<p>I feel as though every year at this time I copy more or less the same article from The Times (UK) about Oxbridge interviews in hopes this may amuse/help/interest some readers......Here goes for the 2011 article: </p>
<p>Why do lions have manes? What is the point of learning French? What heat does a hot air balloon need to lift an elephant? These are not, if we are to believe Oxfords cunningly quixotic academics, trick questions.</p>
<p>They say that questions like these, which are samples from Oxfords admissions interviews, are designed to help would-be students to show their potential by thinking on their feet.</p>
<p>Although subject interviews are just one hurdle among many in seeking a place at Oxford and Cambridge, they are by far the best known. The left-field questions from inscrutable academics have become the stuff of legend. Teenagers preparing an Oxbridge application this autumn may at least find one thing reassuring: there are no correct answers. Tutors are interested in how logically or imaginatively an interviewee approaches a new idea or problem, not the end product.</p>
<p>Oxford released a clutch of past questions for several subjects yesterday, with explanations from the admissions tutors who posed them, in an attempt to demystify its selection procedure.</p>
<p>The university has previously published online recordings or mock interviews online and video diaries in which dons describe the process.</p>
<p>Other questions include whether it would be just or effective to eliminate parking on double yellow lines by making it a capital offence.</p>
<p>Then there are follow-up questions. After a seemingly innocuous query, in which applicants for biological sciences are asked whether it would matter if tigers became extinct, comes another: what if fungi became extinct?</p>
<p>The best way to approach the interview, according to Mike Nicholson, Oxfords director of admissions, is to think of it as an academic conversation with a subject tutor.</p>
<p>Like tutorials, the interviews are designed to push students to think, not recite specific facts or answers, Mr Nicholson said. They may start with familiar territory and then move into areas students have not studied before, introducing new material or ideas, and they are entirely academic in focus.</p>
<p>No room for small talk or banter,then. Nor should candidates cling to the hope that reading up on the course they wish to study will save them. Tutors will consciously draw them out of their chosen discipline to explore its wider implications.</p>
<p>The object of the exercise isnt to trick them, but to give them the chance to show what were really looking for, which is the ability to think cogently and intelligently, said Dr Stephen Goddard, an admissions tutor for French.</p>
<p>Interviews for undergraduate candidates are the final stage of a process that begins with the applicants GCSE results: Oxford generally requires a straight crop of A* or A grades. Then come AS level results and predicted final A-level grades, where at least three As are needed, plus a glowing school reference.</p>
<p>For many subjects candidates must sit aptitude tests, usually next month, or submit written papers before the dreaded interviews take place in December: applicants may have to endure up to four interviews, preferably with tutors from two colleges.</p>
<p>Questions without answers
Biological sciences : Ladybirds are red. So are strawberries. Why? </p>
<p>Owen Lewis, Brasenose College: Red can signal either dont eat me or eat me to consumers. I am interested in seeing how applicants attempt to resolve this apparent paradox</p>
<p>Materials science: How hot must air in a hot air balloon be to lift an elephant?</p>
<p>Steve Roberts, St Edmund Hall: Things we are looking for include how readily they can see into the core of a problem; how they respond to hints and suggestions from us; their approach to basic concepts; estimates; sorting out what is important; and how they use rough maths to get a quick idea of the likely sort of answer, using sensible approximations in working through formulae and keeping track of units</p>
<p>History: Is violence always political? </p>
<p>Ian Forrest, Oriel College: The aim is to get the candidate to challenge received notions about what constitutes politics, and to think about how political history might be studied away from the usual kings, parliaments etc. A good candidate would, with assistance, begin to construct categories of when violence looks more and less political. A very good candidate would, again with assistance, begin to construct a useful definition of political, but this is challenging</p>