UCGS KS5 UCAS and
Futures Mock
Interview and Subject
Questions Booklet
A collection of potential general and subject
specific questions that may be asked at
university interviews.
Useful also for demonstrating motivation,
suitability and commitment for a chosen
course when preparing personal
statements.
Please remember to make a note of interview questions
and let us know so that we can keep this document upto-date for future applicants.
Top Tips
Not all institutions conduct interviews although there are some courses which always require interviews,
such as medicine, dentistry, teaching, etc. Arts and drama courses usually require an interview but these
tend to be less formal and more a discussion of portfolios or a performance. If you have researched the
course and the institution, you will know if you are likely to be called for interview. Try to arrange a mock
interview in advance with a subject specialist and perhaps another with your tutor or a member of the KS5
team.
Assume nothing Remind yourself of the course content before you go in and prepare some specific
questions – even courses with the same name may differ radically
Have ideas, opinions, input Silence is not golden
Re-read your personal statement What you’ve written is very likely to shape the line of the tutor’s
questioning
Read over your A-Level subject notes You may be asked why you took a particular A-Level or what parts of
your A-Levels you enjoy or why you 'dropped' your fourth AS
Read a quality newspaper or magazine related to your subject Interviewers may ask for your opinions on
current affairs or developments in your field
Prepare answers for common questions For example, why do you want to study this course or at this
university? Know the specialisms of each university and the structure of the course. Avoid flattery or gloryseeking, such as 'I want to come here because your univeristy is so high up in the league tables'... this is not
why they want you to apply to their university!
Plan your journey Take into account rush hour traffic and finding the room/building so you arrive in plenty
of time
Dress appropriately Smart casual is the standard expected: avoid excessive jewellery, hair products, makeup and have neat and tidy hair and comfortable, clean shoes
Arrive early Have the university's contact details with you just in case you are delayed
Offer a smile and a firm, confident hand shake at the start and end of the interview
Turn off your mobile Even on silent, the vibration can be distracting!
Be aware of your body language Look at the interviewer, make eye contact and try to smile from time to
time
Be enthusiastic about your course Make sure you get your interest in the course across to the interviewer
Take your time with questions Don’t feel pressured to answer immediately, take a little while to develop
your answers to avoid saying the first thing that comes into your head
Say if you don’t understand a question Interviewers don’t expect you to know everything and will often
prompt you or rephrase a question if you ask
Give full answers The interviewer is trying to find out about you, so make sure you tell them something.
Don’t waffle just to make your answers longer though
Don’t try to bluff questions Admissions tutors will know a lot more about their subject than you will. If you
don’t know the answer to a question be honest and admit it
Listen to the interviewer Answer the questions asked rather than the ones you’ve prepared for
Use plenty of eye contact equally split between everybody who interviews you
Don’t take a seat until you are invited to do so
Use your hands to punctuate what you are saying, but avoid either gesticulating too wildly (another
distraction!) or too little (can make you seem nervous!)
Be specific Always try to relate your answers to actual examples: offer anecdotes of experiences you have
had. Anyone can say 'I'm a team player' or 'I'm well organised', but not everyone can offer specific
examples of successes in these areas. Refer to your CAS experiences as a starting point to demonstrate
your skills.
You are likely to be asked searching and challenging questions at interview! Some of these will be shorter
questions testing your passion for and interest in your chosen subject. They may ask you softer questions
about things you have written in your Personal Statement. They may ask more general questions to see if
you read the newspapers or books.
They may also ask more involving questions, such as ‘Tell me about a time where you make a contribution
to a team’s success.’ The best method to making sure you achieve this is to structure your answers in the
following way:
SPAR
Situation – What is the situation you were in? What was the challenge or problem that you were
addressing? Were you working on your own, or as part of a team? Were there deadlines? Were there
issues with other people or processes?
Position – What was the position you had? Were you the leader or working under somebody else? It’s
important that you make clear what your role was, because otherwise it may not be clear what you
personally did, as opposed to the team as a whole.
Action – What decisions or changes were made? How did you convince others to follow you? What was
your reasoning behind why you pushed for this action? What was the expected outcome and impact?
Result – what impact did the action have? Was it a success? What did you learn from the process?
General interview questions
Why have applied for this course?
Why have you applied to this University?
Tell me about your school subjects.
What grades do you expect to get?
What is your strongest subject?
Why have you applied for deferred entry?
What plans have you got for your year off?
What did you do in your year off and what did you learn from it?
Tell me about yourself.
What do you do in your spare time?
How do you relax?
How do you organise yourself?
What books do you read?
What are your musical interests?
What sports do you like?
What is the outside interest you would most like to pursue at university?
How did you become a senior prefect at school, and what did it entail?
What did you do for your D of E Award?
What did you do for your Young Enterprise programme?
Tell us about your work experience - what have you learned from it?
Tell us about your part time job - what have you learned from this?
What have you got to offer this course?
Why do you think we should accept you?
What are your qualities and what are your "bad" points? (Your strengths and weaknesses)
If you have a problem, how do you cope with it?
What are your main ambitions?
What are your career aims?
What challenges are you looking for?
What do you think about student loans and about student finance generally?
Will you be living in halls or at home?
What makes you angry or upset?
What makes you happy? What makes you sad?
Do you consider yourself to be a perfectionist?
What do you think makes a good friend?
What do you think is going to be your biggest challenge at university?
What is management?
What is leadership?
What are the key qualities of a good leader?
Who has had a major influence on you as a person?
What is your greatest achievement?
What are you most proud of?
How do you cope with criticism?
How do you cope with conflict?
Tell me about a situation where you were a leader.
Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a team member and how you tried to resolve the situation.
How would your teachers describe you as a student?
How would your teachers describe you as a member of the school community?
Tell me about a time you failed and how you dealt with that situation.
Tell me about the last book you read? What book would you recommend I read?
What has been the most interesting news story you have followed recently?
What have you learned from any positions of responsibility you have held?
Are you good at working on your own?
Who in your subject area do you admire?
Why is it important that people study this particular subject?
Can you tell me about current developments in your subject? Which are of particular interest to you and
why?
What do you think you can offer this university?
What do you think univeristy can offer you?
What have you learned from the extra-curricular activities you have participated in?
Tell me about a situation where you were under a lot of pressure and how you coped.
How do you typically approach a task or project?
What interests you about our curriculum?
How do you cope with and manage independent study? Provide examples.
Tell me about a team you were in and what was your contribution.
Tell me about a group activity you have organised.
Tell me about a non-academic project you have been involved in.
What qualities do you have that others value in you?
How do you go about learning something?
Is there anything you would like to ask?
Medicine interview questions
Why do you want to be a doctor?
Why do you want to study medicine?
What steps have you taken to find out if medicine is the right career for you?
What have you read or experienced to prepare for entry into medicine?
Do you know what it is like to be a medical student?
What are the pros and cons of being a doctor?
What are you looking forward to the most and the least about becoming a doctor?
What do you know about our course? Why does it suit you?
What do doctors do apart from treating patients?
Tell us about your work experience.
What challenged you most during your work experience? Did this experience indicate that perhaps you are
not cut out for medicine?
What new insights did you obtain?
What new skills did you obtain?
Describe one event that made a strong positive impression on you.
Describe one event that jarred you.
Describe one event, which you observed or played some part in, where poor communication affected
events. What did you learn from that?
Why have you chosen this Medical School?
When did you first decide you wanted to become a doctor?
What types of career do you think medicine offers?
What are the disadvantages of medicine as a career?
After qualifying as a doctor, how do you go on to become a consultant?
Can you tell me what an elective is?
What is a physician?
Why medicine? Why not nursing or another healthcare profession?
How important is research? Why?
What qualities do you have that would contribute to this medical school?
What steps have you taken to ensure you will be suited to a medical career?
How will you deal with the commitment needed for a medical degree course?
Do you think medicine is stressful? How will you cope with the pressures?
How is general practise different from hospital medicine?
Are you more of a scientist or someone who likes working with people?
What do you want to achieve in your medical career?
What would you do if someone in your team was not pulling their weight?
What would you do if your patient disagreed with your advice?
How would you feel treating a child with a terminal illness?
If you accidentialy killed a patient, how would you get over it?
How would you make a patient feel less scared?
If you had the choice between being a GP, a surgeon or a physician, which would you choose?
When have you shown leadership?
When have you worked as part of team?
Have you ever been part of a team when the objectives were not met? Why was this? What did you learn
from this experience?
What are your strengths? Who benefits from your strengths?
What are your weaknesses? Who is affected by your weaknesses?
Do you think medicine is a glamorous career?
What do patients complain most about regarding doctors?
How have people's attitudes towards doctors changed in the last 15 years?
Do you have a pessimistic or optimistic view of health care in this country?
How did your work experience prepare you for medicine?
Tell us about your voluntary work.
Describe a particular patient you saw on work experience / voluntary work.
What medical issues have you read about in the news lately?
Have you recently read an article about health or medicine that interested you? Tell us about it.
Have there been any ethical issues in the news recently?
What medical breakthroughs have taken place in the last 100 years?
Name and discuss advances in medicine that have taken place in the last 5 years.
What medical advances do you think will happen in the next 10 years?
How do you think chemistry, biology or maths has influenced medicine in the last 20 years?
Do you know how genetic engineering works?
What ethical problems can you see arising from genetic selection against disease?
What would you see as the pros and cons arising from the internet both for doctors and patients?
Where does money for the NHS come from? How much is spent annually on the NHS?
What do you think about the present state of the NHS? What do you think about privatising it?
If you had £100 billion to spend on third world health, what would you spend it on?
How do you think a surgeon decides who deserves any operation?
Is it ethical to treat a patient who drinks/smokes/takes drugs/is obese?
What are the biggest challenges facing the health service today?
What do you think is the most exciting development on the medical horizon?
Is it right to treat one person, and not another? Justify your answer.
Define empathy. When would a doctor need to show it?
Are you an empathetic person?
Do you agree with testing cosmetics on animals?
Should class A drugs be legalised?
What is your favourite topic in biology? Why do you find it so interesting?
What is the function of the skull? Why do new-born babies not have their skulls fully fused?
Describe the structure of the heart.
How does oxygen get from the air to your toes?
What makes the body reject donated organs?
Why is an old person's long term memory better than their short term memory?
What will you do if you don't receive any offers this year to study medicine?
What is management?
What is leadership?
What are the key qualities of a good leader?
Do you think doctors should ever go on strike?
Do you think it is right for carers to encourage relatives to go to Switzerland for euthanasia?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?
What is holistic medicine?
How important is information technology in medicine?
As a doctor, who would you regard as part of the team?
How important is teaching in the medical profession?
Who should a doctor teach?
What are the extended roles of nurses in health care?
Does the bulk of medical care occur in the community or in the hospital?
Why is research important in medicine?
What type of research would you be interested in doing?
What do you know about PBL (problem based learning)? How does it compare to other forms of learning?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of PBL?
How good are your organisational skills?
Do you have the personality that it takes to do medicine?
Who has had a major influence on you as a person?
Describe a time when you made a life-changing decision.
Give an example of a time when you held an opinion, but had to change your view.
What is the worst mistake that you have made?
This course requires a great deal of independent study - how will you manage?
What are the causes of obesity and how can we stop the obesity crisis?
What is the standard of health like in your area?
What is the difference between a heart attack and a stroke?
What are the implications for doctors of a rising population?
What treatment can doctors offer to the very old?
Who is the Secteray of State for Health? What would you do if you had to take over this role?
Did anything in your work experience surprise you?
What do you think is going to be your biggest challenge at university?
Give an example of when you have dealt with a traumatic situation.
How would you cope with the death of a patient?
What do think patients in A&E feel like?
What is evidence-based care?
How should healthcare be funded?
What does the phrase "inequalities in healthcare" mean to you?
Should the NHS fund non-essential surgery?
How do you solve the problem of transplant organ shortage?
Do you think it is right for doctors to have conferences, training sessions and study material sponsored by
pharmaceutical companies?
Should doctors have a role in regulating contact sports such as boxing?
How does politics influence healthcare decisions?
Do you think it is right to allow private healthcare to run alongside the NHS?
What is the future of transplants?
How would you make hospitals more friendly?
What are the issues to be taken into acount with physical contact?
Do you think people can "think themselves better?" If so, what is the mechanism for this?
If a child came to you with an injury, and the parents say she fell, how would you check there was no
problem with abuse at home?
Why problem based learning?
Name some strategies for addressing the problem of smoking among teens.
Would you perform abortions if it were against your religion?
Does a doctor have an obligation to be visibly fit and well, for example not obese?
Tell me about a meaningful experience you have had and how it shaped you.
If you were in an exam and you saw a student cheating, what would you do?
How can the media affect the public?
How are doctors and medicine portrayed in the media?
What are the major problems with scientific research other than the success and failure?
Sum up in one sentence what makes a good doctor.
What do you think are the pros and cons of making information available to other hospitals and doctors
when an error occurs by a doctor which may have resulted in the death of a patient, or may have been due
to errors in teaching or common practice in a hospital?
What are you views on the use of powdered milk in developing countries?
Why would a PBL course suit you?
Whose safety comes first, yours or the patient's?
What do you think of people who use their mobile phones on public transport?
Prove to us that you are a kind person.
What would do at 2am after a night shift in A&E to relax?
What are your views on euthanasia?
Should a smoker be given a lung transplant?
Should an alcoholic be given a liver transplant?
What motivates you?
What will you be doing as a medical student this time next year?
What is the difference between primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare?
What are the implications of an aging population on the NHS?
What problems do the elderly face and what are the solutions?
Should a patient's family or partner have the right to know their condition?
What is gene therapy and can you give some examples?
How is rejection prevented in transplants?
What is vivisection and what are your views on it?
Is it justified to refuse a hip operation to an obese patient who has no medical reason for their obesity?
Why do you think so many people drop out of medicine courses?
What are the advantages of nurses being the first contact in primary care?
What are the arguments for and against non-essential surgey on the NHS?
What are the government's priorities in health care? What are your thoughts on this?
How has the doctor's role changed over the last 50 years?
What does 'inequalities in health' mean to you?
Why do people in the North of England live less that people in the South of England?
What are the arguments for and against people paying for their own health care when they need it?
What is the greatest threat to the UK's population?
What issues do doctors have to consider in deciding to turn off life support systems?
Should the donor system be opt-in or opt-out?
Is it better to give health care or aid to developing countries?
What are your views on Medicine Sans Frontiers?
What are the major concerns for people with long term health problems, e.g. breathing?
Should alternative or complementary medicine be funded by the NHS?
What is your weakest subject at the moment? How do you plan to overcome this to get the grades
you need?
Accountancy interview questions
What is the difference between a certified and a mangement accountant?
What is accountancy?
Why does this career interest you?
Why do you want to do this degree, rather than a business studies degree?
If you can become an accountant after any degree, why do you want to specialise now?
What is auditing?
What is management consultancy?
Who is to blame for the credit crunch?
Have you looked at any professional body web sites? What did you find out?
What did the firm you visited on your work experience do? Who were its clients?
What is your back up to this course?
Do you know what you have to do after your degree to qualify?
Actuary interview questions
What does an actuary do?
Why do you want to be an actuary?
What are your favourite areas of maths and why?
What did you learn from your work experience with the pensions company?
What are the organisations responsible for regulating the UK financial system?
How does an aging population affect the pensions industry?
What are the insurance implications of higher levels of car crime in some inner city areas?
From your A level maths studies, can you think of a possible statistical method to help us calculate car
insurance premiums?
Anthropology interview questions
Why anthropology?
Have any of your A Level subjects influenced your interest and why?
What do you read when you are not studying?
Do all societies have heroes?
Why do we need laws?
How has life changed for men in the last 50 years?
Why do some societies try to impose their values and beliefs on to others?
What are the primary societies studied by anthropologists?
What impact has globalisation had on anthropological studies?
Do normal people in different societies really live such different lives from one another?
Have humans stopped evolving?
Archaeology interview questions
Why do you want to do a course in Archaeology?
Do people learn from history?
Why should money be spent on archaeology when medicine needs so much?
How can we date artefacts? Are there any other methods besides radiocarbon dating?
What are the arguments for and against keeping the Parthenon Marbles (Elgin) at the
British Museum?
What countries have you travelled to and what did you learn?
Have you visited any archaeological sites? What did you learn from the visit?
Architecture interview questions
Why architecture?
How long have you wanted to be an architect?
Architecture is under paid and over worked - so why do you want to go into it?
Schools of architecture each have their own strengths and specialites - why have you chosen to apply to
ours?
Are there any buildings that have particularly inspired you?
Do you have a favourite contemporary architect? Who and why?
Describe a building you like - of any style or period.
What do you know about the architectural styles of the 18th and 19th centuries ie neoclassicism, Gothic
revival and romantic architecture?
Describe the front of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Have you read any books about architecture? Which ones?
How have you tried to broaden your knowledge and understanding of architecture?
Do you think your A Levels are revelant to studying architecture?
Do you think new skyscrapers in London have enhanced the beauty of the city? If so, why? If not, why not?
How do you think office blocks should be designed?
Do you have anything against buildings showing their structures outwardly?
Finland has a much higher percentage of women architects than Britain. Why do you think that is?
Why are you interested in landscape architecture?
Do you think community landscaping is important? Why?
Arts interview questions
At interview, the focus is most likely to be on your portfolio so you must ensure it is as complete, detailed
and comprehensive as possible. Demonstrate your broad range of skills.
Tell me about artists who have influenced your work.
What do you think you will learn my this course?
Tell me about the piece of work in your portfolio you are most proud of / you think is the most successful
piece of work, and explain why.
Tell me about the piece of work in your portfolio you are least proud of / you think is the least successful
piece of work, and explain why.
You may be asked to present a digital portfolio in advance for some courses
Oxbridge interview questions
Which person (or sort of person) in the past would you most like to
interview, and why?
Describe your school from an anthropological perspective.
Compare music to architecture. (A student was pushed to answer
questions on this topic for 20 mins.)
How do you think science and art link together?
Is it easier for organisms to live in the sea or on land?
Why do many animals have stripes?
If you could save either the rainforests or the coral reefs, which would
you choose?
Why do lions have manes?
Would it matter if tigers became extinct?
Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it.
Why do cats' eyes appear to glow in the dark?
Is humanity destined to repeat the mistakes of history?
Do you think Feminism is dead?
Do you think it is right for a country to fight another one in self defence?
Is there a link between Greek and Japanese culture?
If there was an omnipotent god would he be able to create a stone that
he couldn’t lift?
Would Ovid’s chat-up line work?
Why is the sky blue?
How would you market a rock band?
What would you do to overcome the language and cultural difficulties
after merger?
Describe this saucer to me as if I wasn’t in the room.
Would I be justified in saying that only morons play sport?
Define 'greed'.
How many petrol stations are there in America?
What challenges do you think you would be facing as a formula 1
engineer in 10 years time?
How small can you make a computer?
What would happen if you drilled through the Earth all the way to the
other side and then jumped into the hole?
How do you think you could calculate the number of calories that you
have burnt after you have gone for a run?
How would you design a gravity dam for holding back water?
Do you think children's literature should be studied at university level?
Why might it be useful for an English student to read the Twilight
series?
If it could take a form, what shape would the novel To the Lighthouse
become?
Is ‘Taggart’ an accurate portrayal of Glasgow?
Course
History
Archaeology and Anthropology,
Cambridge
Architecture, Cambridge
Architecture, Cambridge
Biological Sciences
Biological Sciences, Oxford
Biological Sciences, Oxford
Biological Sciences, Oxford
Biological Sciences, Oxford
Biological sciences, Oxford.
Biomedical Sciences, Oxford
Classical archaeology and ancient
history, Cambridge
Classics, Cambridge
Classics, Cambridge
Classics, Cambridge
Classics, Oxford
Classics, Oxford
Earth Sciences, Oxford
Economics and Management,
Oxford
Economics and management,
Oxford
Economics, Cambridge
Economics, Cambridge
Economics, Cambridge
Economics, Oxford
Engineering science, Oxford
Engineering, Cambridge
Engineering, Cambridge
Engineering, Cambridge
Engineering, Oxford
English Lang and Lit, Cambridge
English Literature, OXford
English, Oxford
English, Oxford
Would you rather be a novel or a poem?
J K Rowling published a book for adults after the hugely sucesssful Harry
Potter series. In what ways is writing for adults different to writing for
children?
Was Shakespeare a rebel?
Should interviews be used for selection?
English, Oxford
Can a thermostat think?
Experimental Psychology, Oxford
Does a snail have a consciousness?
Experimental Psychology, Oxford
How many monkeys would you use in an experiment?
Experimental Psychology, Oxford
Why do human beings have two eyes?
Is Wittgenstein always right?
Do you believe that statues can move, and how might this belief be
justified?
Experimental Psychology, Oxford
French and Philosophy, Oxford
If I were to visit the area where you live, what would I be interested in?
What did you notice about vegetation on the side of the A34 Newbury
bypass which you used to get here today?
Do you think the Bavarian peasants of 1848 had an ideology?
Is there a connection between Britain’s 'euro-skepticism' and its
obsession with teaching about Nazism?
Was it more detrimental or beneficial to Elizabeth 1's image to align
herself with the virgin Mary?
How do you organise a successful revolution?
Explain the social behaviour of bees.
Why do few Americans believe in evolution?
Is the environment a bigger crisis than poverty/AIDS etc?
If my friend locks me in a room, and says I am free to come out
whenever I like as long as I pay £5, is this a deprivation of liberty?
If a wife had expressed distaste for it previously, would her husband’s
habit of putting marmalade in his egg at breakfast be grounds for
divorce?
Do you think courts are like theatres?
Geography, Oxford
English, Oxford
English, Oxford
Experimental Psychology
French and Philosophy, Oxford
Geography, Oxford
History, Cambridge
History, Cambridge
History, Cambridge
History, Oxford
Human sciences, Oxford
Human sciences, Oxford
Land Economy, Cambridge
Law, Cambridge
Law, Cambridge
Law, Cambridge
Should judges be able to over-rule decisions made by parliament?
Law, Cambridge
A man, who is stuck in a burning house calls to you and offers to pay you
a lot of money if you save him. However, upon saving him, he refuses to
pay you this money - can you sue him?
Law, Cambridge
What is the difference between a rule, a command and a request?
What is the meaning of life?
What effect on the whole of society does someone crashing into a
lamppost have?
Compare these bottles of Tesco and Timotei shampoo?
What does it mean for someone to take another's car?
Law, Cambridge
Law, Cambridge
Law, Oxford
Law, Oxford
Law, Oxford
If a bank manager tells me I have £100 in my account when I actually
have £90, and I go out and spend £100 thinking I have that amount, who
is at fault and should I have to pay the money back to the bank?
If a man was in prison and dying, would it be right to kill him and give his
organs to other people?
You’re in a desert and 2 enemies are working independently. One
poisons your water bottle, the other then tips the water out (not
knowing it was poisoned). You walk out into the desert and die of thirst.
Which one is guilty of murder?
Would you trade your scarf for my bike, even if you have no idea what
state it's in or if I even have one?
Do you think that teaching a child their first language is the same as
teaching someone a second language?
What colour is that notice board?
If we have 25 people, what is the likelihood that at least one of them is
born in each month of the year?
Why is it a disadvantage for humans to have two legs?
Law, Oxford
Law, Oxford
Law, Oxford
Law, Oxford
Linguistics, Cambridge
Mathematics and Philosophy,
Oxford
Maths, Oxford
Medicine, Cambridge
How would you poison someone without the police finding out?
Medicine, Cambridge
If I were a grapefruit, would I rather be seedless or non-seedless?
How would you measure the weight of your own head?
At what point is a person "dead"?
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Cambridge
How can reindeer tell the difference between spring and autumn?
How is a city like a cell?
How would you design a better brain?
What is your opinion on spontanteneous human combustion?
Why does your heart rate increase when you exercise?
How does the body try to remove or recognise poison?
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Cambridge
Medicine, Oxford
Medicine, Oxford
Modern and medieval languages,
Cambridge
Modern and medieval languages,
Cambridge
Modern Languages
Modern Languages, Oxford
Modern Languages, Oxford
Molecular and Cellular
biochemistry, Oxford
Music, Cambridge
Music, Oxford
What gets lost in translation?
Why do things have names?
What makes a short story different from a novel?
Should poetry be difficult to understand?
What is language?
Explain how a perm works.
Why has music developed the way it has?
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Discuss.
If you could invent a new musical instrument, what sound would it
make?
Tell me about your life, from the beginning to what made you sit in that
chair.
Describe a potato and then compare it with an onion.
Is it an advantage for a virus to kill its host?
Is there blood in your brain?
Music, Oxford
Natural Sciences, Cambridge
Natural Sciences, Cambridge
Natural Sciences, Cambridge
Natural Sciences, Cambridge
If I wanted to create a new strain of potatoes that were purple, how
would I go about doing this?
Why do you think Chinese students obey their parents more than those
in the UK?
Is the chair really there?
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.
Define 'cruelty'.
Put a monetary value on this teapot.
How many grains of sand are there in the world?
What happens if I drop an ant?
Why does fire go upwards?
Does a cup of hot coffee cool quicker if milk is added before or after
stirring?
Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship?
Natural Sciences, Cambridge
Oriental Studies, Oxford
Philosophy, Cambridge
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Philosophy, Politics and
Economics, Oxford
Philosophy, politics and
economics, Oxford.
Physics, Oxford
Physics, Oxford
Physics, Oxford
Physics, Oxford
Physics, Oxford.
PPE – Politics, Philosophy, and
If you’re not in California, how do you know it exists?
Economics, Oxford
Social and political sciences,
Is it better to be a leader or a follower?
Cambridge
Can you think of a piece of governmental legislation that includes both Social and political sciences,
compassionate and utilitarian aspects?
Cambridge
How can we introduce feminism more effectively into business
Social and political sciences,
situations?
Cambridge
Social and political sciences,
If I put you in the British library for 3 days, what books would you read? Cambridge
Instead of politicians, why don’t we let the managers of IKEA run the
SPS – Social and Political Sciences,
country?
Cambridge
How can classical epics be compared to the Bible?
Theology and Religion. Oxford
Could there still be a second-coming if mankind had disappeared from
the planet?
Theology, Cambridge
Is it morally wrong to attempt to climb a mountain?
Theology, Oxford
Is someone who risks their own life (and those of others) in extreme
sports or endurance activities a hero or a fool?
Theology, Oxford
Is the moon made of cheese?
Theology, Oxford
How does a cat know how far away a mouse is, when it is about to
pounce on it?
Veterinary Medicine, Cambridge
What percentage of the world’s water is contained in a cow?
Veterinary Medicine, Cambridge
Biochemistry interview questions
Why do you enjoy biology and which aspects of the subject do you enjoy the most?
Why didn’t you apply to study medicine?
What kind of career are you interested in pursuing after your degree?
How do enzymes work?
How do mutations affect bonding and folding amino acids?
What bonding takes place within individual DNA nucleotide bases?
Tell us about one main theory of cell biology.
Why do you think free-living chloroplasts "decided" to form into membrane-bound cells?
Describe the structure of an amino acid.
What do you know about protein folding?
Describe the structure of DNA.
Tell us about the sequencing of the human genome? What else do you know about the human genome
project?
What features make fungi different?
How is maths used in biology? Is it important?
What articles have you read in the New Scientist ?
What do you think about human cloning?
How would you go about curing cancer?
What nutritional problems are caused by famine?
What are the benefits of genetically modified foods? Are there any disadvantages?
Tell us what you know about acid rain.
Business Studies and Management interview questions
What specific areas of business are you interested in and why?
Define marketing.
What types of marketing are there?
Could you market a product or service you do not believe in?
What is direct marketing?
Do you know what below-the-line marketing is?
What do you think will be the most important industries in Britain in the next decade and after?
What do you think about Sunday Trading?
What is the difference between a clearing bank and an investment bank?
How can businesses make money out of leisure time?
Is the customer always right?
What qualities should a manager have?
What skills are needed in hospitality management?
What role does team work play in hospitality management?
Tell us about your work experience.
Tell us about your part-time job.
How would you improve the company you worked for during your work experience?
Do you think large supermarkets are a good or bad thing for customers?
How do large supermarkets affect town centres?
Why are some people unhappy in their jobs even when they are paid well?
Tell me about a time when you led a group of people on a project or task. (How did you motivate the
team?)
Describe a time when you have had to manage a number of tasks at the same time. (How did you decide on
the priorities? What were the challenges
How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the business world / current affairs?
Tell me about a business news story in the press at the moment that you have been following? (Why does it
interest you? What are your views on the issues involved?)
Chemistry interview questions
General chemistry
Why do you want to study chemistry?
What is your favourite topic in chemistry and why do you like it?
What kind of career are you considering after your chemistry degree?
How does chemical engineering differ from chemistry?
You are applying to do Chemical Engineering - why did you not do Maths at A level?
Describe the most recent chemistry experiment you have carried out.
Tell us about a recent chemistry innovation you have read about.
What causes the hot and cold seasons on earth?
Why is the earth getting warmer?
Why are sea levels rising?
What is gravity?
What do you know about global warming?
What is gravity?
Why do you think chemistry will change your life and the life of those around you?
Why does the boiling point of water rise as salt is dissolved into it?
What makes drugs physiologically active?
How would you calculate the inter-atomic spacing of particles in this room?
What is NMR and how does it work?
Identify the number of carbon and hydrogen envirnoments in this compound e.g C2H2Cl4
Draw the reaction mechanism for the following reaction C2H4 + HBR
Why are major and minor products sometimes produced?
Tell me everything you like about methane.
Where exactly does natural gas originate from?
Why does a cow produce methane?
Draw the 3D structure of methane.
How do greenhouse gases work?
Name a famous Chemist and identify what/how he contributed to important developments within
Chemistry.
Which Chemistry journals have you found the most interesting and why?
If there was one development or discovery within Chemistry you would like to make, what would it be?
Physical Chemistry
How can you tell that sodium chloride is bonded ionically?
What is a covalent bond?
What does low pH mean?
Compare the bonding in NaCl (common salt) to diamond.
What is the measure of acid strength?
If you didn't have an indicator, how can you test the pH and equivalence point of a titration?
Discuss the properties and applications of graphene.
What do you know about NMR (Nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrocopy? What is it that indicates the
structure of the compound?
How does IR spectroscopy work?
Explain the magnetic properties of the transition metals?
What is entropy?
Would an egg cook quicker at sea level or on a mountain?
How would you identify an ionic compound?
What do you understand about yield and atom economy?
Inorganic chemistry
What is special about transition metal compounds?
Why is copper sulphate blue?
Predict what would be seen when zinc is added to copper sulphate solution.
What nitrogen oxides do you know? Explain the structure of nitrogen monoxide and explain the significance
of its unpaired electron.
Organic chemistry
What do you get if you react benzene with chlorine?
How do you know that carbon forms tetrahedral structures?
Draw the reaction of bromine and benezene.
What catalyst would you use to split up bromine?
How is synthesis of aspirin carried out in a laboratory?
Classics interview questions
History is a large part of a classic degree, so why are you not studying it at A level?
Why are interested in classical archaeology?
What do you think are the differences (if any) between Roman and Greek drama?
What are the similarities between Homer and Virgil?
What have you learned from the dialogues of Plato?
How has Greek tradegy influenced modern literature?
How is the human body represented in classical art?
Computing interview questions
What is in a computer?
What interests you about computer science? How did you become interested in computers?
What did you do for your A level computer science project?
Why haven't you done computer science up till now? How do you know you will like it?
How would you find the smallest number in a list?
Suggest a method of listing prime numbers to 1000?
Can machines make their own decisions?
What programming languages do you know?
Which is your favourite programming language and why?
Tell us about your work experience.
Dentistry interview questions
Why do you want to do dentistry rather than medicine?
Why dentistry when you are not doing biology A level?
What do you want to do after your dentistry degree - eg research, general practise?
What skills and qualities do you think make a good dentist? Give some examples.
How do know that you are manually dexterous? (you may need to undertake a manual dexterity test)
How do you help a friend if they are anxious?
What do you think you will NOT like about dentistry?
What are orthodontics?
What is cosmetic dentistry?
What is preventative dentistry?
Tell us what you know about tooth decay.
Do you know of any issues or difficulties facing dentists today? Tell us more about one of these.
Where do you see dentistry going in the future?
What do you know about the oral health of your age group?
What is meant by "to be a member of a profession"?
What do you know about the general dental council?
How is NHS dentistry controlled? Why?
What noticable differences do you see between NHS and private dentistry?
What was the most important thing you learned from your work experience?
Tell us about your work experience.
Tell us how you have shown team work.
What volunteering have you done?
What is hepatitis A?
What is hepatitis B?
Why do dentists need immunising?
What are controversial issues in dentistry?
How do you cope with stress?
Do you think you will be able to cope with the demands of the course? How?
What are the arguments for and against the fluoridation of the water supply at source?
What is your weakest subject at the moment? How do you plan to overcome this to get the grades
you need?
You may face ethical senarios and an MMI format to the interview.
Design interview questions
What area of Design do you wish to specialise in and why?
What work experience do you have in this area?
Name a Designer who inspires you and state why.
Describe an article/product which has been well designed and state why.
Which era of design is your favourite and say why?
Could you describe a product which you think has been poorly designed and state why?
Why is Design important in our lives when we have so much Technology we can survive on?
How does Design affect our lives even if we think it does not?
Does Design drive our lives and can you state why?
Have you read any books on Design or Designers?
What do you think about the design of the Ipad?
Drama and Theatre Studies interview questions
What do you like about this course you have applied for?
What would you bring to the course?
Tell us about yourself - why do you want to do drama?
Which modern playwrights do you like?
Talk about the last play you saw.
What books do you like to read?
In what ways would an actor benefit from learning to dance?
Talk about Shakespeare as a dramatist.
Tell us about the qualities you like in an actor you admire.
What is the most memorable performance you have seen?
What role does theatre play in society today?
What would you do if you did not get into uni?
Have you seen any theatre productions recently?
How would you stage a novel?
(student's portfolio) Explain and talk us through what you have brought with you today.
What other careers have you looked at?
What interests you about theatre design? How did you get into it?
Looking at your portfolio - explain what could be improved about your work.
What discipline are you most interested in?
What dance experience have you had? (lessons / performances)
What do you hope to do as career after this course?
Economics interview questions
Is economics a science?
How is inflation caused?
Why do we have low inflation?
What would you do to solve a country's long term inflation problem?
What has been the effect of the minimum wage on the economy?
If a high minimum wage leads to unemployment, would you still support it?
What indirect taxes would you impose?
Is the current British taxation system fair? What effect do tax thresholds have? What is meant by the
poverty trap?
What do you think about the inequality of earning in society? Is it right for people of higher natural
intelligence to earn more money?
Discuss interest rate movements and their effects on the strength of a currency, imports/exports and
investment.
What do you think about the privatisation of public utilities and the oligopolies it has created?
If private companies who have won infrastructure contracts always overrun in time and cost, why does the
government still contract out?
How would you distingiush between a "recession" and a "depression"?
How important are economic models?
What is monetarism? Who started it?
How does monetary policy affect bond prices?
In economics, what is the multiplier?
What are push and pull factors?
What is de-materialisation?
Give an example of a product that uses de-materialisation?
In what ways can de-materialisation relate to consumption of materials?
How has globalisation affected the economy?
What stories have you been following lately in The Economist ?
Do you think that The Economist has a political standpoint, and if so, which one?
Discuss any major current economic problem or issue.
Should we let Greece leave the Euro? What are the pros and cons?
Are banks too big to fail? Should the Government intervene? How?
What are the pros and cons of the European Monetary Union?
What aspects of mathematics and or statistics do you find challenging?
What are the advantages of monopolies being state owned rather than just state regulated?
In your opinion, is poverty an essential ingredient of capitalism?
What do you think is the biggest issue facing developing countries today?
Teacher Training interview questions
Why do you want to become a teacher?
What is a teacher's role?
What kind of qualities should a teacher have?
Talk about a good teacher you have known - what made him/her a good teacher?
What in your opinion, and from your experience, makes a bad teacher?
Tell us about a teacher you admire and why.
Describe an inspirational teacher.
What are your own good qualities and how are they relevant to teaching?
What are your views on current issues in the news regarding education?
Which teaching techniques do you think are important?
How do you manage your workload and your time?
What is your weakest subject at school?
What experience of children have you had?
Do you have experience of working with children?
How is your work experience relevant to teaching? What has it taught you?
What additional skills do you have that would be of benefit to a career in teaching? Eg musical, sports,
drama etc?
What difficulties might you come across as a teacher?
Tell us about a time when you have helped a child.
What do you think about the National Curriculum?
What do you think about recent changes in the education system?
Have you had any experiences of special methods of teaching maths?
Talk about the use of technology in the classroom.
How important is RE in the National Curriculum?
What are the features of an inclusive classroom?
Is gender important for Primary teachers?
Should MFL be in the Primary Curriculum?
Is healthy eating important in primary schools?
Should global warming be taught in primary schools?
What skills would you need to relate to other members of staff at school?
How would you deal with prejudices in the classroom?
Do you think you will be able to develop good relationships with parents? How?
Talk to me about a recent book you have read.
Why is PE important in schools? How are the skills gained in PE important for later life?
How important is control of obesity in schools?
What is the importance of teaching history in school? In what ways can history be taught to children?
Why do you want to specialise in teaching the youngest age group?
Why do you particularly want to teach children with learning difficulties?
Why do you need a CRB/DBS check and what is it?
Engineering interview questions
Give a dictionary definition of engineering.
What do you think engineering is?
Where does your interest in engineering stem from?
What interests you about Mechanical Engineering?
Explain why you have chosen this particular engineering course over others.
What aspect of electronics are you interested in?
How do you see the relationship between electronics and mathematics?
What is the difference between a civil engineer and an architect?
Why do you want to do aeronautics?
Have you had any experience of industry? Do you know anyone who works in industry?
Have you thought about getting sponsorship?
Can you explain the physics principles in Newton's third law? (density etc)
Consider a car accelerating up a hill. Describe all the external forces.
How would you calculate the acceleration? Apart from F=ma, give another way of writing Newton's second
law.
What is charge?
Define simple harmonic motion, giving equations.
Prove the area of a triangle is 1/2b x h.
Calculate from first principles, the maximum force a suction machine can generate.
Describe an experiment you have done in physics. Where have you used what you have learned from this
experiment?
Tell us about your GCSE Technology project.
Describe the aerodynamics and electronics you designed for your GCSE technology project.
What work have you done on computers and what programs have you written?
What hobbies do you have related to engineering?
English interview questions
Tell us about the book you are reading at the moment.
What books do you want to talk about?
What do you read for enjoyment?
What would you consider literature?
Is anything literature?
Can you apply a literay analysis to anything?
Why study English?
Are you not angry at the silence of women in literature?
What did you read for AS and A2 English?
Who is your favourite 19th or 20th century novelist?
Do you think novels such as those of Jane Austen should be adapted for the screen?
Your personal statement seems to be full of books you read for school - what have you read independently?
Do you like Daisy in the Great Gatsby? Why / why not?
Which of Shakespeare's plays have you read, other than those you have studied at school?
Do you actually enjoy reading Shakespeare? Why?
How would you define Shakespearean tragedy?
How do you think the opening scene of King Lear influences the rest of the play?
What should one feel about the character of Macbeth?
What do you consider to be the main theme of Othello?
Describe the sexual tension in Much Ado about Nothing . What does it tell us?
Compare Twelfth Night to one of the tragedies you have read.
Do you think Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale represents women well?
How is the Wife of Bath's Tale relevenat to today?
Do you think the Wife of Bath is a strong character?
Choose a poem you have read and discuss its imagery, sentence structure, tone and meaning.
Was William Wordsworth patronising towards his sister Dorothy?
What poetry do you read outside of school and why do you enjoy it?
What is the relationship between literature and art?
How would you approach translating a text?
Why would a writer bother to write a play when it will inevitably be subject to interpretation from the
actors and director?
When does satire become cynicism?
Discuss the importance of "context" in Literature.
Apply a feminist critique of Nineteen eighty-four .
How much of a sociological impact can a piece of literature have?
Define the words "metre" "ballad" "phrase" "genre" "pronoun".
What are the issues with transferring a book to a screenplay?
What do you know about critics? What is the importance of critics? Can you quote one?
In the age we live in now, with so many things vying for our attention, what would be your argument for the
importance of literature?
Geography / Geology / Environmental Science / Land Economy interview questions
What geography did you see on the way here?
Where did your interest in geography stem from?
What is the definition of geography?
Why study geography? What do you like about it?
Talk about the geography of a country you know.
In what areas do you think geography and sociology overlap?
What books or articles about geography have you read lately?
What interests you in the field of geology?
Why Land Economy?
What do you see as the future of Geology?
What do you want to do with your degree?
Why are you interested in Earth Sciences?
Tell us what you know about plant succession on dunes.
What would the world be like without wind?
What is special about London as opposed to other cities in England?
What has been the geographical legacy of the Olympics in London?
What are the environmental problems in the area in which you live?
What did you learn on your geography field trip?
Shown a graph of 40 years of carbon dioxide emissions - what can you conclude?
What are the main geographic and economic factors of climate change?
How can you apply the statistics you have learned on your geography A level course?
What are the arguments for "Trade not Aid"?
Why may a geographer be well placed to assess the effect of a global recession?
What can be done about issues of land reform in Zimbabwe? (Black v White over land ownership rights?)
What can the government suggest to increase happiness in local communitites without using public
spending?
Why do Governments care about CO2 emissions? Do they do enough in terms of adopting environmentally
friendly methods of energy generation?
Should the government build on green belt land?
History and History of Art interview questions
Why is history important?
Is history really relevant to the present? Even ancient history?
Can we teach objectivity in History?
What do you think people learn from the past?
Why do you want to study history?
Why study history and not science when the world is in need of more scientists?
What are the differences and similarities between the sciences and history?
What important history books have you read?
What area of history interests you the most?
What has been your favourite history topic?
How much does history influence literature or visa versa?
How can artists help historians?
How can historians find out about social history?
How do the citizens of a country influence its foreign policy?
Did Cromwell use his religious beliefs to mask his personal ambition? Why did he execute the King?
For a history essay you have written, what books did you read on the topic? How did the views of the
authors differ?
How important is the role of the individual in history? Is it dangerous to attach too much importantce to
individuals?
In your study of social history, what group do you think has been hidden from history? What sources of
evidence can we gain from this group?
What is the importance of using first hand evidence and documents in studying history?
How can we tell whether historical documents are reliable? Even if they are biased, are they still useful?
What do you think are YOUR personal biases when you study history?
What do you think of "Women's history"?
Do you think historical novels are useful for historians?
How is a totalitarian regime able to rise to power?
Do you think the Holocaust should only be interpreted by Jewish Historians?
Why are current affairs important?
Free trade or fair trade?
Name a situation in current affairs in which views have changed over the past fifteen years.
Define Globalisation.
What do you think of proportional representation?
What modern trends are the political parties in Britain setting?
What are the similarities and differences between journalistic and scholarly history?
What career do you want to follow after studying history?
How does your work experience relate to history?
In this question there is no wrong answer! From these 3 words choose an odd one out and argue why it is
the odd one: educated; population; electorate. Now choose another one and argue that case.
How useful is biology to historians?
What are the benefits and limitations of an oral source?
Can political leadership affect the views of the electorate?
How do voter trends affect the idealogical beliefs of the poltical parties?
History of Art
Why do you want to study the History of Art?
Are you familiar with the main European schools of painting?
Who are your favourite artists?
What is your favourite period of art?
Look at this reproduction of a Rembrant, and then tell us about it.
What is the difference between studying history of art and history of design?
What do you perceive the history of design to be?
Journalism interview questions
What appeals to you about Journalism?
Who is your favourite broadcast journalist?
Here are 3 news stories - which would you lead with and why?
Is there a future for newspaper journalism when we can access information in so many different ways now?
You have to describe a football match in lesss than 100 words. What are the essential pieces of information
you need to get across?
What qualities do you think newspaper editors look for in their journalists?
What qualities do you need to be a journalist?
How do you personally keep informed of the news?
Which books have you read lately?
Which story over the last 12 months would you most like to have covered and why?
Are you competative? Give an example?
Give me an example of when you used your initative to solve a problem.
Tell me about a journalist autobiography you have read. What excited you about their story? Did anything
worry you?
Languages interview questions
Why this language, and not any other?
Do you think that language and literature are completely separate and should be studied separately?
Would you say you were better at - language or literature?
Which would you most like to focus on at Uni - literature or linguistics?
Do you think being half-French and wanting to do a degree in French is an easy option?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of translating?
Can translating ever be an art in its own right? When? Give two circumstances.
What do you expect it will be like to learn Spanish from scratch?
How does your study of maths and economics relate to language studies?
Is there an element of literature in your French and German A level courses?
Have you studied literature at all? What types of literature interest you?
Do you feel you will be at a disadvantage doing a literature based degree when you are not studying any
literature based A levels?
What books have you studied in French? Which ones did you NOT like and why?
Have you read any French books apart from the ones on your A level syllabus?
What French poetry have you read?
Have you ever been to Spain? What do you know about Spain? (or Italy, Germany, China, Russia, etc)
What attracts you to the Spanish culture?
Have you read any Spanish literature in translation?
How has Spain contributed to the Arts and Humanities?
What do you know about Spanish architecture?
Why would Spanish be important in a career / in business / in Europe?
What books have you read by a Spanish-speaking author?
What makes an English person English?
Why is communication important in the EU?
What do you think of further European integration? Or a two speed Europe?
Do you think German reunification was a good thing?
What aspect of European affairs are you particularly interested in?
Eskimos have 50 words for snow. Russians have no word for privacy. Does this mean they don't have
privacy?
Should immigration be allowed?
Asked in the relevant language:
Have you ever been to France? What were your impressions? What shocked you?
Pretend you are a guide and take me on a French tour of the town where you stayed.
What are the differences between the French and the English?
What tensions exist between the French and the English?
What the differences between French and English newspapers?
What are the social issues in Paris?
What do you think of the National Front in France?
Tell us about the French political scene.
What are the problems linked to Algerian immigration into France?
Have you been to Germany? Tell us about your visit.
Do you prefer French or German food?
What do you intend to do in your year off?
What do you intend to do with your language degree?
Law interview questions
Advice: prepare thoroughly for a law interview - read widely, interviews may well be aggressive - remember
they are looking at how well you can argue your case, so even if your standpoint is wrong in a legal sense
this is not important. Be prepared to reason logically and clearly put your points across.
Why do want to study law as a degree? Why not (History), then a conversion course?
What particularly interests you in the Law?
What is the point of studying law as an intellectual discipline?
How is law more important than politics or economics?
How does an historian's interpretation of law differ from a lawyer's?
Did you choose your A levels with the aim of studying law?
Why do you want to study a whole new subject rather than just carry on with one of your A level subjects?
How has visiting parliament and law courts helped you understand anything you have read in law books?
What law books have you read?
Have you ever visited a law court? What did you think?
You don't seem to have any relevant work experience. Why is that?
What recent legal cases have you followed?
Comment on a current legal issue / case that interests you.
What do you know about the American legal system? What problems does it have?
What are the differences between the US and UK Constitutions? Which is more effective from a legal
perspective?
Give me an example of how the law could manifest itself in this room.
What would you do to reform the legal system?
What changes would you introduce to the British Constitution?
What are your views on proportional representation?
What do you think about Employment Law in relation to the sacking of pregnant women?
What is civil disobedience? Do you know examples of it?
How would any loss of British sovereignty to Europe affect the judiciary?
Do you disagree with capital punishment? Why?
What do you think about Censorship?
How do you feel about the lack of women in higher ranks of the law?
Why do we need laws for acts such as murder?
What is the difference between intention and motive?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the right to silence?
Define racial hatred. Distingusih between racial, religious, ethnic and political hatred. Is one worse than the
other?
How right is it to stop a crime before it has been committed?
Is it ever justifiable to break a promise?
Judiciary v legislature? Who should make decisions?
Are there any cases when laws should be broken (for example, to defeat Nazism)?
Should Nazi war criminals be tried for their crimes?
Should the law intervene in moral issues? What is the link between law and morals?
Should the state interfere in family matters?
How are the law and politics linked?
What is the Marxist view of law? Does it still apply today?
Are you interested in current affairs? Tells us about a recent news story you are following.
Tell us about a current economic issue.
What books do you read?
Can you tell us about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four . Or The Prince by Machiavelli.
Why is the ECHR important? (European Convention on Human Rights) (Hopefully students won't need this
expanding for them!)
Define a white lie. Give me an example of one.
What do you think the difference might be between legality and justice? Should lawyers keep clear of
political involvement?
Explain the difference between a solicitor and a barrister.
What do you see as the main issues in the recent case of… ? (For example, the widow being denied the use
of her dead husband's sperm because he was unable to give written consent.)
(Students may well be given a case extract to look at and be asked questions about it.)
Maths interview questions
Which are your favourite topics in maths?
How do you think science is portrayed in the media?
What career are you interested in after your degree?
Define the concept of differentiation from first principles.
Give examples of situations where differentiation is NOT possible.
How would you show that integration is the opposite of differentiation?
How would you explain integration and differentation to a sixth former?
Differentiate x² and sin x from first principles.
Integrate ʃx (nx) dx
Draw graphs of x²+y²=1 and x³+y³=1
Draw graphs of y-sin x and y= sin (x²)
Prove that √2 or √3 is irrational
How does one find 2 to the power of √2?
Prove that every fourth value of the Fibonacci series is a multiple of 3 and that every third value is even.
Let z=1+2i. Show in an Argand diagram z, 3z, iz, /z/ and √z.
Prove that in any function that maps from (0 to 1) to (0 to 1) there is at least one fixed point.
Factorise the difference of two squares x²-1
Substitute into the above (x+a) ²-b²
Prove that 1+10 cannot be a square number.
Explain the Product Rule for differentation from first principles.
Find 0.9999 to 3 decimal places.
Prove that n3-n is divisible by 6.
From 0-100, how many multiples of 2;3; 2 or 3; 2 or 3 or 5?
Sketch y=e1/x
Show that 1+1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 +…………. gets arbitrarily large
a<b<c; a + b + c = 6; ab + bc +ac = 9; Prove that a<1<b<3<c<4
Media interview questions
There are more people on media courses than there are jobs at the BBC. Why do you think you are going to
get into this industry?
What is your favourite aspect of film making? Eg camera work or editing and why? (will pick up on personal
statement)
Define the word media.
Do you have any interests or hobbies that would be of benfit to a course in journalism?
What are you hoping to do in the future?
How do you think your (Sociology) A level will help you on this course?
What impact do you think digital technology is having on the broadcasting industries?
What is your favourite TV programme and why?
Should the government renew the BBC's charter?
How important is the Today programme on Radio 4?
What is the difference bewteen online and offline editing?
What newspapers do you read? Talk about an article you read yesterday.
Who is your favourite Broadcast journalist?
Have you ever recorded yourself speaking? In what way do you think your Broadcast voice could be
improved?
Presuming that you have read a newspaper on your way to the interview, what story interested you the
most and why?
Think of somebody who has a dreadful public image. How could we improve their reputation?
Explain the formula for "mission documentaries".
Natural Sciences interview questions
What aspects of science are you most interested in and why?
Describe an article you have recently read in the New Scientist journal and discuss it.
Tell us about the last book you read.
How aware should the public be about scientific developments?
Which 3 science subjects would you choose in your first year of a Natural Science course?
What have you been doing in Chemistry?
Describe your last Chemistry practical.
What is the volume of water in a molecule? Calculate, not estimate.
When cycling, what area of rubber on a bike tyre touches the ground?
Draw a graph of a solid being heated.
Why is it worse to be scalded by gas at 100°C than water at 100°C?
Explain Newton's second law of motion, defining the terms you use.
Why do high tides occur twice in 24 hours?
Why does an egg spin when it is hard boiled?
How can waves travel through a vacuum?
How does light behave as both a wave and a particle?
What is gravity?
What is the equation for simple harmonic motion that includes gravity?
Why does a bar magnet fall slower through a metal tube than a wooden one?
Prove that in a game of pool, after a white ball collides with a red ball that is at rest, the velocities of the
two balls are very nearly perpendicular.
How does an X-ray interact with a crystal?
How would you increase the efficieny of a bar heater with a fixed voltage across it?
How does a mass spectrometer work?
How does infrared spectroscopy work?
Draw the differenciate y=sin x - x
Draw y=1/1 - x²
Why does a magnet slow down when falling through a copper tube?
Explain the photoelectric effect.
Describe the NMR spectrum of ethanol.
Why do you get a 1:3:3:1 ratio from the CH₃ group.
What is the importance of protochemical reactions? How do they occur and how do they lead to the
photoelectic effect?
Tell us about DNA and describe protein synthesis.
What is a chromosome and what is it made of?
How do we end up with 46 chromosomes in each cell after cell divison if every cell normally has 46
chromosomes?
What is the human genome project and why is it useful?
If you are religious, do you have a problem with Darwin's theory of evolution? What other theories of
evolution are there?
Why is it important to use fossils to date rocks?
What problems are there with the environment?
Talk about a scientific discovery that has revolutionised its field.
If I gave you substance, what tests would you do to work out what it was?
The speed of computers doubles every one and a half years. Could you write an equation for this?
Compare the brain of a mouse with that of a human.
Plan an experiment to show that a mouse does not have colour vision.
Why do you think the human brain has so many folds in the cortex?
Why would a rat not need colour vision?
What is the function of the nucleolus?
Describe how viruses replicate.
Why does the flu virus change each year?
What affects the mutation rate of a virus?
Draw a molecule of ethane - estimate its bond length.
Compare aerobic to anaerobic respiration.
How do we typically define a mammal?
How could we test that organisms are from the same species?
Veterinary Science interview questions
Why this university? What makes it stand out for you from other Vet schools?
Why do you want to study Veterinary science?
What do you think about our course? Have you been here for Open Days?
Which of the sciences do you prefer and why?
Which aspect of biology do you most enjoy?
What was you most valuable work experience and why?
What was your most challenging work experience?
What was your most enjoyable work experience?
Why would you make a good vet?
Why should we offer you a place on this competative course?
Why do you want to be a vet?
What do you think are the best and worst aspects of being a vet?
What are your weaknessess? How will these affect you as vet?
What is your weakest subject at the moment? How do you plan to overcome this to get the grades
you need?
Veterinary science is a very intense course. What will you do to relax?
What would you like to specialise in if you become a vet?
If you were to focus on a particular aspect of vet medicine, and had a year to spend on it, what
would you choose?
Could there be an NHS for animals?
What would you do if someone brought in a fat cat?
How is it possible for swine flu to be present in humans and pigs?
How can mastitis be cured/prevented? Why does it arise?
How much does a spay/castration cost?
What do you know about fly stike, mastitis and blue tongue?
Why should equipment be sterilised before use?
Should animals have equal rights to humans? Why?
What is your opinion on keeping animals in zoos?
In what cases should an animal be put down?
What is your opinion on animal cloning?
What is your opinion on intensive rearing of domestic lifestock?
Are you in favour of badger culling? Why?
Would you treat an animal hit by a car if the owner can't afford to pay?
Would you rather be a caged rabbit or a wild rabbit?
What precautions should be taken when avian flu is present?
How do lambs gain immunity from their mothers? How is this different to humans?
What do blood tests check for?
Why are animals still used for medical research when there are other alternatives?
What advice would you give to someone thinking about owning a pet dog?
What vaccinations should be given to kittens/puppies?
Why aren't all pigs vaccinated against swine flu?
What do you know about farm management? Eg sheep/dairy?
Would you prefer to work with small or large animals?
What do you know about getting work/jobs post graduation?
Describe a surgical procedure you witnessed.
What have you learned about the positives/negatives of a career as a vet?
What do you know about plant based treatments replacing current veterinary drugs?
What dilemmas do vets face in their profession?
Talk about the quarantine laws with respect to rabies.
How do vaccinations work?
With respect to mammals, are herbivores on the whole larger than carnivores? Why?
Horses and cattle have similar digestive systems. What diseases do they have in common?
What are your views on animal experiementation?
If you felt a pig farmer was being cruel to his lifestock, what would you do?
Are you a vegetarian?
Could the government handle bovine TB more effectively?
How are physics and maths applied to veterinary science?
Describe an experiment you have carried out in one of your science subjects. Explain what
happened and why.
How is penicillin absorbed into the blood?
Discuss heart pressure in the ventricles and aorta.
What is the difference between an embryo and a foetus?
Draw graphs of the drug concentration in blood after oral medication and via injection.
How would you do a pregnacy test on cows?
Talk about cell membrane. Give an example of a substance that protein molecules allow into the
cell.
Where does respiration occur in cells? Explain the theory behind the presence of mitochondria in
cells.
Talk about the difference between gases, liquids and solids, with particular reference to water.
Discuss the ethical issues surrounding the slaughter of animals for food.
What are the typical working hours of a vet?
Optometry interview questions
Why do you want to study optometry?
Where did your interest in optometry come from?
What did you learn from your work shadowing?
Whilst on your work experience, what eye defects did the optometrist have to deal with? What did you
learn form this?
What do you see as the challenges facing optometrists?
What personality traits do you think a good optometrist has?
Pharmacy interview questions
Why Pharmacy? Why not medicine?
Have you had any practical experience of working in a Pharmacy?
What do you think medical Pharmacy involves?
What other areas of Pharmacy are there (Industry)? What do you think they involve?
What do you think is the role of the Pharmacist?
How did you find out about Pharmacy as a career? What research have you done?
What career area do you want to go into?
Tell us about a topic you are currently learning in biology or chemistry.
How do you make a one-molar solution of sodium chloride?
What does the liver do?
What is an ECG? (Electrocardiogram)
What is the difference between a drug and a medicine?
What do think are the challenges facing a pharmacist?
What makes a good pharmacist?
How has the role of the pharmacist changed over the past 50 years?
Philosophy interview questions
Why do you want to study philosophy?
Have you read any books about philosophy?
What interests you most about Philosophy?
Does God exist?
Is time travel possible?
Discuss this statement "It has not yet been proven that God doesn't exist."
If it takes two to make a fight, when there's an argument are both sides equally to blame?
Alice is driving a car. She sees a neighbour she doen't like. She intentionally swerves and kills the neighbour.
Bob is driving a car. He has a mechanical fault and swerves into neighbour and kills him. Should they both
receive the same amount of blame?
Charles is drunk but decides to drive home. He loses control of his car, mounts the pavement and kills a
pedestrian. Debbie is drunk and decides to drive home. She looses control of the car, mounts pavement,
but no one is there to be injured. Should they both receive the same amount of blame?
Is there more to a person than body and mind?
Is teleporting a type of transport?
Different societies have different moral standards. Is morality therefore subjective?
Why is a bag of diamonds more expensive than a glass of water? When might this change?
Can a business act morally when its aim is to maximise profits?
When is it ok to break a law? Who says when a law is unjust?
How does one balance the views of two different cultures - for example in the case of the fatwa against
Salman Rushdie?
Physics interview questions
What area of physics interests you most? Would you like to specialise in this area?
Tell me about a current physics topic you are studying.
What do you like about particle physics?
Tell me about any practical skills you have learned outside the school course.
Give an example of your problem solving abilities.
What are the four basic forces in physics?
What is the equation for simple harmonic motion?
If an anchor is thrown out of a boat into a lake, will the water level of the lake rise or fall?
Are the molecules in a solid stationary?
If you displaced a molecule in a solid, and then let go, would it go back to its original position?
Why do light spectra radiate from the centre of the surface of a compact disc?
Being in space is associated with weightlessness. What does weightlessness mean to you?
Galileo timed light and heavy objects rolling down inclined planes. How do you think he timed the rolling?
Would you expect all records to be broken were the Olympic Games to be held in a sports hall on the
moon?
A sheet of white paper is viewed through a piece of blue glass. The paper looks blue. Why?
What do you know about the ways in which atoms are arranged in a solid? What happens when the atoms
in a solid are heated?
Give me an equation relating energy and distance.
What would you do to a radioactive sample to cause it to decay?
Why doesn't tea taste as nice at high altitudes?
How does pressure change with height?
How many atoms are there in the sun?
Why do we see a rainbow?
Why is a rainbow one big arc and not lots of tiny rainbows?
Why do planes not make very sharp turns?
For astrophysics:
Tell us what you know about the origins and evolution of the universe.
What is the Hubble constant?
Does the earth turn clockwise or anticlockwise?
What is the equation explaining a star's orbit in its galaxy?
How are the Northern Lights formed?
Physiology interview questions
Why specifically physiology?
Why not medicine?
What are you looking to gain from the course?
Why have you applied to this university?
What medical / biological stories have you read in the news recently?
What do you think about animal testing?
How would you argue against someone saying that testing drugs on a rat can have little or no benefit to a
human because they are different creatures?
Can pain in animals be justified? To what extent can pain be inflicted for the benefit of human research?
How does a neurone act? How does it work?
What is the importance of a myelin sheath? What would happen if it was removed?
How can a DNA mutation occur?
What is the shape of a synapse?
Name some neurotransmitters.
What neurodegenerative disorders do you know of? Tell me about one.
Do you know what causes schizophrenia or multiple sclerosis?
MS is caused by the degradation of the myelin sheath. Suggest causes for this.
MS is genetically inherited. Why doesn't everyone with the MS gene contract MS?
Why doesn't MS affect someone from birth if it is their genes?
What is the immune system?
What environmental factors could affect whether or not someone gets MS?
Why could viruses affect whether the person gets MS or not?
What is the difference between a pump and a channel?
Describe the reabsorption mechanism of the kidney.
If neither parent is an albino, how can they have a child that is?
What is the main disease in the UK that needs to be researched compared to that in the world as a whole?
Politics interview questions
Why are you interested in politics?
To what political ideology are you most attracted?
How active are you in politics?
What are your political views?
Who would you vote for in a general election and why?
Tell us what you think about the current political situation in Britian.
Does your vote count?
Is Britain a democracy? How could it be made more democartic?
What are your views on electorial reform?
What system of proportional represention should Britain introduce?
What do you think about reform of the House of Lords?
Does Britain need a bill of rights?
Discuss the differences between the views and policies of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democratic
parties.
What would you do if you were Prime Minister?
Is the EU a Federal System?
Why were there riots in London in 2011? What caused them?
How much power do MPs really have?
If you were commissioned by the UN to write a report on how globalisation affects human happiness, how
would you go about it?
What do you think about Europe and the European Union?
Does Britain have control of its monetary policy when it is part of the European Union?
What do you think about the euro?
If there were a more federal Europe, what control would Britain have over its own policy?
Does the media provide impartial reporting?
Is there, or should there be, censorship of the media?
Do the owners of newspapers determine their content?
How aware do you think the general British public are about politics?
What are the differences between the political systems of the United States and the United Kingdom?
What do you know about American politics?
Are the US primaries democratic?
How would you define a developing country?
Why do you think some countries are developed and some countries are underdeveloped?
Why should we give aid to other countries?
In what ways was the conflict in Northern Ireland similar to the current situation in the Middle East?
Is it legitimate for a country to intervene in the affairs of another country? Why?
Define ideology.
Is environmentailism an ideology?
Tell us about Marxism.
What is the difference between power and authority?
Distinguish between right and good; just and fair; nation and state.
What role does economics play in politics?
What should the role of the church be in politics?
Do you think we are freer with laws?
In what period of history are you most interested? What have you learned from it?
What are you currently reading?
Name a book that has had an effect on your views of poltics or economics.
Comment on the way some European nation states have retained their monarchies. What have you read
related to this?
Psychology interview questions
Why do you want to study psychology?
What aspects of psychology are you particularly interested in?
Are humans the most intelligent species?
What do you want to do after your psychology degree?
What books have you read about psychology?
What have you learned about psychology through your other A levels subjects?
What do you think you will be studying during your first year?
Do you know what a psychology experiment is? Have you ever carried one out?
Design a psychology experiment concerning colour blindness.
How could you design an experiment to see if animals see in black and white?
What is perception?
Sociology interview questions
Why do you want to study sociology?
What are you looking for from a course on sociology?
State 3 social problems that exist in Britain and explain them.
As a sociologist, how would you explain crime?
Why do 18 year olds commit crimes?
Can schools play an important role in reducing criminal behaviour, particularly amongst 18 year
olds?
Are single-parent families a sympton or a cause of instability in society?
What is social policy?
What newspapers do you read? What makes a good columnist?
What books do you read?
Sports interview questions
How can we get more children involved in sport?
Why do you want to do a degree in Sports Science?
What is your favourite sport and why?
Why do you think football is much more popular than hockey in the UK?
How do you think you could improve your sporting performance?
What do you want to do after your degree?
Why do you want to train as a PE teacher after your degree?
Do you agree that athletes using banned substances should not be allowed to compete?
What is the best sort of diet for your sport and why?
Are you considering a career related to sport?
Why do you think the armed forces encourage so much sporting activity?
What do you think is the best way to coach children in your sport?
Surveying interview questions
Why do you want to do quantity surveying?
What do you know about quantity surveying? How did you find out about it?
Why are you interested in a career in property?
Do you know the difference between retail and commercial property?
What is "buy to let"?
When you did your work experience, what kind of business was the company you went to involved in?
What expericence do you have of dealing with customers?
What do you plan to do with your degree?
Other medical professions interview questions
There are a great many other roles in the field of medicine besides being a doctor. Make sure admissions
tutors understand these are your main interest - not your last resort as you don't meet the criteria for
medicine!
Midwifery
Why do you want to do midwifery?
When have you faced conflict, and how have you dealt with it?
What is the role of a midwife?
Have people been negative about you choosing midwifery?
What is the difference between a hospital and community midwife?
How would you manage working shifts/nights?
What are your views on home births?
What coping strategies do you think you need if a patient has a still birth?
What role do you see for the partner in the birth process?
What do you feel antenatal education should involve?
Do you think mothers make better midwives?
How does a midwife differ from a nurse?
Tell me about some of the current issues facing midwifery?
Nursing
What do you see as the role of a nurse?
Why do you want to do nursing?
Why particularly children's nursing?
What qualites do you have that would make you a good nurse?
In what ways would you help a stroke victim?
If a colleague was doing something wrong, what would you do?
What could get in the way of a team in a hosptiatl working together?
What does "care" mean to you?
With your A Levels in science, you could have chosen other health careers so why nursing?
Occupational Therapy
Why do you want to become an occupational therapist?
On your work experience did you see occupational therapists working with other health professionals? How
did they do this?
What do you think occupational therapy involves?
Paradmedic
Why do you want to be a paramedic?
What qualities do you think make you suitable?
What qualities do you think you will learn?
Do you have a C1 on your driving license? (needed to drive ambulances)
What clinincal intervention can a paramedic provide?
What can a paramedic do to protect an airway?
What reading have you done to prepare you for this course?
What career progression do you think you will have as a paramedic?
Name an issue affecting paramedics. What do paramedics need to do? What does the NHS trust need to
do?
Physiotherapy
Why did you choose physiotherapy?
Why do you want to be a physiotherapist? How did you get involved in physiotherapy and how long have
you been interested in it?
What qualities do you think a physiotherapist needs - do you have them?
What does physiotherapy involve?
What areas do physiotherapists work in?
What steps did you take to find out about physiotherapy before you applied?
What did you learn from your work experience?
How are your A levels relevant to physiotherapy?
How would you deal with a difficult patient?
Do you play sport?
How can you manage sport and study?
Podiatry
Which types of patients do podiatrists come into contact with?
What did you learn from your time at a podiatry clinic?
Radiography
Which other professional would use a radiography department?
What is the difference between diagnostic and therapeutic radiography?
Speech Therapy
Why do you want to do speech therapy?
What sparked your interest in such a specialised area?
What qualities does a speech therapist need? Do you have them?
Tell us about your work placement. What did you learn from it?
What have you learned from speech therapy clinics you have visited?
Have your A levels taught you anything that would be relevant to speech therapy?
Have you read any books about speech therapy?
Do you think there are both medical and teaching elements in a speech therapist's work?
What are the problems with speech therapy?
Why might parents not take their child to speech therapy sessions?
Do you think deaf people should be encouraged to learn sign language or learn verabl skills?
What do you know about the course you have applied for here?