So You Want to Go to Oxbridge?: Tell Me About a Banana.

'So...you/your child/your student has decided to apply to Oxbridge? Tell me, what I can do to prepare...' When all applicants are outstanding on paper, what marks out those who succeed from those who fail? With record numbers of students achieving excellent grades at A Level or equivalent, competition for places increases every year, with only one in five likely to be successful. What exactly are admissions tutors looking for when they ask questions about fruit? Why do you have to sit a test which asks you about how the weather affects historical events? How do I prepare for a test I know nothing about? Founded by Oxbridge graduates in 1999, with just these questions in mind, "Oxbridge Applications" has now helped over 45,000 students apply to Oxbridge. The company now works with local councils and over 200 schools. The company has a success rate of twice the average and over 90 per cent of those students who attended one of our interviews and/or admissions test events said they felt more prepared and informed about the interview process. Following the great success of the first two editions, and underpinned by over ten year's experience of research and experience, "Oxbridge Applications" is publishing an improved and updated third edition of how to navigate the application process. This edition is focussed on providing essential, practical advice and tips for our readers. Through interactive content with real questions and real answers, exercises for students to test their intelligence and lateral thinking skills, this is a fact(and fun) - based, accessible compendium, for all students, parents and teachers facing the Oxbridge application process. Key Topics in "Tell me about a Banana" will answer: how to excel at each hurdle in the selection process - from writing a winning personal statement to planning and incorporating outside reading, excelling at admissions tests and at interview; what to expect at the admissions test - we will give practical advice, and sample questions for all subjects; essential tips and advice, from those who have gone through the process and succeeded; what Oxbridge interviews are really like - with real past subject questions and suggested answers/ideas; and detailed advice on tackling the psychological and communicational aspects of interview questions. It also includes engaging ideas and concepts to get students really thinking about their subject - helping to develop their subject knowledge, beyond their A Level syllabus and to think independently and creatively. We want to empower students, asking them questions they would never have previously considered - e.g. What is the relationship between English and History - this book will help them re-discover and connect with their subject. This book's content will be structured so that applicants, parents and teachers can learn from it. Our advice will be accessible, with rigorous insights, underpinned by in-depth research. The book aim is to motivate and inspire our readers, to do all that they can, to give themselves the best shot at applying to these two Universities. Written in an engaging and humorous style, applicants, parents, teachers, graduates and undergraduates will find this compelling reading. For those who want to find out what really goes on in the Oxbridge selection process from the people who have helped thousands to get where they want to go, this book is for them.

Well done to Rachel Spedding and Jane Welsh, of the consultancy firm Oxbridge Applications, for So you want to go to Oxbridge? Tell me about a banana......Spedding and Welsh's book has a serious purpose, in that it may help to prepare applicants in particular state school applicants, less familiar than their public school peers with the peculiarities of donnish banter for their interview. --Robert Frampton, Columnist for The Times (Times 2)

'It is probably the most important day of your life. Your mind is racing and your hands are trembling at the thought of the erudite questions you are about to be asked, which will determine your future education, career and indeed the rest of your life. Then a man leans forward towards you and says: 'Tell me about a banana.' Welcome to the world of university interviewing, Oxbridge-style. The banana question has been unearthed by Rachel Spedding and Jane Welsh, the editors of a new book designed to help would-be Oxford and Cambridge students cope with the notoriously arduous admissions process. Other examples include: 'Why isn't this chair acting as a wave?'Chemistry, Oxford). And: 'Estimate the number of pebbles on Brighton Beach. If a pebble was given to each person would there be enough for the entire population? (Natural sciences, Cambridge). 'The key thing to it,' the editors write, 'is that there is seldom a right answer. You do not need an encyclopaedic memory to answer Oxbridge questions successfully, nor do you have to be a genius in the making. The editors conclude by posing three questions: 'Can you be trained for cracking the Oxford and Cambridge admissions process? Can you copy what those who have done it successfully did and expect the same results? So does this mean there is nothing you can do to prepare yourself?' The answer to all three, they say, is no. --Richard Garner, The Independant

Rachel Spedding, managing director of the consultancy Oxbridge Applications, who gathered the questions for a new book published today, said: 'They are not designed to catch people out and there is not meant to be a right or wrong answer.' 'The idea is to make them think laterally and logically and test how they use their knowledge.' --Jack Grimston, The Sunday Times