Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for Music interviews at Oxford.
Start with our admin team. Tell us your course and interview plans so we can help you find a suitable tutor.
Real Music interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
Analyse the score extract in any way you have been taught, taking account of harmony, form, texture, motivic development and expression.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Summarise the article and draw attention to any points in it that you want to discuss.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
After listening to or looking at a short unfamiliar piece of music, what are your thoughts about it?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
From whose perspective is this article written – what effect does this have?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
When do you think this article was written?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Shortlisting email
A week or more ahead
Online interviews
December 2026
Decision
12 January 2027
Shortlisting email
A week or more ahead
Online interviews
December 2026
Decision
12 January 2027
Draw comparisons between the Schubert quartet extract and the song or poem on which it is based, especially their structures and how they reflect the poem's meaning.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Discuss.
Is an awareness of context necessary to appreciate a composer's works?
Can the listener and their attitude change the music they hear?
Is music a language?
Why has music developed the way it has?
How is music related to free will?
Is music an art incomparable to history in that history cannot be performed?
How did Wagner's operas influence the history of Western music?
How had the piano developed by the time of Beethoven?
How are Vivaldi's ritornellos different to Bach's ritornellos?
Consider Girls Aloud and football anthems with reference to functionality of music.
Is there anything in the music that suggests a Romantic relationship between Death and the Maiden?
If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?
If you were sent to a desert island to study composition, which three composers' works would you take with you and why?
What periods of music are you interested in and why?
Which venue do you most like to play in acoustically?
What would your desert island disc be?
Why do you think the jazz tradition branched off from popular music?
12+ weeks
8-12 weeks
4-6 weeks
1-2 weeks
the week of
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2027 entry
For 2027 entry, Oxford interviews shortlisted applicants online in December 2026, and tells them the outcome on 12 January 2027.
Checked against official university sources on 26 October 2026: Oxford: interviews, Oxford: admissions timeline, Oxford Medical Sciences: application process. Your invitation email has the details for your own course and college.
Mock interviews
Real length, real questions and strict marking, with a rotating panel of Oxford and Cambridge interviewers, so the real interview is never the first time you face someone new.
01
Two interviews of 25 to 30 minutes in one hour, with a strict cut-off. Standard questions, unseen material and real past interview questions we keep for our mock interview students.
02
On the day you meet people you have never seen before. So you meet a different interviewer each time, never more than four mocks with the same person, and nothing is asked twice.
03
Every interview is scored on the same three criteria and written up on a feedback sheet in your portal, so you can see exactly where you are improving and what to fix next.
Academic thinking
Breaking an unfamiliar problem down, testing ideas, using what you know in a new setting and spotting where an assumption fails.
Communication
Thinking out loud, stating your assumptions, answering the question actually asked and making good use of a hint.
Resilience under pressure
Not whether you are nervous, but whether you recover: after a correction, a dead end or a deliberately vague question.
Your mocks are run by Oxford and Cambridge graduates matched to your course, each with their own style, and confirmed with you before each session.
Watch & Learn
Explains the BA Music admissions process in a faculty-produced format, though applicants should verify any dates against current pages.
Useful overview of BA Music and the wider Faculty environment.
Introduces the curriculum direction and breadth; verify current option names against the official course page.
Oxford's supercurricular hub links this as a Music research video; useful for seeing music research presented beyond school specifications.
Student perspective on interview preparation; use as supplementary advice rather than official policy.
All videos are the property of their respective creators.
Further Reading
by Nicholas Cook
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; it helps applicants ask broad questions about what music is and how it is studied.
by J. P. E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; useful for seeing how university music study branches across methods.
by Tia DeNora
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; especially useful for questions about listening, identity and music's social functions.
by University of Oxford
Canonical admissions, structure, submission and course-statistics source.
by Faculty of Music, University of Oxford
Adds subject-specific context on course breadth, application process and interview criteria.
by BBC Music Magazine / Our Media
Oxford lists it as a suggested Music resource for podcasts, reviews and artist interviews.
by MusicMap
Oxford lists it as a suggested Music resource; useful for exploring relationships among genres.
by University of Oxford
Supports instrument-history and performance-practice curiosity, both relevant to Oxford Music's facilities and teaching.