Many of you will have now finalised your Personal Statement. Some of you may have even completed your application and sent it off! But you still need to know your Personal Statement inside out because it could potentially be used as the basis of an interview at Oxbridge. Take some time to think about how your Personal Statement could be used at interview.

Firstly, read through your Personal Statement as if you were the interviewer: What does the Personal Statement tell you about the student? What claims would you challenge? What areas are of particular interest? What would you like to know more about?

Write down the questions you come up with as an interviewer and spend some time thinking about how you would answer these questions. Remember that tutors are looking for strong academic candidates, so consider how your answers link back to the subject you want to study and why you’re suited to it. Make sure you are confident enough to expand on anything that you have mentioned in your Personal Statement. It’s also important that you can back up all your claims with evidence from your experience and/or wider reading.

During this process, you might like to consider how you would answer more general questions like: Why do you want to study your chosen subject? What do you enjoy about it? Why is the study of your chosen subject important?

However, we reckon you deserve a break after all your hard work sending off your Oxbridge application so you might want to postpone this until next week!

The deadline for applications to Oxbridge and for Medicine is fast approaching! Many of you are in the process of writing your Personal Statement. At Oxbridge Interviews, we think the most important piece of advice is to be yourself. Try completing your first draft without reading anyone else’s personal statement so that you write what comes naturally to you, then you can start to refine it. Primarily your Personal Statement should be about why you want to study the subject you’re applying for and why you’re suitable for the course.  Make sure you keep everything you mention relevant. If you’ve had experience that relates to the subject then think about what you learnt from it and how you’ve applied this knowledge since then.

Include extracurricular activities you’re involved in but bear in mind that Admissions Tutors are looking for strong academic candidates for the course, so keep it brief. Use them to show that you are good at time management and you’re capable of succeeding in a number of disciplines.

The Personal Statement could form the basis for an interview, so think of the questions that might arise from your ideas and claims.

In terms of writing style, find a balance between familiar and formal. The advice of a former Oxford tutor is, ‘Keep it brief and business like’. Simple, direct writing allows you to fit more in about your suitability for the course.

Find more tips in our Guide to Oxbridge and there’s lots of advice on the UCAS website. Good luck with writing your Personal Statement!

As you begin to make your application to Oxford or Cambridge, you need to decide on a college. It can seem like there is an overwhelming choice, so maybe it is worth beginning by asking yourself some questions about what you would like from a college. For example, do you want go to a big college or a small college? Do you want college accommodation for the duration of your course? Do the tutors of your subject seem like people you’d like to work with? (Make sure that the college actually offers your subject because most colleges don’t offer all subjects.) To narrow your choices further, it is worth going on the college websites and looking at the prospectuses. Something that I’d definitely recommend is to go on the Junior Common Room (JCR) website of any college you’re considering and look at the Alternative Prospectus written by the students, which will give you another perspective.

Once you’ve shortlisted a few colleges, the best thing to do next is to have a look around. The next open day at Oxford University is on Saturday, click here for more information from the university website. It also explains how you can come on later dates and arrange to visit specific colleges. There are no more Cambridge University open days but there are still plenty of college open days.

If you can’t make it to an arranged open day and you’d like to visit a college, then do contact the college admissions team directly and often they’ll be able to accommodate you on another date.

After visiting a college you’ll probably get a real feel for what it’s like and whether you’d like to go there. Here’s what one of our interviewers said about her experience, ‘When I looked round Somerville I knew it was the place for me – charming and friendly without being too stuffy. Meeting the Classics tutors on the open day confirmed it for me,’ Catherine, Classics, Oxford, 2009.

Something that is only relevant to Cambridge applicants is that colleges at Cambridge have different entry requirements for different subjects. Some colleges require you to take entry exams or submit work and others don’t. Have a look so you know what is expected of you when you apply to a certain college.

Don’t get too worried about choosing your college. About 25% of applicants are pooled to other colleges anyway and choosing a certain college should not limit your chances of getting into Oxbridge. Some students decide to make an Open Application where you’ll be randomly assigned a college for interview. The most important thing is that you spend time on making a strong application and keep up your hard work at school so you get the grades you need next summer.

If you have any questions about applying to Oxbridge then please let us know. We hope to hear from you soon!

You can only apply to a limited number of universities so is an application to Oxbridge a ‘waste’ if the odds are on you not being successful? You might be worried, but at Oxbridge Interviews we certainly think that this is not the case! If you’ve got the academic record to apply to Oxbridge then there’s a very good chance that you will receive an offer from another university. Interestingly, one of our interviewers, Isobel, Oriental Studies, Oxford, 2008 said, ‘Going through the interview process is valuable in itself – you are challenged to think and to justify your reasoning to an extent that you may not have been expected to do before.’

Try not to be put off by admissions tests and essays you may have to submit for Oxbridge. It may be a bit more work at what is a very busy time for you but it is worth the extra effort in the long term. If you’re daunted by the prospect of the extra exams or essays, just see it is an opportunity to show the tutors your different academic abilities.

I studied Maths and Statistics at Oxford and I found the course to be more academically stretching than anything else I’ve ever done. I left with an enormous sense of achievement. I also had a fantastic time and that’s something that all the Oxbridge graduates that I’ve spoken to can agree on.

Jonathan, Trinity, Oxford, History, 2011 sums up why he’s glad he applied, ‘I had the time of my life. I got some amazing friends, an enjoyable and respectable degree, and had fun in so many ways – balls, croquet varsity, debating, films, clubs, drinks, climbing, bbqs at Port Meadow – it was all a dream.’