University admissions interviews are infamously challenging and require students to showcase their problem-solving ability. Our comprehensive preparation programmes are designed by specialists and tailored for interviews in Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Physics, and Engineering.
Applicants to Oxford and Cambridge are required to attend interviews in late November or December as part of the admissions process. Aside from standard A Level/IB exams, interviews are usually the final hurdle in the admissions process, although Cambridge also requires Mathematics applicants to take STEP in June of Year 13.
A heavy emphasis is placed on creative mathematical problem solving, and interview questions are designed to require students to showcase their style of thought and mathematical flair. Communication is crucial as students must explain their thought process and engage with hints. The questions are designed to challenge even the strongest students, and the interviewer will want to see tenacity and perseverance.
In Mathematics interviews, problems are based on A Level/IB mathematics material, including second year content. The interviewer will be prepared to make adjustments if their question uses ideas a student hasn't yet studied. Applicants for Computer Science, Economics, Physics, and Engineering are also asked mathematical problems, but there may be some subject-specific questions.
Read our Interview Handbook to find out more about common topics or themes in Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering and Physics interviews.
Oxbridge Interviews
Interviews can be a particularly daunting aspect of the application process. It can be very difficult to know what to expect, find useful practice questions, and to master all-important interview technique. The Vantage Interview Preparation Programme has been designed in light of hundreds of real interview questions, and equip students with comprehensive preparation for every aspect of the interview. The Vantage Interview Preparation Programme consists of three key elements:
The Interview Primer Course is a course of pre-recorded lessons, designed to prepare students to answer Oxbridge interview questions. The course is available in four different versions, tailored for Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, and Physics and Engineering. It distills data from hundreds of real interviews into a compact course filled with crucial material. Six video lessons, each lasting approximately 90-120 minutes, provide a systematic and thorough introduction to a broad topic that frequently recurs in interviews. Detailed lesson notes are also provided. Each lesson is accompanied by a worksheet of original problems, designed to ensure mastery of the concepts taught in the lesson. There are over 150 original questions in total, with solutions that provide a thorough analysis of each question. The on-demand nature of the course enables students to work at their own pace. Students who study the Interview Primer Course frequently report that many of their interview questions were familiar.
Past Oxbridge interview questions are not publicly available, and many interview questions listed online are inauthentic in style, so it is difficult for students to practice questions of the right style and difficulty. We have collected a large number of authentic interview questions from a range of Oxford and Cambridge colleges, from Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics and Physics/Engineering interviews. Students on the Vantage Interview Preparation programme gain access to a sunject-specific question bank of 80+ questions, all of which have been asked in Oxbridge interviews in the past three years. The questions have been carefully selected to provide a representative sample of the appropriate difficulty, and good coverage of the main topics that tend to arise. We provide detailed solutions that carefully deconstruct the problems and walk the student through every aspect of the thought process required to solve them. The solutions also place the problems in context, clearly explaining how aspects of the questions could be varied in another problem, and how one might deal with these variations.
It is essential that interview candidates are experienced at verbally explaining their thought process to difficult maths problems. The Vantage Interview Preparation Programmes includes a mock interview experience, which consists of two 30-minute sessions, each followed by a 15-minute discussion for feedback and coaching in interview technique. Students are asked real interview questions from the past two years, tailored to their choice of university, college, and course. The interviewers are highly qualified members of the Vantage team, many of whom are real Oxbridge interviewers and/or Oxbridge supervisors. Our founding director has coached students who have gained admission to almost every Oxford and Cambridge undergraduate college. We recommend the most suitable interviewers for each student depending on their university and course choice. After each mock interview, students receive a written summary of feedback, including an estimation of score on a scale of 1.0-9.0.
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"Rowan from Vantage is the real deal, a rare blend of being a sufficiently brilliant mathematician to have a complete, deep and intuitive grasp on the difficult problems set in admissions tests, but also a great teacher who is able to explain the thought process in a way students can understand. I cannot recommend him highly enough."