Guide to Oxbridge Economics Interviews

An Oxbridge economics interview is a short teaching session. Two or three tutors give you a problem you have not seen and watch how you think about it. This guide teaches you how to do that out loud.

Written by a first-class Cambridge Economics graduate who sat the Cambridge Economics interview and now prepares applicants for Oxford and Cambridge.

What’s inside:

Part 1 – What the interview is for: what Oxford and Cambridge say tutors assess, and what that means for an economics candidate.

Part 2 – The format: online and in-person arrangements, pre-reading, and the shape of a typical economics interview, with links to each year’s official dates.

Part 3 – The method: seven moves for any unseen question, with how each one sounds and the common slip.

Part 4 – Thirteen question types, each with a worked example: reasoning puzzles, estimation, quick calculations, game theory, charts and data, articles, macro and ideas, your personal statement, assessing an argument, philosophy and politics, management, logic puzzles, the general interview and your own written work.

Part 5 – Four mock interviews with mark schemes: try each question first, then compare your answer with a full example exchange, the points that earn credit, and notes on technique.

Part 6 – The maths without a calculator: percentages, elasticity, the best price, costs, growth, logs, probability and sketching functions.

Part 7 – Course by course: Cambridge Economics, Environment, Law, and Economics (formerly Land Economy), HSPS, Oxford PPE, Economics and Management, and History and Economics.

Parts 8 and 9 – How to practise, alone or with a parent, and the week before, the day and afterwards.

Every question and mock interview is original and written for teaching. Nothing is copied from official or commercial question banks. Official guidance from both universities is free online, and the guide links to it throughout.

About 55 pages, PDF, instant download. Included free with the Econ Coaching Interview Pack and Applicant Pass.