5 ms·

Oxford University admissions interview questions and answers revealed

20 points by bootload 11y ago

wfo 11y ago
Interesting that the questions and the "right" answers select for a particular political perspective, notably the question about banking. It's particularly pertinent but also very politically charged and any answer will be controversial. I like the idea of having open-ended thoughtful questions like this in an admissions process instead of uninformative bland standardized tests which say nothing but they come with their own pitfalls -- it's very hard to avoid discriminating based on political affiliation, culture, etc. Knowing the political attitude of the reader of your answer would give you a huge edge in the admissions process and I think that's not ideal.
- rahimnathwani 11y ago
  "the "right" answers select for a particular political perspective, notably the question about banking." No they don't. The article gave two nuanced answers from different perspectives: "A simple answer might be ... just the outcome of a competitive labour market...." “An alternative story is that the banking industry is not competitive ..." My Oxford interview (>20 years ago, mind) had a mixture of technical-ish questions (calculate the equilibrium point of these two demand/supply curves) and more open-ended ones (is inflation good or bad, and why?).
  - wfo 11y ago
    They gave two simplistic answers from the same perspective, and I think you have to share their perspective to think there's a difference between them. And neither actually answered the question, which was "On the question of bankers’ pay, and whether the government should do something to limit how much they get" -- it's clearly a question about where and when and why government interference in economic matters is appropriate, and whether or not this situation warrants it -- an ethical/philosophical question not simply an economic one. Though I may be misunderstanding since I don't know the Oxford process very well -- from the way you're describing it, correct me if I'm wrong, applicants to Oxford are already very specialized and the question would be asked in a very specific economics-only context, in which case they've already filtered out anyone with a different perspective and the question is entirely appropriate.
    - rahimnathwani 11y ago
      Of course, those aren't the _only_ two good answers to the question but, remember, they're trying to make a distinction between 17-year-olds. They're not looking for a particularly perspective, but for some instinct to go deeper than gut feel. I'm sure they'd be impressed with someone who thought about it from a philosophical perspective, talking about ethics etc., as long as there was some structure/foundation to the answer. My interview was with two people (at the same time), one specialising in philosophy and the other in economics. Regarding the questions being specialised, I don't expect this is generally the case. At the time of my interview, I was studying Economics, Maths and Further Maths. So, the questions were challenging whilst still being within reach, given only things I had already studied at school. (e.g. in Economics I'd been introduced to supply and demand curves; in maths I'd been introduced to calculus; answering the question was simply a matter of seeing the link and putting the two together.)
Gustomaximus 11y ago
If this link-bait? Did I miss something? I cant find any questions/answers in this article. Even the link to " sample selection released annually" only shows one question. If not perhaps this should be flagged and the header updated to say "Oxford University expect to release admissions interview questions and answers"
flashman 11y ago
> Each person has to choose a number between 0 and 100 and the prize goes to the person whose number is closest to two thirds of the average of all of the numbers chosen. What number will you choose, and why? A link for anybody who wants to know more about this question - but I do encourage you to spend a minute or two thinking about it before you click: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guess_2/3_of_the_average https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guess_2/3_of_the_average
- zvrba 11y ago
  Hm. People (at least I do) have a bias towards small numbers. Given the choice, I'd probably choose something below 20. I don't know how representative I am of the general population, but I'd guess the average to be around 15 and choose 10. --- SPOILER BELOW EDIT: I tested myself on http://twothirdsofaverage.creativitygames.net/ http://twothirdsofaverage.creativitygames.net/ (linked from the wikipedia article) and entered 9. The actual average was 14.
fiatmoney 11y ago
The distillation is that they (and other similar institutions, actually) select for "interesting" answers, rather than "correct" ones, and ideally interesting answers that comport with their favored ideological framework.
- peteretep 11y ago
  > and ideally interesting answers that comport with > their favored ideological framework I'm sorry, where's that in the article?
- joefarish 11y ago
  How does that work with science / maths / engineering interviews? When asked to solve non-trivial calculus questions in an interview do you think they are more likely to admit students who give "interesting" answers or the ones who give correct answers?

20 points by bootload 11y ago

wfo 11y ago

Interesting that the questions and the "right" answers select for a particular political perspective, notably the question about banking. It's particularly pertinent but also very politically charged and any answer will be controversial. I like the idea of having open-ended thoughtful questions like this in an admissions process instead of uninformative bland standardized tests which say nothing but they come with their own pitfalls -- it's very hard to avoid discriminating based on political affiliation, culture, etc. Knowing the political attitude of the reader of your answer would give you a huge edge in the admissions process and I think that's not ideal.

rahimnathwani 11y ago
"the "right" answers select for a particular political perspective, notably the question about banking." No they don't. The article gave two nuanced answers from different perspectives: "A simple answer might be ... just the outcome of a competitive labour market...." “An alternative story is that the banking industry is not competitive ..." My Oxford interview (>20 years ago, mind) had a mixture of technical-ish questions (calculate the equilibrium point of these two demand/supply curves) and more open-ended ones (is inflation good or bad, and why?).
- wfo 11y ago
  They gave two simplistic answers from the same perspective, and I think you have to share their perspective to think there's a difference between them. And neither actually answered the question, which was "On the question of bankers’ pay, and whether the government should do something to limit how much they get" -- it's clearly a question about where and when and why government interference in economic matters is appropriate, and whether or not this situation warrants it -- an ethical/philosophical question not simply an economic one. Though I may be misunderstanding since I don't know the Oxford process very well -- from the way you're describing it, correct me if I'm wrong, applicants to Oxford are already very specialized and the question would be asked in a very specific economics-only context, in which case they've already filtered out anyone with a different perspective and the question is entirely appropriate.
  - rahimnathwani 11y ago
    Of course, those aren't the _only_ two good answers to the question but, remember, they're trying to make a distinction between 17-year-olds. They're not looking for a particularly perspective, but for some instinct to go deeper than gut feel. I'm sure they'd be impressed with someone who thought about it from a philosophical perspective, talking about ethics etc., as long as there was some structure/foundation to the answer. My interview was with two people (at the same time), one specialising in philosophy and the other in economics. Regarding the questions being specialised, I don't expect this is generally the case. At the time of my interview, I was studying Economics, Maths and Further Maths. So, the questions were challenging whilst still being within reach, given only things I had already studied at school. (e.g. in Economics I'd been introduced to supply and demand curves; in maths I'd been introduced to calculus; answering the question was simply a matter of seeing the link and putting the two together.)

Gustomaximus 11y ago

If this link-bait? Did I miss something? I cant find any questions/answers in this article. Even the link to " sample selection released annually" only shows one question. If not perhaps this should be flagged and the header updated to say "Oxford University expect to release admissions interview questions and answers"

flashman 11y ago

> Each person has to choose a number between 0 and 100 and the prize goes to the person whose number is closest to two thirds of the average of all of the numbers chosen. What number will you choose, and why? A link for anybody who wants to know more about this question - but I do encourage you to spend a minute or two thinking about it before you click: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guess_2/3_of_the_average https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guess_2/3_of_the_average

zvrba 11y ago
Hm. People (at least I do) have a bias towards small numbers. Given the choice, I'd probably choose something below 20. I don't know how representative I am of the general population, but I'd guess the average to be around 15 and choose 10. --- SPOILER BELOW EDIT: I tested myself on http://twothirdsofaverage.creativitygames.net/ http://twothirdsofaverage.creativitygames.net/ (linked from the wikipedia article) and entered 9. The actual average was 14.

fiatmoney 11y ago

The distillation is that they (and other similar institutions, actually) select for "interesting" answers, rather than "correct" ones, and ideally interesting answers that comport with their favored ideological framework.

peteretep 11y ago
> and ideally interesting answers that comport with > their favored ideological framework I'm sorry, where's that in the article?
joefarish 11y ago
How does that work with science / maths / engineering interviews? When asked to solve non-trivial calculus questions in an interview do you think they are more likely to admit students who give "interesting" answers or the ones who give correct answers?