Law Interview - Wish I'd Known (Expert Oxford & Cambridge Application Advice)
By the time you arrive at the interview stage, your application would have passed through many hands, and been reviewed thoroughly by your tutors. They will know already what your grades are like, and what your extra-curricular achievements are. So DON’T waste any of your precious thirty minutes harping on your past achievement. Neither are they particularly interested in whatever lofty aspirations you may have to be a top city lawyer or a Supreme Court judge.
Instead, your tutors are interested in finding out, through the interview, whether or not you would make a good student.
PRESENTATION
While this would not make or break your chances, presenting yourself well will impact how your tutors see you and what you are trying to communicate. Simply be presentable, but, importantly, be comfortable in what you wear so that you may focus on the conversation. The same applies to your behaviour – be pleasant, as far as possible. However, don’t come in flip flops.
READING AND PREPARATION
You’ll be pleased to know that the Oxbridge law interviews typically do not focus on testing your knowledge. In fact, the tutors presume that you know nothing about the actual laws of the UK. They will NOT be asking you for your opinion on Section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998, or anything of the sort.
You should come prepared with some understanding of what a law degree is like: reading cases, statutes, and academic articles that discuss what the law is, how it came to be, and what it should be.
So how do you prepare for a Law interview?
I would not recommend reading actual cases, as they tend to be long and loaded in jargon. Instead, a more effective way to prepare for the interview would be to read law blogs that discuss the cases, or any articles that you can get your hands on. You want to look for articles that analyse, critically, the law.
Why? They will give you the briefest understanding of what the law actually is (which is probably already more than you need), and more importantly proffer different perspectives from which you may look at, criticise or review any given topic in law. You may or may not agree with the views of the authors, but in understanding those views and then taking a stand with or against them, you would have practiced the skills that your tutors would be looking out for during your interview.
They are the ability to be nimble in your thinking, to understand different sides of an argument, to provide reasoned defences for your own opinion and the guts to take a stand, eventually.
Let us know if you have any questions about this article or anything related to Law at Oxbridge at all.
