Interviews
If you are invited to interview, you will come to Harris Westminster Sixth Form for a 15-minute academic conversation with one of our teachers.
The interview is an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for a subject and to show how you think when discussing both familiar and unfamiliar ideas.
It has two parts.
1. Your passions for the subject, around 5 minutes
You will first be asked about an aspect of the subject that you particularly enjoy. Choose an idea, concept, problem or area of knowledge that has genuinely sparked your curiosity, and be ready to explain why you find it interesting.
You may prepare for this part by thinking carefully about your chosen topic, revisiting any relevant material and practising how to explain your ideas clearly. You should understand the topic well enough to discuss it rather than simply deliver a prepared speech. Your interviewer may ask follow-up questions, invite you to explain your reasoning or encourage you to consider another interpretation.
We are especially interested in students who have gone beyond their classroom studies through wider reading or exploration, such as a book, article, lecture, documentary, experiment, artwork, performance or problem. We are interested in what you have thought about the material, not in how much you have read or how impressive the source appears.
2. Stretching your thinking, around 10 minutes
In the second part, your interviewer will introduce something unfamiliar and ask you to work through it with them. This might be a source, image, problem, argument, data set or new concept.
The interview may feel like a short lesson or subject tutorial. You may be asked to think aloud, apply something you already know, make connections, test an idea or respond to a hint. We want to see how you respond to unfamiliar and challenging ideas, not whether you already know every answer.
You are allowed to pause, ask for clarification and reconsider what you have said. Strong academic thinking often involves testing an initial idea, noticing a weakness and modifying it in response to new evidence or a question. Changing your mind for a good reason is a strength, not a failure.
During the interview, we will be looking for four key qualities:
- Enthusiasm for your subject;
- Affinity for the subject’s ways of thinking
- Ownership of your learning
- Speed of learning when introduced to something new
NB We shall not be able to give you any scores at the time of your interview. You will find them out when we let you know if you have met the qualifying score to be offered a place or not.
We are not looking for rehearsed speeches, memorised model answers or extensive coaching. Useful preparation means choosing something that genuinely interests you in your subject, making sure you understand it and becoming comfortable discussing it. It does not mean learning a script.
We hope you find the interview positive, stimulating and enjoyable. Many applicants leave having learned something new.
There is no dress code, and appearance is not part of the assessment. Wear something that helps you feel comfortable, focused and ready to do your best.
Good luck. We look forward to meeting you.
