Engineering Interviews

The best place to start is Oxford's official information on preparing for interviews. But after you've looked there, read on to hear some students talk about their Engineering Science interviews.

I had interviews at two different colleges. In my first interview I was asked lots of short questions, but in my second I was asked two/three much longer questions. I tried to explain my thought process as I was answering and I feel this helped the interviewers guide me towards the right answer.

The questions I was asked were are mixture of Maths and Physics, and were based predominately on the A level syllabus. If I could go back and do it again, I would read all of the 'application' boxes in the corners of the physics textbook, as quite a of these (e.g. springs in car suspension systems) came up in the interview (and in the Physics Aptitude Test).

There were no surprise or nasty questions, the interviewers were lovely and would prompt me whenever I was struggling. Overall I really enjoyed my interview and the time I spent in Oxford with the other candidates!

Charlotte, Mansfield, student from 2015

Both interviews were relatively formulaic; they asked one maths question and one physics question. They were each extended questions, so for example there was "Draw the graph of y=e^x^2. Now differentiate it and draw it again. Now do that again". There were also questions based on projectiles, drag, the conservation of energy, etc. Each question followed a very step-by-step process, and if you got stuck they gave you a hand. It seemed they were interested in how you responded to the hints they gave, rather than how often you were messing up.

Tom, Christ Church, student from 2015

Draw sin (x2). Calculate forces of a ladder leaning on a wall.

Chloe, Keble, student from 2014

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