In an attempt to explain the reasoning behind some of the stranger sounding questions, the University of Oxford have released a set of sample questions; for history, philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), modern languages, biological sciences and psychology, from tutors who conduct the interviews.
"Interviews are designed to give candidates a chance to show their real ability and potential," says Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Oxford University.
"This means candidates will be pushed to use their knowledge and apply their thinking to new problems in ways that will both challenge them and allow them to shine. Interviews are designed to get students to think, not recite specific facts or answers."
Subject: History
Interviewer: Stephen Tuck, Pembroke College
Q: Which person (or sort of person) in the past would you most like to interview, and why?
"Candidates know that this is not a right/wrong type question. The question is not so much about which person the candidate wants to meet, but what sort of issues the candidate wants to find out about, which can be quite revealing.
"Meeting" Elizabeth I or Winston Churchill might be exciting, but if the candidate wants to find out about, say, their leadership style, they might be better off asking questions of a courtier or member of the war cabinet.
"Sometimes we might encourage the candidate to think through whether the person they selected would be willing or able to reveal the information they sought (and we allow plenty of time for the candidate to change the issue they want to find out about, and reconsider their choice of person)."
Subject: Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Interviewer: Dave Leal, Brasenose College
Q: I'm having trouble with the meaning of three words: Lie, Deceive, Mislead. They seem to mean something a bit similar, but not exactly the same. Help me to sort them out from each other.
"When I used this question in the past, candidates adopted a number of strategies. One was to provide definitions of each of them – which turned out to be less easy than one might think without using the other words in the definition.
"Or they could be contrasted in pairs, or, like a good dictionary, examples might be given of sentences where they are used. No particular strategy was 'correct', and a variety of interesting discussions developed.
"Questions of this sort help us to test a candidate's capacity to draw nuanced distinctions between concepts, and to revise and challenge their own first moves in the light of different sentences containing the key words. 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.
"Those for whom English isn't a first language might be thought to be at a disadvantage, but they often do strikingly well at such questions, better indeed than’ native speakers."
Subject: Modern Languages
Interviewer: Helen Swift, St Hilda’s College
Q: What makes a short story different from a novel?
"To further their subject interest and to discover whether the Oxford Modern Languages course is a good fit for them, candidates are encouraged to try reading some literary texts in the foreign language. We know that most won't have studied literature formally before in the language for which they're applying, so this will be reading that they've undertaken independently. In that respect, short stories, such as those by Guy de Maupassant, are a good and a popular place to start: they're engaging, memorable and can feel quite approachable.
"The above isn't a question on which we'd necessarily have expected the candidate to have reflected already; it would be the beginning of a conversation, which would start by breaking down the question itself and building up an answer gradually.
"What might we want to think about in making such a comparison? What elements of plot design or structure or character presentation might differ? Are there, in fact, salient differences? Is it a valid opposition to make? We'd be looking for a willingness to try out new ways of thinking and an aptitude for thinking carefully and imaginatively through a perhaps initially unfamiliar issue."
Subject: Biological Sciences
Interviewer: Martin Speight, St Anne’s College
Q: Is it easier for organisms to live in the sea or on land?
"Firstly candidates should define "easier" – does it mean less complexity, less energy expenditure, less highly evolved, less likely to be eaten etc? Then candidates could think of problems caused by living in the sea, such as high salinity, high pressure, lack of light etc.
"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. I would then ask in which of the two ecosystems have animals and plants been more successful? So now they have to define "successful" ..."
Subject: Experimental Psychology
Interviewer: Miles Hewstone, New College
Q: Should interviews be used for selection?
"This question could come out of a discussion of errors and biases in human judgment – that we sometimes overlook some information, while attaching too much weight to other information; and we are often overconfident about the decisions we make.
"What sources of information might be used to select, for example, Oxford students? Why? How do we know that information is valid? What does validity even mean? Once we have chosen what information we will consider, how can we combine it? And what are we trying to predict? (What is the criterion?).
"How would you design a research study to see how well different sources of information do, in fact, predict how well we can select Oxford students? What would your study need to measure? Would there be a control group? If so, what kind of control group? What would you need to control for?"
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