Impetus Coaching

helping students apply to Oxbridge and other elite institutions, with interview and personal statement support

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Where do I start with my background reading?

There are many books on many reading lists. And many websites. And a huge number newspapers, journals and magazines. Trying to make a start in between homework and the rest of life can seem daunting. Here are a few ways to start…

Make a list of all the obvious targets… suggested reading lists, books recommended by your teacher, the obvious journals/magazines (eg New Scientist/ The Lancet/ The Historian). It can’t possibly be exhaustive so don’t try to list everything on the internet!

Expand the range of your list by doing some book shop browsing (real or virtual). Pop into Amazon’s search bar “Popular <insert your subject choice here> books” and follow your nose (you don’t have to buy from Amazon… but their algorithms are good for pottering). Then look up a book you already read and found fascinating, scroll down to ‘other books you may like’. Add those to your list.

If you follow anyone on social media in your field, keep your eye out for their recommendations, or - if you’re feeling bold - ask them! Add that to your list.

It doesn’t have always to be reading. Check this out for some alternative, broadcast-based, ideas (not just relevant to oxbridge). Podcasts and MOOCs can also go on your list.

Spend a set amount of time constructing your list, say half an hour, and then pick the most accessible/attractive/easiest and start there.  

If you liked this, sign up now for our free online course designed to support Y12 students survive and thrive during lockdown. 

Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash

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Getting motivated - a practical approach

“If only I could get started, then I know I’d be ok and get into it… I just can’t get started.”

Waiting to feel motivated enough to start work can be as futile as standing on a roundabout and waiting for the wind change enough to push you round. You need to get into motion first, then see what shows up to help. Once we get started the energy often starts to flow.

One way to give yourself that first weighty push…

1) Write down the first 3-5 things that need to be done. Each should take less than 20 minutes. If any of your tasks take longer than that, then break them down into smaller steps. Keep it simple and easy to complete as you build momentum. If you don’t even know what you need to do, then your first task on the list is making your to do list!

2) Set a timer for 25 minutes and start on task one. If you complete task 1 before the timer goes off, move onto task 2. When timer goes off, STOP.

3) Set a timer for 5 minutes, take a break, GET UP drink a glass of water, dance, eat, meditate, play, stretch, run up and down the stairs 10 times. When the timer goes off, sit back down.

4) Set the timer for another 25 minutes and carry on where you stopped last time. Keep going until timer goes off.

5) Set 5 minutes timer, take a break GET UP etc

And repeat.

The motivation often (not always) follows the action. Act like you are motivated and it’s likely you’ll start to feel motivated. And even if you don’t, it doesn’t stop you from making progress regardless.

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Come and practise for your MMI

Preparing prospective medical students for the MMI? Asking the Drama department for help with role play practice? This may well be useful, but you might also want a secret weapon. 

Our MMI coach... 

is a professionally trained and experienced actress, with a Natural Sciences degree from Cambridge

is someone who has helped train medics through role play

has over seven years’ experience of working for the NHS

has three years’ experience helping sixth form students prepare for Oxbridge interviews

Nicola can come to your school for an hour, or a half or whole day, to offer your students one-to-one role play experience, tips and feedback. 1-to-1 sessions are also available. Contact us here to learn more.

Or check out our ten top tips for MMIs. 

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MMIs (special interviews for medics) top tips

For prospective medics, Oxbridge still follows a traditional interview style. Many other universities are swapping to a different format known as the MMI (Multi Mini Interview). It’s worth preparing yourself for the approaches used by all the universities to which you’re applying. 

Ten top tips for your MMI role play:

Ask yourself...

“where are you?”: set the scene

“who are you with?”: match your communication style to the situation and person you are talking to

“what needs to be said?”: identify the main aims of the conversation 

“how long have I got?”: make sure your aims are achieved in the time allotted

Tell yourself...

 “don’t forget to listen”: it’s not all about talking

And remember...

use open questions if you need to encourage your role play partner to talk

offer suggestions rather than dictate solutions

don’t be afraid of silence 

reflect back & check back: paraphrase your conversation partner to show you are listening and check that you have understood correctly

aim to finish positively

If you feel like you need some practice, you might want to consider this.

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Oxbridge Candidates' Secret Weapon Email Forms

We’re launching an online course to share the best bits from everything we’ve learnt over the last 9 years working with Oxbridge candidates. 

The Oxbridge Candidates’ Secret Weapon is a 6 week course of short audios and tasks to keep you on track in drafting a strong personal statement and preparing for a confident interview performance. If you would like to sign up, it’s FREE, and starts on Thursday 17th August 2017.

Here’s the link: 

http://eepurl.com/cYPGhX 

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Painless Personal Statement Writing: Episode 4

Melissa speaks with award winning careers adviser Liz Reece about how to write a strong personal statement. In the fourth episode of this short series we discuss how to build the structure of your statement. 

Impetus Coaching specialises in supporting Oxbridge candidates in applying to university, but the videos are relevant to anyone who’s applying through UCAS.

If you liked this, get whole series here, or contact us here to learn more about how we can help you prepare for a strong application. 

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Oxbridge experience #6

If you’re preparing to apply to university at Oxford or Cambridge, or you’re still unsure whether it’s a good idea, it’s useful to hear from others who’ve gone before you. Here’s the sixth of our Oxbridge experience posts, where we hear from a Cambridge natural sciences graduate about college life.

How easy was it to settle into your Oxbridge college?

Pretty easy. I remember on the first day of freshers’ week, sitting in the pub and being surprised and happy that there were so many people who took great pleasure talking about their subjects. I made a friend who’d spent her gap year in Mauritius doing field work in the jungle, discovering a new species, and actually contributing to proper, grown-up science. I had wonderful friends at school, but only a handful of us were enthusiastic enough about our subjects to talk about them. In comparison, at college, I felt like I’d come home.

As for the practicalities of living and studying in a new place, getting used to the way things worked felt clunky to start with, but everyone was in the same boat. I managed to fall ill during freshers’ week and missed the first week of lectures (not recommended). I slotted back in with some help from my new friends. We also had college ‘nannies’*, who were students from the third year who were tasked with keeping an eye out for us. We were referred to as ‘nannettes’.

*The college lingo was a bit weird and while some embraced it wholeheartedly, for others it was used grudgingly (if at all) with a sardonic eye roll. It’s not as big a deal as you might think. 

If you’re considering applying to Oxbridge, check out the experiences of other prospective students, and how they chose their college.  Impetus Coaching helps Oxbridge candidates prepare for a confident interview performance, through one-to-one coaching and workshops in schools. Contact us here to find out more.

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Oxbridge curious?

It’s tempting to think it’s possible to work out the perfect UCAS choices from behind a pile of prospectuses, in the comfort of one’s own bedroom. But while information is important, so is the feel of the course, the institution, and the people you’ll be interacting with.   

Go and speak to some current undergraduates about college life, ask the admission tutors what they are looking for, and chat with lecturers about what the courses are like. To make this easier and less daunting, each spring, both Oxford and Cambridge universities round up a bunch of their staff and students and bring them together for the benefit of Year 12 prospective candidates, for free. If you are in the least bit curious, this is a great place to start.

For more thoughts on getting a feel for Oxbridge or any other elite institution, check out this article.

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Is coaching for Oxbridge interview candidates a waste of time and money?

Last week, the Director of Admissions at Cambridge is reported to have said that advice given by companies who help Oxbridge candidates with their entrance interviews is a waste of time and money.

Speaking at the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, Dr Sam Lucy said they can spot people who are delivering rehearsed answers, and it never ever works.

As a company that does help people prepare for their Oxbridge interviews, we agree that rehearsed answers are a waste of time. We also agree that overthinking the process is unhelpful.

What is helpful is for candidates to feel comfortable having the kind of academic conversation that they may rarely have encountered at school.

As Dr Lucy implies, it’s not rocket science to work out what the interviewers are looking for. They want enthusiastic students with a natural aptitude for the kind of learning they would experience as an undergraduate, and the knowledge to back it up.

The trouble is that years of high pressure schooling can bury that natural aptitude. We have worked with hundreds of straight A* pupils who have sailed through school, and have seldom been pushed on a question to which they don’t know the answer.  

They’ve been trained to get top marks in exams. They are used to knowing the right answer. When they’re deliberately pulled out of their familiar intellectual territory, it feels very uncomfortable. If the first time this happens is at their interview, that discomfort can be enough to mess up their chance to win a place.

If these candidates have had a chance to get used this type of conversation, they begin to relish it. They might have been raised in a family where normal dinner table conversations are full of academic debate. Or they might have had an inspiring teacher who spent lessons exploring territory beyond the syllabus. Or they might have been to one of our interview preparation workshops. 

We’re not really coaching them for interview, we’re just getting them used to the kind of mental rough and tumble that’s normal at top universities, but less so at many schools. It just happens that feeling comfortable with this, sets them up well for a great interview performance.

Impetus Coaching provides workshops and 1-1 coaching for candidates preparing for their admissions interview at Oxford, Cambridge and other elite institutions. To learn more about how we can help you prepare for a competitive university application, get in touch with us here.

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What should I wear to my Oxbridge interview?

The short answer is – whatever you like.

Here’s the longer answer.

Some of your fellow interviewees will be in fleeces and walking boots. Others will be in very sharp suits. And most will be in the ’smart casual’* zone in between. Your interviewers will span the same range.

Some other points for consideration:

Colleges can be draughty in winter, so have something warm to hand or pack your thermals.

Colleges can have lots of cobbles, so high heels might be tricky.

Avoid wearing an outfit for the first time, you don’t want to be bothered by an itchy label or gaping shirt.

Just for fun, consider wearing something with which you have positive mental associations (think lucky socks).

Pay attention to the impression you want to create. If you talk about attention to detail in your PS (as an argument for your suitability for intricate lab work), then perhaps the skirt with the dodgy hem should be left at home.

If you know you sometimes come over as too relaxed, then perhaps wear something a little more formal so you can get into the right vibe. And vice versa.

Clean your shoes.

And finally, when you turn up on interview day, don’t be freaked out if you are dressed differently to everyone else you meet on the day. There is no ‘normal’ at Oxbridge. Do what works for you.

*Smart casual most often consists of chinos/skirt, blouse/jumper/shirt with no tie, proper shoes, jacket/cardi if you feel like it.

Impetus Coaching provides interview coaching support and personal statement advice to students applying to Oxbridge and other elite institutions. 

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There’s been some talk today about what to wear at Oxbridge interviews, following comments from the head of admissions at Cambridge pointing out that what candidates wear makes no difference to the interview outcome, and simply advising people to wrap up warmly. We’re delighted to have been saying this for some time. 

If you’d like some practise of the type of conversations you’ll have at interview, check out our workshops. 

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It’s not arrogant to show them what’s true

"What’s the difference between selling yourself at interview, and being arrogant?” It’s a question that often comes up in our conversations with university interview candidates. 

The difference is the way you feel about it when you say it. 

If you've learnt at school that self-aggrandisement does nothing for one’s social standing, it’s easy to cringe when you talk about yourself. 

But once you understand what the interviewer is looking for, and that they want someone who is naturally suited to studying their subject, it'll make sense to help them see this in you.

If you need some help to pull this off, check out our one day interview workshops.

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Don’t know the answer? That’s the good bit

Interview candidates for elite universities are often scared of difficult questions and unfamiliar topics. But when they understand what the interviewers are looking for, the prospect become less daunting. 

If you’ve applied to Oxbridge and made it to interview, it’s a given that you’re in the ball park when it comes to knowledge of your subject. What the interviewers really want to know is whether you have the kind of brain that likes to be stretched. 

Here’s why.

Due to the way teaching goes at Oxbridge, undergrads regularly find themselves way out of their depth. So, to make sure places are offered to the people best suited to cope in that kind of learning environment, interviewers will (gently) dangle you in at the deep end to see how you respond.

Once you understand that, and get a bit of practice playing around outside your academic comfort zone, the prospect of the difficult question quickly becomes something to relish rather than dread. 

All you need to do is recognise that the moment you don’t know the answer, is the moment you can show them what they’re looking for. To learn more about what Oxbridge interviewers are looking for, check this article and the workshops we’re running.

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Come and practise with us

If you like the sound of what we’re talking about and would like some more hands-on interview practice to go into your Oxbridge interview with confidence, check out our workshops.

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Do you talk too quickly? Here’s your chance to milk it

When practising for an academic interview, some candidates find themselves talking really fast. This can make them difficult to understand, and gives them little time to organise their thoughts.

One of my Oxbridge interview coaching clients recently admitted this long-standing habit is the result of classroom dynamics. When her teacher asks a question, she wants to put her point across, but doesn’t want to be the obnoxious swot who hogs the floor and won’t shut up. She talks quickly to get it over with.

The good news is that for those who love to chat about the finer points of particle physics, medieval history or the likely long term effects of Brexit, the academic interview is an opportunity to indulge yourself. Milk it. It’s your chance talk about what you love, where your enthusiasm will be appreciated. And you’ll help the interviewers see you’re the candidate they’re looking for.

If you feel like you could benefit from practising your interview technique with some helpful feedback, check out our university interview preparation workshops.

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Interview body language

 It’s perfectly possible to read about body language for interviews, and end up feeling like your arms are too long, and you have too many feet. Body language rules often leave us tied up in knots. One person’s relaxed posture, makes someone else look half cut. 

The best thing to do is be yourself. 

If you’re not sure what being yourself looks like at the moment, ask a friend (of the helpful and perceptive variety) to give you a mini mock interview (“tell me why you want to read this subject?”). Ask them to pay attention to what you’re doing with your body. 

Stay away from interpretations of what the angle between your feet says about your commitment to your subject (or similar claims). What you do want to pay attention to is how natural you feel, and how you might play around with your posture. For example, people often fiddle with their cuffs as they don’t know what to do with their hands. They might learn from some helpful feedback that having their hands clasped on their lap looks good for them.

Yes, there are a few general guidelines, like face the interviewer, and avoid crossing your arms. But the thing is, you’ll be most compelling and interesting to listen to when you’re not even thinking about where your arms are.

So keep it simple. The most important thing is, you be you. 

If being you seems way more complicated than it should, consider joining us at an Impetus Preparing for University Interview Success workshop.

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Some Oxbridge interview questions

"Can a thermostat think?"

"How would you organise a successful revolution?"

"How can I poison someone without discovery?"

"Is Shakespeare a rebel?"

"Should there be laws on light bulbs?"

"Can statues move?"

Here's a review of a new book, by John Farndon, containing some excellent Oxbridge practise interview questions, and a great explanation of why they ask them.

If you like the prospect of those kinds of conversations, but are a little concerned you won’t perform at your best on the spot at interview, check out our Preparing for University Interview Success workshops.

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It’s not what you know...

It’s very possible that you absolutely, definitely, totally have the brains to make it at Oxford, Cambridge or another top university. However, if you are invited to interview, you will be one of thousands of others who look similarly good on paper. How will you show the interviewer you’re one of the few who’s really got what it takes?

Three points to start considering now are: 

What are your strengths? How do they make you well-suited to studying your subject? How have you demonstrated these strengths in the past (in a way that you can casually weave into the conversation)?

How do you cope when you don’t know the right answer? They aren’t really interested in what you know (it’s clear from your grades you know what you’re meant to know). They want to know how you operate when you’re outside your intellectual comfort zone. 

Where have your shown your commitment to your subject? Talking about how immensely passionate you are about medicine/classics/computer science is not going to cut it. Show, don’t tell. Practise talking about how you’ve walked the walk. 

The thought of an interview might already make your mind blank and send your stomach sideways. It’s ok, you can still make it. Shyer and more chaotic folk than you have won Nobel prizes.  

If you know you have the right qualities to succeed at a top university, but are worried about whether you can convey this at interview, you might want to check out our open workshop here: https://universityinterviewsuccess.eventbrite.com

Impetus Coaching helps sixth formers prepare for interview (and personal statement writing) for Oxbridge and other top universities. Follow or share if you like what you see, and spread the love.