Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for English and Modern Languages interviews at Oxford.
Real English and Modern Languages interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
Tell me about this literary work you have mentioned in your UCAS personal statement.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
How does the author choose to begin or end the work, and why?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Is it a first-person or a third-person narrator, and what effect does that have?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
What kind of vocabulary and writing style are chosen?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
What assumptions does this work make about its readers?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Tutorial-style interviews with subject-specific problems, often involving unfamiliar material.
Oxford interviews typically take place at the college you applied to. You will usually have two or three interviews of around 20-30 minutes each, sometimes at different colleges if you are pooled. The atmosphere is meant to resemble a tutorial: the interviewer gives you a problem and watches how you reason through it.
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Where might this work's meaning be ambiguous?
If you are given a short piece of prose or verse in the interview, how would you begin talking about it?
JK Rowling has just published a book for adults after the hugely successful Harry Potter series. In what ways do you think that writing for children is different to writing for adults?
Why do you think an English student might be interested in the fact that Coronation Street has been running for 50 years?
How do writers make readers care about characters they have invented?
What makes a novel or play 'political'?
Should poetry be difficult to understand?
What is language?
What makes a short story different from a novel?
What do we lose if we only read a foreign work of literature in translation?
What aspects of a work does the label 'political' evoke?
Is calling a work 'political' a judgement about content or style?
Do we need to know something about the historical context to understand this work differently?
Can this work be compared to one of the other texts you have studied to clarify an aspect of its meaning?
What if we said that all art is, in fact, political?
What if an author denies that their work is political, but critics assert that it is?
Why might someone not enjoy the same work for the reason you found it interesting?
In a world where English is a global language, why learn French?
Which short story did you find most engaging or most challenging, and why?
What have you done beyond your school work to engage with the language or cultures where the language is spoken?
What did you like or dislike about a book or film from the target-language culture, and what did you learn from it?
Why do you prefer one book or author to another?
12+ weeks
8-12 weeks
4-6 weeks
1-2 weeks
the week of
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Book Mock Interview →Watch & Learn
Official-style model for how modern-language interview discussion can unfold.
Shows the close-reading and thinking-aloud style expected in English interviews.
Introduces the undergraduate Modern Languages course and its academic culture.
College-level mock interview illustrating text discussion and target-language elements.
Useful admissions-facing guidance on English interview expectations.
All videos are the property of their respective creators.
Further Reading
by Terry Eagleton
Useful for sharpening close-reading language around voice, rhythm, imagery and interpretation.
by Peter Barry
A clear entry point for literary theory without requiring specialist undergraduate knowledge.
by David Bellos
Directly relevant to questions about translation, meaning and reading foreign literature.
by H. Porter Abbott
Helps candidates speak more precisely about plot, narration, perspective and genre.
by Steven Pinker
Useful background for thinking about what language is, though applicants should connect it critically to literary and cultural study rather than treating it as a syllabus.
by University of Oxford Faculty of English
Free Oxford-created lectures, essays and literary resources for sixth-form to university transition.
by University of Oxford
Collects Oxford-recommended activities and reading routes for language applicants.
by Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford
Accessible articles for prospective modern-language students about books, culture and language learning.
by Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford
Good for widening cultural and literary interests in the chosen language area.
by Bodleian Libraries
Provides context for Oxford's specialist Modern Languages library provision.