What's the most difficult question you were asked during your interview for Cambridge?

During my second interview, the interviewer asked me to compare language with a city, meaning I had to use components of a city or town in order to describe how the structures of a language worked. I told the interviewer I wanted a few minutes to think, which they were happy about, so I wasn't rushing into my answer. I then explained how I would make the transport system "grammar", because grammar enables us to connect individual words together to form a sentence. I said that I would therefore make the buildings the individual words, and the interviewer asked me to specify what kinds of words each building would be. I then explained that content words, like nouns, could be skyscrapers, because they tend to form the overall meaning of the sentence, whilst function words, like verbs, could be buildings like libraries, museums and buildings like this that are used to learn, because function words glue the sentence together and complete its meaning. The interviewers were mostly interested in how my mind worked and how I articulated my thoughts. So, although this was a tricky question, it was less about my actual answer and more about how I got to my answer. 

GR
Answered by Gabrielle R. Oxbridge Preparation tutor

1921 Views

See similar Oxbridge Preparation Mentoring tutors

Related Oxbridge Preparation Mentoring answers

All answers ▸

What's the most important thing to prepare before my interviews?


How should I prepare for an Oxford philosophy interview (for PPE) if I have never studied philosophy before?


Should we think of music as an object or an act?


Is there anything that you wish someone had told you before your interview?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences