Oxbridge Application Specialists
In this guide we’ll take a look at some questions that have been asked of Oxford biology applicants in the past – both those that are more expected, and those that are a little stranger.
Let’s begin by considering an overall approach to science questions at interview.
Your first step should be to contextualise the question and think about what area of your knowledge is being tested. With some of the more left-field questions, this is especially important. For example, a question on poisoning could rely on your knowledge of how substances are metabolised.
Next, apply your A Level knowledge to the question. Then, bring in additional information from outside the A Level syllabus. Show that you’ve a true passion for the subject by involving books you’ve read, projects you’ve done, or experiments you have performed.
Lastly, use logic to build out an answer that you can then debate with the tutor interviewing you, and work towards a productive discussion. Show that you can take their ideas onboard.
This question has been asked of applicants for Medicine and Biology before. A good initial approach would be considering what constitutes a poison, and whether there are certain substances that are poisons but not seen as such – recreational drugs might be used in someone with a known drug problem, shellfish could be used if someone had a known history of being allergic to shellfish, etc. Moving beyond this first step, we need to consider how a poison might be metabolised, and how long this process might take. Alternatively we might want to consider what kind of tests are routinely performed for poisoning, and thus what substances would not feature on that list, or appear through the processes used. You should show an awareness of how different substances will have different detection periods within the body, and show that you’d wish to use a substance that would have a narrow detection window.Â
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This question relies on relatively general knowledge, and gaps in that knowledge should be filled in with sensible questions to the tutor. You should be aware that hearing begins in the outer ears, and that sound travels from outside the ear, through the external auditory canal as sound waves, and then hits the tympanic membrane, which vibrates. The next steps, which you may not be aware of, are that the vibration is passed through small bones in the middle ear called the ossicles. They send sound waves into the inner ear and the cochlea. The cochlear nerve then carries impulses onwards.
This question is asked after a skull is presented, typically (based on previous students’ recollection) one with large teeth at the front of the mouth. You should therefore make the deduction that the animal is a carnivore, and that its sharp incisors would be used to rip apart flesh, aiding in both the hunting and eating process. You might look at the other teeth behind the incisors, which in a carnivore of this kind would be small and used to grind meat into smaller pieces. You could then make a logical deduction as to the animal, which is likely to be some form of big cat, like a tiger or lion.Â
This question might strike you as strange, because humans having two legs has clearly allowed us to flourish as a species. As such you might begin by making this clear – that being bipedal has bestowed many more advantages than disadvantages. Consider disadvantages as both current and past. Past disadvantages would include a relative lack of speed compared to many four legged animals, as well as a relative lack of agility in climbing or traversing. However, these are no longer issues for the typical modern human. Current disadvantages centre entirely on the spine – a human is far more likely to suffer spinal problems than non-human primates, due to our bipedal locomotion. Back problems affect a large proportion of our society, and disc herniation is common – this being a result of pressure on the discs, a pressure which would not be present if the spine were horizontally rather than vertically aligned.Â
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The membrane potential is determined by the ion concentration between intra and extracellular areas, which means that a radical change in the ion concentration of the solution that the cell is in would change the resting potential of the cell. As an example, if the cell was put in a solution that did not contain any sodium, then the cell’s resting potential would presumably decrease (become more negative) as sodium’s electrochemical gradient would be more in favour of movement out of the cell. In contrast, an increased sodium or decreased potassium ions in the solution would perhaps lead to a more positive resting potential.
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