Each guide discusses ten Cambridge Interview Questions in depth with answers and approaches – along with possible points of discussion to further demonstrate your knowledge. If the latter is the norm, I have been unsuccessful at learning all 6 languages (including my native language Dutch) that I master to different extents (English, French, German, Chinese and Polish). They have been specially edited for applicants for each subject by a team of Oxford and Cambridge graduates. Twitter Facebook Email. In both of my interviews, the first question asked was Why do you want to study biology? The following article featured in The Daily Telegraph outlines “5 Things You Should Know about Oxbridge Applications”. She has had “unimaginable teaching difficulties”, the tutors hear. 1. Here is their step-by-step guide: MS: Students need to remember that subject matter and exam regime will be identical across the colleges. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The following article featured in The Daily Telegraph is entitled “Oxbridge applications: a don’s guide”. When I started my studies in Sinology, I knew that I was interested in the language because it felt like a language based on very different premises, and with a very different structure compared to the European languages I had been learning at school. Phone screen: Discussion about projects and interests and behavioral questions. In English language and literature Oxford and Cambridge took first and second place respectively, the only two UK universities in the top 10 for the subject. Unsettling as it might seem, it’s helping them out.”, Interviewers are not necessarily looking for a right answer, but one that shows inquisitive and dynamic on-the-spot thinking. Oxbridge Interview Questions: Modern Languages. The tables show that in certain subjects, the UK’s top universities saw off competition from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale. But even here, the surroundings speak of wealth and intimacy with power; the sketches on the walls are by Winston Churchill, the floor is teak and the room is panelled with another glossy tropical hardwood. I found the Interview Guide really useful to prepare – I had a much better idea of the way interviewers ask their questions; and the fact that they are more interested in my thought process than the exact answer. One question we forbid all our interviewers from asking is “why did you choose this college?” It would disadvantage open applicants – but also, we’re not sure we could glean any helpful information from the answer. Here's our database of first-hand student interview experiences. Twenty-four years after I took the coach up the M40 for my Oxford interview, I can still recall the terror. The “winter pool” is a third option – neither a straightforward offer nor an outright rejection. Which is very different to how we are taught in China, so it is certainly very helpful for me!”, Yiang Chen, 3rd Yr Physics, Jesus College, “My grades weren’t all A*s, I went to a bog-standard northern comprehensive and I wasn’t on any sports teams or in any orchestras! If I took any given question you might ask me outside of the context of our conversation it could be made to seem weird. In contrast, motivation for choosing the subject is very important. After I finished … For example, the best answers to questions like this are answers based around the subject, the course, the college, and the subject the tutors at that college specialize in. Most candidates will have a reasonable understanding that viruses are essentially parasitic genetic entities, but the interviewers are not really looking for factual knowledge. It contains different questions about the study of language, phonemes, and the theory of language. These sessions work on the skills required for a successful interview. Although a candidate’s ethnicity is generally evident from his or her name and the photograph in their file, there is never any overt discussion of race. Interview. With so many applicants with great grades, these questions provide the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your personality, creativity and thinking ability. Pick a place where you will enjoy living and working. Candidates invited for interview will have two interviews, each lasting 20-25 minutes. I interviewed him ahead of the publication of his latest Cambridge book, ‘Millennia of Language Change: Sociolinguistic Studies in Deep Historical Linguistics’. They will have to pay more than students from other parts of the UK who are given free or heavily subsidised tuition. For instance, the study of meaning draws on philosophy, the analysis of the speech signal uses methods from physics and engi… For natural sciences, the interview has a practical bent, with candidates tackling problems under the gaze of the tutor. It could also be used a resource for teachers to give practise interviews to prospective students. That is still out of kilter with the school system as a whole – just 7% of pupils in England attend private schools. The following article recently featured in The Daily Telegraph discusses “What it takes to make it to Oxbridge”. Use your personal statement with this aim in mind: to impress upon the admissions tutor that you are academically able, intellectually curious, enthusiastic and hardworking. Subject Interview Guides. And are they the same ones that captured your attention at the start of your career? In fact, it is the end point of a long, intensive process of evaluating candidates. Personal Statement and Application Review, Personal Statement and Application Review, Five things you should know about Oxbridge applications, A survivor’s guide to the Oxbridge interview, Record Oxbridge applications as students seek good value, Oxbridge best in the world for seven subjects. It’s not a barrier – it allows a reduced emphasis on other aspects of the application process such as the personal statement. The Gridiculous Theme by bavotasan.com. The session lasts one hour, the first 30 minutes of which takes the form of a one-to-one, subject specific mock interview, followed by a 30 minutes of feedback and discussion. The main room in which the pool takes place is Clough Hall, an elegant banqueting room with a minstrels’ gallery and a ceiling decorated with plaster mouldings of flowers and heraldic beasts. Applications from English students are up by 1.7 per cent to 36,051. The college that has invited you to interview will make the necessary arrangements and will let you know what they are. Don’t rely on public transport. MS: The extra tests give a fuller sense of the type of academic, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills the students will need for the course itself. It is used most frequently about private and grammar schools, but also some comprehensive schools, and has a double meaning. University of Cambridge Medicine Interview Questions. Budding philosophers, linguists, mathematicians and historians can do no better than head to Oxbridge to study, new research suggests. However many very, very bizarre Oxford and Cambridge interview questions have been asked. “Looking at the personal statement for medicine, it’s important that they have a range of activities and, particularly, that they have done a serious level of volunteering – handing out teas in a hospice, working with disabled children. Download a sample page from our Physics Guide here. Format. Undergraduates can get involved in college-based sport, music or drama. Maria covers research at the intersection of language, psychology, and society for ALTA Language Services. We will begin inviting selected applicants to attend … The Sutton Trust, the charity that aims to promote social mobility through education, blames the unequal outcomes between state and private candidates at university level on the poor exam performance of some schools. You can file an open application, but more and more people are applying to a specific college. Interview information: Cambridge UK remote interviews will be held on various dates from 4th to 18th December. Example Oxbridge Interview Questions. They might be teenagers who have done well at interview, but whose academic performance seems patchy. I f we invite you for interview in Cambridge, you normally have two interviews in early December, one of them with the Director of Studies in Linguistics. It is certainly not as physically daunting as some of the grand and ancient buildings in the city centre. That’s a very good example. If you are called for an interview, you will sit the CLT while in Cambridge for your interview. Between them, Oxford and Cambridge are the top universities in the world for seven disciplines, according to a new league table. Next to Partington is a steel trolley with the applicants’ files. Interview. The interview is a piece of the jigsaw – it doesn’t overrule it. Something like one quarter of students are at colleges they didn’t choose. Linguistics in Cambridge. Cambridge Engineering Interview Questions. We specialise in preparing students for their Cambridge interview: improving their confidence, speaking and ability to give strong answers under pressure. 2x interviews (2 interviewers each; 1 interview was 25 mins, the other 35 mins); 1x test (1 hour) Interview content. This is someone who’s been working far above the level of his cohort from an early age.” Outside school, he has displayed an interest in the subject he is applying for – it is such a small course that naming it risks identifying him – through work experience at a university in London, and extensive reading. Linguistics is a currently a relatively small subject in the University as a whole, with student numbers on the general introductory courses generally in the vicinity of 20 and the more advanced courses being smaller. Getting your Personal Statement right is essential to securing your interview. They should submit the essay they are most confidant talking about and going further with. Discussing the winter pool in Clough Hall, Newnham College Academics considering applicants from the winter pool in Clough Hall, Newnham College. Some specimen questions are available here: Specimen written test 1; Specimen written test 2 There is a despairing consensus around the table that the university cannot repair the gaps in this candidate’s knowledge. 7. The following article recently featured in The Daily Telegraph discusses “A survivor’s guide to the Oxbridge interview”. Cambridge Veterinary Interview Questions. Cambridge will also ask you to fill out a Supplementary Application Form, which will include details of your module scores and an “additional information” section. Maria studied Russian Translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Learn more in the Cambridge English-Japanese Dictionary. 1. The academics leaf through coloured spreadsheets with the candidates’ names, their exam performance to date, predicted grades, interview scores, contextual flags and ranking – based on exam performance – compared with all of the university’s applicants this year. We asked Mike Sewell, the new director of admissions at Cambridge, and Peter Claus, the first full-time access don at an Oxford college, what students need to know to maximise their chances. Application. As the wind shakes the bare branches of trees outside, the academics discuss an interviewee from a sixth-form college. To get a head start with your interview prep here are some of the most common questions and how to answer them. But as the deadline for applications approaches (October 15) don’t be put off by the Brideshead stereotypes. But if you have good grades and feel able to take a pragmatic approach to your Oxbridge application, why not give it a go? She has a 92% mark in her chemistry A-level. Was there really ever an interviewee who, when the don said “Surprise me!”, set fire to his newspaper? Partington wonders aloud if tutors can lead a student through an entire degree. Interviews have been used for decades in empirical inquiry across the social sciences as one or the primary means of generating data. Cambridge tests are also less centralised – not all colleges set tests, and those that do (which depends on the staff’s preference, not how competitive or prestigious they are) often set their own. Interview: Personal statement discussion, dataset interpretation. Interview 1: general motivations, discussion questions, linguistic analysis exercises; Interview 2: general motivations, personal statement, linguistic analysis exercises This is borne out by his results – he has four A*s. For medicine, the tutors look for both a strong aptitude for science and the beginnings of a bedside manner. “There are many untrue myths about Oxford interviews,” says Professor David Clary, president of Magdalen College, Oxford. This does, of course, depend entirely on what one researches, but I would say that better information about our non-linguistic behavior as measured by eye-tracking, ERPs and EEGs gives us very interesting new insights into the relationship between language and cognition. For many people, the very word conjures up images of Sebastians and Julias in boaters and gowns, punting and drinking champagne. Read the information and watch the short films on Cambridge admissions interviews for an idea of what to expect when you come. I used a few different websites to prepare – and the Cambridge Interview Guide was really helpful in preparing in the weeks leading up to the interview. Don’t fire out the first thing that comes into your head. I got interviews from UC Santa Cruz, UPenn, Brown. It does better on state-school intake than Cambridge as a whole. Linked to the construction of narratives and the comparison of first and second language acquisition is my more general interest in cognitive versus linguistic determinants in language acquisition. The following article recently featured in The Daily Telegraph discusses “Record Oxbridge applications as students seek good value ”. Generally speaking, Oxford or Cambridge interview questions typically break down into four broad kinds. I realized (and so did the Department) that I did not know much about China, its culture or history, but mainly knew about the language. Click below to receive your Cambridge Interview Guide right now and you’ll be sent it in PDF format by email the same day so you can begin your preparation right away. The pool takes place in early January, around three weeks after the college decision meetings. Demand was also up by 1.8 per cent among European students, who pay the same fees as their British counterparts. I interviewed at Cambridge English Language Assessment (Cambridge, England (UK)) in May 2018. In history, Oxford was second behind Cambridge, with both institutions ahead of overseas universities including Princeton, the University of Chicago, Yale and Australian National University (ANU). We offer a range of free and premium services to give you the best chance of getting into Cambridge; click below for further details. I applied online. The process took 1 day. Outside, it is overcast. You will have one hour to answer one essay-based question. A silence descended over the dimly lit, oak-panelled study overlooking Merton’s crenellated, medieval walls; a silence occasionally punctuated by my scrambled attempts to remain in a fantasy shortist world, while not insulting either tutor. Do you think that getting involved in poverty abroad is interfering with others’ freedoms? “The school doesn’t know how to write a reference,” another comments. That failure at school level becomes painfully apparent in the case of one of the Churchill candidates. It led to a sharp drop in applications this year but the latest figures suggest that opposition to the higher fees regime is now beginning to soften. The other will be a more general academic interview with two other College Fellows who … This quiz is not only for BSED majoring in English but also to everyone, especially YOU!. Our Personal Statement Review will provide an objective and informed opinion of your statement as it currently stands. interview translate: 面接, インタビュー, （人）を面接する, （人）を取材する. The discussion session also gives you an opportunity to ask any questions about the course and life at Cambridge. These common Cambridge interview questions may seem ridiculously simple. “A good school” is a high-performing one. 4. It is very clear from our experience that there is a vast discrepancy in the amount of preparation candidates do before their Cambridge interview. The University of Cambridge is a very competitive school and unique, where all veterinary students are required to intercalate onto another degree in their third year, bringing the total course length to 6 years. Another candidate from a wide range of disciplines here relates only to those being considered for UK! Impossible questions which have been asked this in the world and attract students from other parts of pivotal... There any languages, natural or invented, that there is a modernist... Our personal statement Review will provide an objective and informed opinion of your statement as currently. Well as medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences – is October 15 ) don t. Admissions Assessment ( TSA ) page “ Helping you get into Cambridge? ” all the Cambridge gather! 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