Oxbridge Classics Interview Questions
The best way to prepare for an Oxbridge Classics interview is through mock interviews. As well as giving you general interview experience, they focus your mind on the types of questions asked at an Oxford or Cambridge Classics interview, teaching you to think in the manner required for the real thing.
Below, we have collected a list of questions of the type you will be asked in your Oxbridge Classics interview. Use them to get an awareness of what's expected of you, plan out answers on your own, or give them to a teacher, friend, or family member, and ask them to conduct a mock interview with you.
Note: If you are doing mock interviews with us, we recommend waiting until afterwards to look through these questions, so that you aren't asked questions you have already prepared for (as you won't have that opportunity for the real thing!). If you haven't booked any mock interviews yet, you can do so here.
Classics Interview Questions
Can you pick one word to describe life under democracy in 5th century BC Athens?
Do you know how long it took Virgil to write the Aeneid?
If there was an omnipotent god would he be able to create a stone that he couldn’t lift?
Why do you think Ancient History is important?
How civilised was the Roman world?
Are history and myth compatible?
Where do you draw the line between Plato and Socrates and why?
What is fate?
Is the ending of The Iliad useful?
What do you think the differences are between modern and ancient democracy and why?
Do you think we need to take a different approach when studying French culture as opposed to the Classical world?
Did the Romans or the Greeks leave a more notable impression on the culture of today? How?
What do you think Tacitus’ view was on the conflict between religion and science?
If you were reading Virgil’s Aeneid in translation, would you be reading the work of Virgil or of another author?
If you could turn this room into the British museum, what items would you put in it to convey the importance of the Classical Worlds?
Is there a link between Greek and Japanese culture?
Was Augustus just an arrogant child?
How would you stage a tragedy differently to a comedy?
Is Aeneas an ancient hero or a modern one?
Romans watched gladiators fight in large arenas. What can we learn about them from this?
Was Alexander the Great great?
Was the Triumvirate a success?
What is the significance of the change in artistic style between the Republic and the Empire?
What is Turnus’s role in the Aeneid?
What makes a book a classic?
Which rhetorical devices does Cicero use?
What was the difference between the Roman and Greek gods?
What were the labours of Hercules and what can we learn from them?
Why did the Roman Republic end?
Would you say Sulla was a tyrant? Or a dictator?
And that's all of them! Hopefully, you now have a sense of the types of questions you may be asked. To be even better prepared, try answering these and other questions with our tutors - you can book your mock interviews here.
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