Oxbridge medicine interview preparation, by Oxford undergraduate

My name is Arashk as you may have seen already. I am a third year medical undergraduate student at Oxford. I have tutored for over 2 years now. I am confident in improving your communication and critical thinking abilities, and believe I can push you to perform your best at your interviews and exams. My style of teaching comes from constantly being tired of the lecture style of learning in schools (and even university), where they talk at you and expect you to take everything in. I believe an interactive seminar style is much better for retaining attention and information, and aim to show you the same. Luckily for me (and you), the Oxbridge interview is a mock seminar/tutorial - so you'll be well prepared!

For interviews, I would first ask questions which the student has learned in A levels, and expand beyond them, having discussions with the student. Sometimes, I may need to explain a topic first before continuing (as they often do in interviews). Rather than a lecture, I try to keep these a discussion, similar to how a tutorial at Oxbridge would go (which is what they aim to replicate in the interviews). For example, this can be me talking through a concept with the student, and then asking their for thoughts and theories, as well as questions which they can answer using that knowledge. I would also ask critical thinking questions, debate ethical cases, and work on general interview skills (such as how to use hand gestures and pauses). The interviews are not looking to test scientific knowledge, but the ability for the student to think critically and respond to information (in essence their ability to learn, and be a student), and that is what I focus on working on in interviews.

For A levels, I like to teach in an interactive way, using an online whiteboard, where I go through difficult concepts with the student, asking them questions to uncover difficult concepts step by step and trying to hint them towards the right direction when necessary; ofcourse giving detailed explanations where needed. I believe the tutor's role is to guide the student, rather to talk at them as teachers often do, so I try to keep all my lessons interactive and guided by questions from both myself and the student.

Please don't hesitate to reach out for a trial lesson, I'm confident the student will be content. I look forward to hearing from you.