This is an eBook with 50 Economics Oxbridge style interview questions, as well as interview preparation tips and tricks.
They have been written mainly for the Cambridge Economics interview process but also can be applied to the interviews for Oxford courses involving economics.
Appropriate for practice for interviews, covering current affairs topics from the energy crisis to government debt, interest rates and the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is based on my experience of studying Economics at Cambridge. I have also talked to different students about their interview experiences. Finally I have spent six years advising students on how to handle Oxbridge Economics interview questions.
Specifically the eBook PDF file contains:
- General tips and specific interview preparation tips according to the type of question.
- Microeconomics – 7 questions on areas from advertising to game theory to CEO pay.
- Macroeconomics – 6 questions from debt to central banking to fiscal policy.
- Econometrics – 3 questions for example on crime and estimating demand.
- Current affairs – 5 questions relating to recent topics including the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Miscellaneous Economic Theory – 3 questions.
- Article questions – 4 questions.
- Discussing graphs – 3 questions.
- Logic puzzles – 2 questions.
- Pure mathematics – 8 graphs to sketch and 5 practice probability questions.
- Applications of mathematics to economics – 4 extended questions.
- Brief suggested answers to a small number of the questions, to give you a rough idea of what may be expected.
- Bonus section with four current affairs questions.
- Total number of pages: 98.
Price: £19
On purchasing, you should be able to download a PDF file of the list of Oxbridge Economics interview-style questions immediately. For any issues please feel free to let me know via my contact information on the Imprint page.
Click the blue button below to purchase the product:
Free Samples
If you would like a free sample of the kind of content you could expect, please see the blogpost here:
Link to the advice and free practice questions (some of which you will also see in my eBook): here.
Link to my suggested answers to some of the free practice questions: here.
Note suppose you are a free-school meal student or equivalent and are willing to show evidence to support this. Then I would be happy to discuss a discount. Any such evidence would be stored only for as long as required until the document is verified and payments made.
Below I have posted something similar to the introduction of the eBook. This contains key information about the purpose of this book and disclaimers.
Purpose
To many students, the process of applying to Oxbridge seems shrouded in mystery. Particularly in some state schools, there can be little advice for university applications at all. Let alone for Oxbridge applications.
Specifically concerning Economics applications, there is a fair amount of available information regarding admissions tests. But the interviews have remained the most secretive part of the entire application process.
There has been some movement in trying to give more information about Cambridge Economics interviews. For example the publicly available list of practice mathematical, logic and game theory-style questions from King’s College. I recommend students attempt this. See the link here to this resource.
But I think there is a need for more information on what can usually be expected in interviews. I would like to see this information being more widely available. Currently this information is too often only in the possession of Oxbridge students themselves and their networks. So those who go to schools without Oxbridge admissions may not be getting the same understanding of the interview process (on average) before their interviews.
I have myself been through the Cambridge Economics admissions process, the Cambridge Economics undergraduate course and the MPhil in Economic Research at Cambridge. From this experience and also from having helped students prepare for interview for six years, I have gathered some information about what types of questions typically come up.
I hope you may find some of the questions in this book helpful preparation!
Note I cannot give a guarantee that you will see improvements because of using this eBook. These questions may help some students. Particularly when they review the questions with another student or teacher. This allows for back-and-forth discussion or correction of mistakes.
Disclaimers
By buying the eBook you accept the following disclaimers:
There is no guarantee that the questions in this booklet will be similar to those in your actual interview. This booklet does not cover all questions that could be asked. Moreover colleges and even different fellows may have preferences over the kinds of questions asked. For example some may focus more on mathematics, while others more on the personal statement and so on.
There is no guarantee that you will receive an interview or an offer just because you have read this book. By buying this book you agree that the business faces no liability for a student’s failure to get an interview or offer. Other interview practice, admissions test preparation, personal statement and getting top grades will all matter too.
I have made up all these questions myself for example using undergraduate economic theory or current affairs. So these questions are not copied from another source. In particular, I have not taken these questions from actual interviews. You should not expect these questions to have been actual interview questions. If any of these questions have happened to appear or will appear in an interview, that is entirely coincidental. That said, my understanding of the interview process comes from the available information about student experiences and from talking to many applicants during my time at Cambridge. I hope the questions should be similar to some of the types that tend to come up.
I give links to a few websites in the advice section of the eBook. Please note that I do not necessarily endorse the entire contents of webpages to which I have linked.
Please make sure to read the data protection page on my website for how data may be processed.
How to use this booklet
In an interview scenario, the style of discussion is typically more back-and-forth. Ideally you would go through these questions with a fellow student, teacher or parent. Or with anyone with whom you could discuss concepts. This will make it easier to pick up mistakes and discuss.
However I appreciate that not everyone will have someone who can help this way. So the questions can also serve as reasonable practice material for solo interview preparation. Being able to do these kinds of questions will give you a very good level of background knowledge for the interview, subject you to the kind of challenge that may be possible in the interview and give you an idea of some of the question types that typically appear in interviews.
Please bear in mind the actual interviewers are likely to interrupt you and ask you questions. If it is at all possible, I would recommend trying to secure mock interviews. You can also just practice talking about economics, for example with teachers or parents.
Try to get questions from as many sources as possible. I would recommend looking at past student interview profiles for an idea of the kinds of questions and topics typically mentioned.
In particular, personal statement questions are excluded from this booklet, naturally because the questions would be specific to your personal statement. In this case I would recommend getting someone to look over it and ask you questions.