Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for European and Middle Eastern Languages interviews at Oxford.
Real European and Middle Eastern Languages interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
Read this short foreign-language passage and tell us what you notice first about tone, register and point of view.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Look at this short passage in English about a Middle Eastern cultural topic: what assumptions does the author seem to make about the audience?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Read these two translations of the same short sentence: what changes in meaning, emphasis or rhythm between them?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Read this poem extract: what is the strongest piece of evidence for the speaker's attitude?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Read this short prose extract: which single word would you most want to ask the author about, and why?
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
What makes a novel, play or film political?
If a writer denies that their work is political, can a reader or critic still reasonably call it political?
Could all art be political in some sense?
Should poetry be difficult to understand?
What makes a short story different from a novel?
What is an accent, and how do accents arise?
What is the difference between a language and a dialect?
What makes a language modern?
What is your opinion on ambiguity in language or literature?
What is the link between art and reality?
What evidence would help you decide whether studying a foreign culture from an outsider's perspective is an advantage or a limitation?
Give a brief case study of an area of Middle Eastern politics that has interested you, and explain what evidence first drew you to it.
How does culture influence our lives today, and what evidence would you use to compare two societies without stereotyping them?
How many cultures might be grouped together under a label such as China, the Middle East or Europe, and what evidence would reveal the limits of that label?
How would life in the Gulf be transformed if its oil supplies ran out?
Why did the Cultural Revolution not happen in England?
If a major translation tradition had developed around a different prestige language, how might that have changed literary exchange between Europe and the Middle East?
Which difficulties arise if you study two languages at the same time?
What is it that interests you about a particular culture, region or literary tradition you mentioned in your personal statement?
What was the most recent film, book or article you encountered in your chosen language area, and what question did it leave you with?
What is your favourite dictionary, and what does that choice reveal about how you think languages should be studied?
What are the advantages and ethical risks of studying a culture from outside it?
12+ weeks
8-12 weeks
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The Complete Oxford European and Middle Eastern Languages Interview Guide
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An Oxford Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies video introducing the department and its languages.
An older Oxford Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies video, dating from 2012, offering an introduction to the department and its languages.
All videos are the property of their respective creators.
Further Reading
by University of Oxford
Official source for course identity, entry requirements, interview notes and current admissions facts.
by University of Oxford
Official guidance on how Oxford interviews are run and what tutors are trying to assess.
by University of Oxford
Official timing page for checking interview windows and additional-interview periods before the application cycle.
by University of Oxford
Faculty guidance for the AMES side of the joint course, including selection criteria and interview expectations.
by University of Oxford
Official guidance for international applicants applying through the same undergraduate process.
by University of Oxford
Official sample question models useful for practising how Oxford tutors may broaden from a text or idea.
by University of Oxford
Faculty guidance for the Modern Languages side of the joint course, including current assessment information.