OxBridge Interview Questions - Earth Sciences

Back in 2020, when I was preparing for my Oxford Interview, I spent a lot of time scouring the internet for example and practice interview questions that I could have a go at answering. With Earth Sciences being a bit of a niche subject there was not that many resources out there aside from the following:

• https://sites.google.com/site/oxbridgeinterviewquestions/earth-sciences

• https://www.u2tuition.com/resources/applying-for-earth-sciences

I was also the only person at my school applying for Earth Sciences and there had only been a handful from my sixth form previously so, unlike for more popular subjects like physics or medicine, the school didn't have a lot of resources to help me prepare. I was lucky enough that my school offered mock interviews for Oxbridge applicants but even my mock interview had to be conducted by a biology teacher as the school didn't an Earth Science specialist, and he asked me questions on archaeology which was in fact, not relevant to the Earth Sciences. Another thing I was constantly met with was teachers telling me I wouldn't need maths. Even my A-Level maths teacher told me I wouldn't need his subject if I wanted to study Geology, but boy was he wrong. A-Level maths is a requirement to study Earth Sciences and the first two years of the course especially are maths heavy. One of the two interviews is focused on maths style questions, so don't be fooled if people tell you not to brush up on your maths skills - you'll need them at interview.

Having now successfully completed my Earth Science degree at Oxford, and having given many mock interviews to prospective applicants myself, including for students from my sixth form who applied in the years after me, I have put together a bunch of practice questions that I think would be helpful to try when preparing for your interview. A quick disclaimer - none of these are questions from my actual Oxford Interview (those are not allowed to be shared) but they follow a similar style and method of thinking. Another thing to note is that the Earth Science interview(s) will cover probably all three science (depending on what you study at A-Level), Geology, and Maths. You are not expected to have understanding of A-Level subjects you did not study, they are just looking for application of your knowledge, a willingness to learn, give ideas, and respond well to the Oxford style of teaching. For more tips check out my blog post on top tips for the Oxford Interview.

There is also a mock interview done with Oxford Earth Science tutors you can watch to get an idea of interview style here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy2OfRvS--0

So, lets get into my example questions (that I have made up):

The Basics

These are the questions they will ask at the start to ease you in so it is a good idea to have some answers prepped.

1. Why do you want to study Earth Science?

2. Can you describe what the Earth Sciences are in your own words?

3. How does Earth Sciences link to your A-Level/IB studies?

4. What's a recent piece of Earth Science news you have seen, and why did it stick in your head?

5. What do you think has been the most influential advancement in geology or science in the last 100 years and why?

6. Questions about things such as projects, EPQs, books you have read etc that you have mentioned in your personal statement.

Problem Solving Based (Incl. some Maths)

These are the ones that will come up more in the maths style interview and its how you use your working knowledge of science and maths skills to tackle problem solving. My top tip for these is to think out loud! If you talk through your thought process the interviewers can help guide you through the problem, and ofteh they will ask follow up questions as I have included below.

1. How would you go about calculating the total amount of energy reaching the Earth’s surface?

   1. Is solar radiation more concentrated at the poles or near the equator? Why?

   2. How would this change is we were closer to the sun?

   3. What about if the atmosphere was a different composition? More Sulphur Dioxide?

      
      

2. How would you go about calculating how much water is in the ocean?

   1. If the water was heated by 10C what would you need to know in order to see how much sea level would rise?

   2. If the ice at both the North and South Poles melted, which would contribute more to sea level rise?

   3. Back when Pangea was around do you think sea level relative to the land was high or lower?

   4. What methods do you think we can use today to measure the height of the sea level?

      
      

3. If you had to work out on average, how long a water droplet stays in the atmosphere how would do that?

   1. When the water droplet leaves the atmosphere as rain where does it go?

   2. Water droplet is now in the ocean, what factors affect whether it will sink down and be deep water or stay at the surface?

   3. How might our water droplet find itself in the Earth’s mantle?

      
      

4. Does snow falling on top of a train affect how fast it is going?

   1. What about rain?

      
      

5. If you were to visit a planet that was exactly like Earth within a different solar system do you think the same animals would have evolved?

   
   

6. Why do you think animals did not evolve to have wheels?

   
   

7. If you were an alien geologist that had come to earth 1 million years from now, what sort of evidence do you think there would be in the rocks that humans had been here?

   
   

8. Obviously a big challenge for today’s society is the energy transition, what do you think is the solution and what role will geologists/Earth scientists play?

Picture Based Questions

Sometimes they will show you a picture and ask questions about it, the questions will be a similar style to the problem solving ones just with a picture as a prompt.

1. Describe the rock in the picture

   1. Why do you think there are different colours? What causes this?

   2. What can we determine from looking at the colours in the rocks?

   3. What do you think the diagonal line is down the middle (btw its a fault)?

   4. Do you think there could be fossils in this rock?

   5. How might you determine the age of the rock?

2. This is a picture of the Yadan rock formation in China, describe the rock formation.

   1. What could have caused them to look like this?

   2. What function could I use to model the rock formation as a graphs (think about maths equations etc you have learnt a A-Level)

   3. What issues could arise in using this model?

3. This is a diagram showing the layers of the Earth. How could you estimate the volume of the Earth's mantle?

   1. Why might the upper and lower mantle have been separated

   2. How do we know the composition of the different layers of the Earth?

   3. The core is made of mostly nickel and iron metals. The outer core is a liquid but the inner is a solid, why might this be?

   4. There are unlabelled layers above, what might they be representing?

Okay there we have my example questions. Disclaimer these are just ones I have made up to give you some material to practice with, they are obviously not exactly what you will be asked at interview but I think that having a go at tackling this style, especially answering them out loud be it to a friend or to yourself in the mirror is a great way to prepare and build some confidence ahead of interviews. I am also always happy to do mock interviews so feel free to reach out via the contact me section of the blog. Good luck!