Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) interviews at Oxford.
Real Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
In a 100-person game, everyone chooses a number from 0 to 100 and the winner is closest to two-thirds of the average. What would you choose, and why?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Think first about what happens if everyone reasons one step, then two steps, then repeatedly.
Would interviews be a valid way to select students for a university course, and how would you test that?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Define what the interview is meant to predict, then consider reliability, validity and follow-up data.
Given a timetable, book weights and a bag-weight limit, decide whether a pupil can avoid visiting a locker before break.
Problem-Solving
Hint
Translate the timetable into a sequence of constraints and test the heaviest relevant combination.
A travel fare contains two proportional components plus a fixed booking fee. After one component rises and the other falls by different percentages, calculate the new total.
Problem-Solving
Hint
Recover the two original components before applying the percentage changes.
A bar chart and pie chart represent the same shop's sales data, but one day is missing from the pie chart. Which day is missing?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Compare proportions rather than absolute heights first.
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
If shown a small dataset from an unfamiliar language, what patterns would you inspect first to infer a grammatical rule?
midHint
Look for repeated forms, contrasts in meaning and changes at word boundaries.
A study finds that older siblings score higher on IQ tests than younger siblings. What explanations would you test first?
entryHint
Separate causal explanations from possible confounds such as family size, parental attention and testing conditions.
If the players in the two-thirds-of-the-average game are not perfectly rational, how should that change your answer?
midHint
Compare the mathematically ideal solution with a psychologically plausible model of other people's reasoning.
Suppose Welsh speakers appear to remember phone numbers less accurately than English speakers. What alternative explanation might account for the result?
entryHint
Look for a mechanism that affects memory performance without assuming a difference in intelligence.
Why might humans have two eyes rather than one?
entryHint
Think about depth perception, field of view, redundancy and the costs of biological systems.
A correlation is reported between a demographic variable and life expectancy. What would stop you from treating the relationship as directly causal?
midHint
Ask whether a third variable could explain both sides of the correlation.
In an argument about a school allocation policy, how would you identify the unstated assumption on which the argument depends?
entryHint
Try negating a possible assumption and see whether the conclusion still follows.
What is involved in blaming someone, and is blame more than judging that they did something wrong?
midHint
Separate belief, emotion, responsibility and social response.
Tell me about a psychology, philosophy or linguistics idea from your personal statement that changed your mind.
entryHint
Choose one concrete claim and explain what you believed before, what evidence you met and what changed.
You say you are interested in language and cognition. What evidence would make you revise your current view?
midHint
State your current view first, then identify what observation, experiment or argument would count against it.
Why have you chosen this particular pair within PPL rather than a single-honours subject or a different PPL combination?
entryHint
Explain the intellectual connection between the two subjects, not just that both sound interesting.
What does it mean to call a human behaviour normal?
midHint
Consider statistical frequency, biological function, cultural norms and moral judgement separately.
Are our deaths bad for us, and what would need to be true for that claim to make sense?
hardHint
Ask who is harmed, when the harm occurs and whether deprivation can be bad without being experienced.
What is the difference between lying, deceiving and misleading?
midHint
Try constructing examples where one term applies but another does not.
Would you choose to enter a machine that gave you only enjoyable experiences if you would not know they were simulated?
midHint
Consider whether value depends only on experience or also on reality, agency and achievement.
If a plane will fly whether or not you board it, do you have any moral reason not to take the flight?
midHint
Distinguish individual causal impact from participation, collective action and signalling.
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Practice with a Oxford Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) graduate who's been through it.
Book Mock Interview →Watch & Learn
Connects learning, memory and cognitive psychology in an accessible Oxford teaching context.
Gives linguistics applicants a taste of university-level discussion in phonology and language systems.
Useful for applicants interested in language contact, historical linguistics and evidence-based claims about language change.
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Further Reading
by Simon Blackburn
A clear introduction to central philosophical problems that can help applicants practise argument, objection and counterexample.
by Martin Hollis
Useful for developing the habit of asking what follows from a claim and what assumptions it relies on.
by Steven Pinker
Accessible background for applicants interested in language, cognition and the relationship between linguistic theory and psychology.
by Steven Pinker
A broad entry point into cognitive science questions that connect psychology, language and philosophy of mind.
by Derek Rowntree
Helpful for building confidence with the statistical reasoning and data interpretation that support Psychology preparation.
by University of Oxford
Primary source for current entry requirements, course structure, UCAS codes and selection notes.
by UAT-UK
Primary source for official TARA preparation, including specification and practice materials.
by UAT-UK
Best single guide to the structure and reasoning demands of the test used for PPL.
by University of Oxford
Officially published examples of the style and depth of Oxford interview questions.
by British Psychological Society
Accessible psychology research summaries that applicants can use to practise evaluating evidence and methodology.