Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for History and Economics interviews at Oxford.
Real History and Economics interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
For a four-day Venice trip with a fixed budget, how should a student allocate spending if each day's satisfaction rises with the square root of that day's spending?
Evidence-Based Problem Solving
If a traveller gives extra weight to spending today but expects normal satisfaction from later days, what spending pattern would you predict over the holiday?
Evidence-Based Problem Solving
Is there a better way for the impatient traveller to allocate spending, and how could they make themselves stick to it?
Evidence-Based Problem Solving
A historian finds a written account of an event that contradicts all other surviving evidence. What should they conclude?
Evidence-Based Problem Solving
Think of a document from history that would benefit from an economic reading. What would an economist notice that a historian might miss?
Evidence-Based Problem Solving
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 current economic policy issues might be illuminated by a model of impatience and self-control?
Should high pay in banking be explained as a competitive labour-market outcome, or does it suggest market power or rents?
Why might income per head be many times higher in the United States than in much poorer countries?
If countries can buy technology from abroad, why might that not be enough to make poor countries as productive as rich countries?
Is violence always political, or does the meaning of political change across contexts?
If the only surviving records about the past concerned sport, what could historians still infer?
Which economics topic have you enjoyed most or found most surprising, and why?
What would a historian find interesting about the place where you live?
Would historians be better served by narrow specialisation, or by exploring links across periods and regions?
If you could study any economic question using only historical sources, what would it be and why?
Should government limit bankers' pay, and what would be the intended economic mechanism?
Should a historian prefer explanations grounded in individual choice or in structural forces?
8-10 weeks before
6 weeks before
4 weeks before
2 weeks before
Final week
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Further Reading
by Jeffrey M. Perloff
Listed by Balliol for History and Economics as a principal first-year economics text; best for applicants comfortable with maths.
by Robert Frank and Edward Cartwright
A recommended first-year economics text that helps students link models to behaviour.
by Charles I. Jones
A principal first-year macroeconomics text named by Balliol for the course.
by Robert C. Allen
A concise bridge between economic history and development questions often useful for this joint course.
by Tim Harford
A readable introduction to applying economic reasoning to everyday incentives and policy questions.
by UAT-UK
Official source for format, specimen materials and test-day rules.
by University of Oxford
Oxford's own guidance on exploring, engaging with and reflecting on subject resources.
by University of Oxford recommendation
Good for building policy examples and applying economic reasoning to live issues.
by Chatham House
Useful for international political economy and historically informed policy analysis.
by University of Oxford
Helps applicants practise forming arguments around broad, interdisciplinary questions.