The last week before your university admissions interviews. It’s the point where you’ll likely feel the most pressure, but there are still things you can do with this limited time to boost your interview performance. Â
Whether you’ve got interviews at Oxford, Cambridge, medical school or anywhere else, this guide will help you identify all the steps you can take to improve your confidence, perfect your talking points and keep yourself calm and collected before the big day. Let’s get started!
What To Do Before Your Interviews
There are many things you can do in the last week before your interviews, and the best use of your time will vary depending on the subject you’re applying for. However, these are tips that will be beneficial to everyone regardless of where you’re applying to and what you’re applying for.Â
Re-Read Your Personal Statement
You should be very familiar with your UCAS Personal Statement, but it will have been a while since you’ve properly gone through it if you’re applying to Oxbridge or Medicine. Your interviewers will not only have read your statement but will have it to hand to ask you about it. You won’t have the same luxury, so you’ll need to ensure you remember everything you mentioned in it to maintain consistency in your responses.Â
Your Personal Statement may not always come up in your interviews. In particular, Oxford and Cambridge normally don’t place too much importance on the Personal Statement, so they’ll be less likely to ask about it. However, even if you’re not asked about your statement directly, it’s still good to keep your discussion points consistent with what you wrote for your application. Â
Follow The News
This will be more helpful in some subjects than others, but everyone can benefit from being aware of the latest stories within their chosen subject. Admissions tutors at universities, especially Oxbridge, look for applicants who are fully engrossed in their subject via wider reading. This includes following the latest developments in the field. Â
As an example, if you’re applying to study PPE, you need to ensure you have an understanding of any major political stories from the last week or so before your first interview. If it’s medicine, then be sure to read up on the latest studies and developments within healthcare.Â
However, it’s not just about knowing the stories but forming thoughts and opinions of your own, too. Interviewers don’t ask about current affairs just to keep you on your toes; they want to have actual conversations about the topics. If you don’t have anything to say about the matter other than the facts, it indicates that you’re not actually that interested and haven’t given the topic any thought. Plus, you may be asked to analyse a written source on the spot, so this kind of preparation will help you not get caught out.Â
To help you be fully prepared for your interviews, start conversations with your peers and family about these topics. If they aren’t knowledgeable about what you’re talking about, try to educate them based on your understanding. If they do know about it, it’s a great chance to have a friendly conversation or debate. These are the kinds of conversations that interviewers love to have with applicants.Â
Revise The Subject Content
Not all subjects will require you to be prepared for too many specific subject-relevant questions, but applicants for STEM subjects should be prepared to solve problems and discuss academic knowledge.
This is particularly true for Oxbridge interviews, where interviews for subjects like Engineering, Natural Sciences, Maths and Computer Science will require you to solve complex problems in a variety of contexts.Â
Rather than just revising your knowledge and skills, try to practice in the context of an interview when answering questions. Aim to be concise and verbally explain your reasoning and process with others to ensure you can answer the questions effectively at the interviews.Â
Plan Your Interview Days
Before the day of your interview, you should have planned out all the logistics of attending to ensure there are not issues or surprises. This applies to both in-person and remote interviews, thought the considerations will differ in some ways. Some of the top things to plan include:Â
- Confirm the exact time and date of the interview.
- Find out where you are going/double check the meeting room link.
- Find out how long it takes to get there if travel is required.
- Plan what time you will get up so have amble time to get ready.
- Pick your outfit and make sure it’s clean (it doesn't need to be too formal though).
- Pack a bag to ensure you have everything you need (food, water, requirements for overnight stays).
Some interviews may be spread across multiple days. If this is the case, you will usually be provided with accommodation, though you will still need to base your plans around this stay and ensure you have everything you need. Â
These things may seem minor, but being late and ill-presented for your interview can make for a terrible first impression – something hard to come back from. Make sure you get there with plenty of time to get yourself ready before the interview – you don’t want to appear flustered.
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What NOT To Do Before Your Interviews
We’ve seen the ways you can improve your final week of preparation before your interviews, but here are some things that you absolutely shouldn’t do in this time!
Non-Stop Preparation
Whether you started preparing early or left it to the last minute, the worst thing you can do is go too far with your preparation to the point that you burn out and lose all motivation. Interview preparation is stressful, but piling it all into one week will not help you improve significantly.Â
In fact, it will likely have the opposite effect, making you constantly doubt yourself and rethink your strategy. This last week should be about cementing the work you’ve done thus far, but it’s also important to keep your morale up so that you actually want to get to these interviews and meet your potential future teachers.Â
The key is to find the right balance between working hard to ensure you’re at a good place in time for the interview day while also feeling relaxed, happy and well-rested. The best way to achieve this is to set limits to how many hours of prep you do each day, implement regular breaks during it and keep the day before the interview stress-free by relaxing and having some fun.Â
Reinvent Yourself
When attending an interview, it’s extremely difficult to be 100% yourself. You need to demonstrate the best parts of yourself, but no one is perfect so some level of adjustment is usually required to present yourself in the best light.Â
However, that doesn’t mean you need to fully reinvent yourself to become the ideal candidate. If you’ve been invited to an interview, the admissions team already see potential in you as an applicant. If you’re passionate and knowledgeable about your subject, all you need to do is be able to effectively show that.Â
While personality may play a small role for interviewers, it’s not the primary reason you’re there. They want to know that you’re capable of studying at the university, that you’re able to work cooperatively in a team and that you’re going to be able to have a positive impact during your time there. If all of that’s the case, then you’ll be a good match for them.Â
Script All Your Answers
When preparing for your interviews, you’ll likely spend a good amount of time running through the most common interview questions, as well as some of the harder ones. If you’re really on top of things, you may also be looking at examples of weird or uncommon interview questions that have been previously asked.
This all is great preparation for your interviews, but what you shouldn’t do is write answer scripts for all of the questions that could come up. There are multiple reasons why this isn’t a good idea:Â
- No specific question is ever guaranteed to come up in your interviews.
- Saying an answer that you've scripted and practiced a hundred times will make you sound much less natural and more robotic.
- If you spent mental energy trying to remember exactly what your wrote down, you'll be more like to freeze up or start to ramble.
- Scripting your answers won't prepare you for unexpected follow up questions or twists to the original question.
Instead of scripting, the best way to approach structuring your answers is to make a list of the key points you need to cover and a rough order of how you’ll approach them (only if needed for the sake of flow). Remember key information is much easier than a full script, so you’ll be less likely to miss crucial information and will have more opportunity to sound natural and adapt to any unexpected elements.Â
If you do need a second to think, that’s allowed! It’s only natural to take a second before you answer to consider everything you need to bring up, so don’t be afraid to. Plus, if you find yourself stuck in a question and haven’t got anything prepared, be sure to think out loud rather than sitting in silence. You may not immediately say the best thing, but it will give the admissions tutors a good insight into how you think and act in stressful situations.Â
That concludes our guide to last-minute interview preparation. We hope you’ve found this useful and that you’ll be able to able to make the most of the last few days you have available.Â
If you’re reading this with a bit more time before your interviews, we’d recommend checking out our Interview Preparation Programmes, which include comprehensive support through one-to-one tuition, live courses, extensive materials and much more. Enrolling onto our programme will ensure you’re ready for your interviews without the last-minute stress, so discover our programmes today here.Â
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