Admission questions to Oxford, Cambridge called 'out there'

You might expect Oxford and Cambridge Universities to ask propestive students to compare the works of chauccer to boccaccioor to explain the theory of relativity.

Instead Oxford wants to know "Would you rather be a novel or a poem ?",Cambridge asks"What would you do if you were a Magpie ?".The idea say the administrators at the two ultra-prestigious schools in England, is to see how well prospective students can think, not just how must they know?

"What we are trying to do is to move the students out of their comfort zone", said Mike Nicholson, Oxford Admission director."Many students will have a body of knowledge, an they madebe expected to be trusted on thatin the interview.What we wnat to do is take them beyond that point and get them start thinking for themselves.


In the U.K,90% of sudents are educated at state schools.But 53%of students in state schools come from Oxford university.That seems to indicate that wealthier students who can afford private schools have an advantage.

Tutoring companies Oxbridge applications---founded by oxford graduates in 1999---says 68% of 3,500 clients it has helped are state-funded students.It costs $300 for a day for mock interview or $1,500 for a full- weekend course.Oxbridge says 48% of its clients get into one of the elite colleges.The overall success rate for all applicants to the two schools--- commonly reffered to as oxbridge ----is 245 the tutoring company says.

"At oxbridge applications,we have a network 500 former tutors and former admission tutors as well,"said the comapany founded JAMES UFFINDELL. "And we take the people that have been there and done it and help supply nformation abck to the people who wanst to go there".

Still, some of the qestions seem a bit odd the casual observer.