Your child is bright, has excellent predicted grades, and is thinking about Oxford or Cambridge. But everyone who applies has great predicted grades. As Cambridge notes, “the majority of entrants from an A Level background achieved at least grades A*A*A.” Your very bright child will compete with thousands of others for very few places.
Oxford
CambridgeHow do you give them a fighting chance? Interview practice. This is the key stage in the application process — and yes, you can prepare for it.
The key stage in the whole application is the interview.
Say Jane is predicted A*A*A and wants to read history at Cambridge. She loves Soviet Russia. I find university-level books or articles we both read, then we discuss them in a one-to-one seminar — an organic conversation in which I challenge her thinking, ask tough questions, and push her to think laterally, exactly as an Oxbridge professor might. Practice, practice, practice.
Your child must also write a history admissions test — and writing an excellent one is key to earning an interview. For every five one-to-ones, I provide written and verbal feedback on a past Oxford or Cambridge admissions test. Your child sits a past paper in their own time, sends it to me, I mark it, and we discuss it together. That feedback session is free.
And the feedback session is free.
Oxbridge preparation is demanding. To do my best work, I look for students who are ready for it.
Oxford and Cambridge publish mock interviews showing exactly how their one-to-one teaching works. Watch them — then let's practise.
Enter your email for instant access to a suite of free lessons — a taste of how the Academy teaches history: accurate, exciting, and built for exam success.
