten minutes. We also only spoke French for a surprisingly short amount of time, but having spoken to people older than me who applied for ModLangs, this seems to vary a lot.
They asked me if it’s right to study Molière as a paper text given that he said himself that his work was intended to be performed/viewed, not read.
“When do you think this text is set?” was another one that I think they asked for multiple interview passages.
Classics and English What is the difference between ’some’ and ‘any’?
Define ‘morality’
How would you learn 50 words a day?
What is the difference, and when, would you say ‘me and Peter’ versus ‘Peter and I’? Is ‘me and Peter’ ever grammatically correct?
How is English different to Latin and to Greek? What about how are they similar?
PPE
Is there anything that we should never be able to buy and sell?
(I think this was more for philosophy/politics and was part of a discussion about whether or not it is right to sell citizenship).
CAAH
On an archaeological floor plan of an ‘industrial depot’ from near Pompeii, with finds and find spots marked:
What can you suggests about the function of this building? (E.g. large numbers of amphorae, possibly non local foodstuffs e.g. pomegranates suggest it was trade centre)
How may you locate and date this building? (group of skeletons buried in ash suggests link to Pompeii)
What may the differentiation of skeletons into different groups suggest and what finds might you expect with them? (Slaves vs citizens, expect more expensive find with citizens)
What does the discovery of fragments of painted marble on the courtyard suggest (second residential floor)
On a collection of sources (written and inscriptions) on the Hellenistic eastern kingdom of Pergamon:
How do these sources present successive kings?
How do they trace the evolution of the kingdom and how far do they differ?
Is there a difference between what we infer from inscriptions by the kings and later sources describing them? If so what can this suggest?
Which type of sources have more merit and are the most useful to the historian?
Tell me about this vase...
Human Sciences
Something in the news recently relating to the course?
Shown a rock and asked to talk about it- said it could be a tool etc, spoke about primates and what separates humans from other species. Talked about “culture” and whether only humans can show signs of it.
What are the three greatest threats to humanity?
Shown some seeds, asked to talk about whether they show variation. Asked why farmers hundreds of years ago would have to plant multiple variants over monoculture.
Shown map showing correlation between language and amount of trees. Asked to explain.
Shown poster of someone rock climbing- asked how concept of risk relates to the course. Why do people take risks?
Shown family tree, asked to explain who parents are- biological or with adoption. Nature and nurture debate.
What are the ethical issues of genetic engineering?
What can we learn from bees? Talked about their social structure and whether the waggle dance is their “culture”.
DPhil Biology
What lab techniques are you familiar with that will be beneficial for this project?
Tell us about your research projects in other labs. What did you learn/what drew you to them?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? (this is a classic masters/DPhil question)
What would you do with £1 million funding?
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