By Charlotte Bailey
Last Updated: 6:33AM BST 15 Oct 2008 Telegraph.co.uk
Others were asked what they would do if they were a magpie or whether there should be laws for the use of lightbulbs.
These are some of the bizarre questions asked at interviews for Oxford and Cambridge which have been disclosed as the universities rely increasingly on their own entrance tests to judge potential students.
Tomorrow is the application deadline for Oxford and Cambridge and will see another series of candidates faced with unusual interview questions thought up by the UK's leading universities who believe that A-level grades are failing to split students and discover potential.
Now Oxbridge Applications, an independent education consultancy set up to help applicants fulfil their potential in the Oxbridge interviews, has published some of the questions that students are being faced with as Oxbridge strives to find onl y the best candidates to offer places to.
The consultancy believes that universities such as Oxbridge devise such questions as a way of discovering whether students are capable of thinking outside the confines of their subject's syllabus, how quickly they think on their feet, how ably they manage their own intelligence and how articulate they are in their answers.
To do so, they ask questions that can often take the students by surprise and that seem unrelated to their studies.
A survey conducted by Oxbridge Applications of more than 4,000 students who went through the interview process last year has now shown the sort of questions that this year's hopefuls should be ready for at their interviews in December.
Oxbridge Applications will conduct more than 100 mock interviews over the course of their preparation weekend at the end of October.
Nearly 70 per cent of Oxbridge Applications' clients come from the state sector and the company works closely with schools and teachers across the UK.
Chloe Palfreman, Managing Director of Oxbridge Applications said that this form of testing was confusing students who no longer know how to prepare for such interviews.
She said: "Students today are much more anxious. They are so committed to succeeding in their academic examinations that they sometimes lack the time and confidence to expand their knowledge outside of the classroom.
"They know that top exam grades are not all they need to get into the university of their choice but don't know how to prepare for the all-important admissions interview.
"We aim to give them the confidence to view the eccentric questions they may be asked as a great opportunity to display their powers of lateral thinking and show that their subject study has gone well beyond the A level syllabus."
Here is a taster of the interview questions:
Talk about a light bulb (Engineering, Oxford)
Would you rather be a novel or a poem? (English, Oxford)
How many monkeys would you use in an experiment? (Experimental Psychology, Oxford)
How does Geography relate to A Midsummer Night's Dream? (Geography, Oxford)
How do you organise a successful revolution? (History, Oxford)
What would you do if you were a magpie? (Natural Sciences, Cambridge)
Should we have laws for the use of lightbulbs? (Law, Cambridge)
Is there such a thing as an immoral book? (French and Spanish, Cambridge)
Instead of politicians, why don't we let the managers of IKEA run the country? (SPS, Cambridge)
If I were a grapefruit would I rather be seedless or non-seedless? (Medicine, Cambridge)
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