牛劍面試來了！約7成學生將被拒，什么樣的面試題目這么難？

往年來看，面試是很多優秀學生的大敵，很多學生有著相當不錯的GCSE成績、AL/IB成績，入學考試的成績也是面試官見過的最高分之一，個人陳述同樣非常好；有的學生得到了4個學院的面試邀請，這真的相當多了，但最終沒有拿到一個offer。

牛劍面試問題是什么，怎么樣的作答思路才正確？今天，讓我們來聊聊牛劍面試。

面試時間

每年，牛劍在11月份初舉行本校的入學考試，比如MAT/STEP等。

在筆試成績出來之后，學校會在11月中旬發放面試邀請。

以今年牛津大學為例，每個專業和科系的面試時間不同，但今年的面試基本都集中在12月6日-17日之間。以下是部分面試時間表。
牛津大學面試時間表（部分）

面試形式

今年，所有劍橋、牛津的面試都是線上進行。

學校通常會提供Zoom教室鏈接，在指定時間學生點擊鏈接登入即可。
牛津線上面試
劍橋線上面試

如果你想獲得：
在線面試教學
筆試面試例題分享
或者咨詢英國留學
可以掃描下方二維碼獲得

面試問題

牛劍的面試問題非常專業，比較少見一些常規的面試題。大體來說，面試問題將基于學生所報的專業，并結合教授的研究方向，具體到專業性很強的面試問題。

理科專業，比如數學、物理專業，通常數學教授會直接出題，現場讓面試學生做數學題、物理題。

而非計算類的專業問題，有著自己的答題思路。

我們一起來看一些面試問題，下面這些問題的作答思路由牛劍面試輔導官點評。

Q. Would it matter if tigers became extinct?
如果老虎滅絕了對人類會有影響嗎?

A. 這個問題并不是希望面試學生展示他們關于老虎的專業知識。大多數面試學生會本能地回答“是的……”，但真正讓我感興趣的答案是“因為……”，這有助于將具有批判性思維的學生與其他學生區分開來。我可能會接著問下面這個問題，如果不那么迷人的生物——比如真菌——滅絕了，這是否重要?

多種老虎瀕臨滅絕邊緣

Q. If you could save either the rainforests or the coral reefs, which would you choose?
如果你可以拯救雨林或珊瑚礁，你會選擇哪一個?

A. 我希望面試學生能夠運用他們的常識來給出答案——不需要詳細的知識。學生可能會被問到自然特征的重要性，比如生物多樣性和稀有物種，以及人類利益，比如從雨林或珊瑚礁獲得的燃料和食物、生態旅游和藥物。最后還要考慮氣候變化、土壤侵蝕、污染、伐木、生物燃料替代、過度捕撈等方面的影響。最終的答案并不重要——為了在自然保護和人類需求兩方面保持平衡，珊瑚礁和雨林都必須得到可持續的管理。

Q. Why might it be useful for an English student to read the Twilight series?
為什么對英語專業的學生來說讀《暮光之城》系列非常有用?

A. 我問這個問題有幾個原因。在面試時找到一些面試學生最近讀過的文章是很有用的，而且《暮光之城》系列的書很容易找到，也很受歡迎。一般情況下，面試學生會把注意力集中在他們在學校里學過的文章上，我想讓他們談論他們獨立閱讀過的文章，這樣我就能了解他們是如何獨立思考的，而不是他們跟老師學到了什么。優秀的英語學生會對他們讀過的每一本書的文學性進行分析。這個問題還會引出一些關于敘事聲音、類型和觀眾的有趣討論。

《暮光之城》

Q. If the punishment for parking on double yellow lines were death, and therefore nobody did it, would that be a just and effective law?
在雙黃線上停車的人如果會處以死刑，沒有人會這樣做，這個法律公正且有效嗎?

A. 面試學生不需要對這個問題給出正確或錯誤的答案。他們只需表明，他們能認清由此引起的各種問題。能區分“公正”和“有效”的面試學生表現得最好。一旦做出區分，問題就變得不同了。公正的法律不一定有效，反之亦然。犯罪行為受到法律制裁的占比，這涉及到法律的公正性問題。其有效性的答案已經在問題中——“因此沒有人敢在雙黃線上停車”。

Q. What does it mean for someone to “take” another’s car?
一個人“拿走”另一個人的車是什么意思?

A. 這個問題沒有正確的答案。例如，你能在不開車甚至不移動的情況下“拿走”一輛車嗎?重點在于面試學生的推理——如何制定一個初始定義，然后如何應用并改進這個初始定義，以回應面試老師提供的假設例子。一個例子可能是: 我正在街上走，這時開始下雨了。我打開一輛沒有上鎖的車門，在車里坐了15分鐘，直到雨停。我“拿走”這輛車了嗎?面試的目的是給面試學生一個機會來展示他們的申請，推理能力和溝通技巧。

Q. What is language?語言是什么?
A. 例如，學生有時說他們喜歡學習西班牙語，因為他們“熱愛這門語言”。為了讓學生進行批判性和分析性思考，這個問題會讓他們思考他們喜歡的語言是由什么構成的？——它是由特點定義的還是由功能(它是做什么的)定義的?形式與意義是如何聯系起來的?等等。

Q. Why does your heart rate increase when you exercise?
為什么當你運動時你的心率會增加?

A. 所有學生都能給出簡單的答案，因為你需要向肌肉輸送更多的氧氣和營養物質，并排除代謝產物。但后續的問題將考察學生是否認識到，身體必須有一種方式知道它需要提高心率，以及實現這一目標的可能方法。答案可能包括感覺到氧氣含量降低或二氧化碳含量升高。事實上，氣體的濃度可能不會有太大的變化，所以進一步要求學生們給出其他答案，以及可以測試得出這些答案的方法。這些問題涉及以下幾個標準，如解決問題能力和批判性思維能力、求知欲、熱情、好奇心以及傾聽能力。

Q. Should poetry be difficult to understand?
詩歌應該很難理解嗎?

A. 這個問題是因為一位面試學生談論起他讀過的幾首詩而引起的，我們討論了這些詩是如何傳達思想的(通過語氣和他們使用的意象)。我們想引導面試學生進入概念性思考，以測試他的求知欲，以及他利用已知知識(他所知道的詩歌)學習不太熟悉知識方法。重要的是，學生要意識到，對于這樣的問題，正確答案不是唯一的;接下來的問題為:我們可能會遇到什么樣的“困難”? 這些特征是詩歌特有的，還是其它文章中同樣存在?等等。最讓我們感興趣的是: 面試學生表明他們有潛力，進一步發展自己，從而在我們提供的課程中學到更多知識。文學是牛津大學現代語言學位的重要組成部分，但我們知道大多數面試學生在申請學習語言之前都沒有正式學習過文學。我們想知道的不是因為他們閱讀過大量的文章從而表明對文學充滿興趣，而是他們具有研究文學的能力: 他們能夠認真閱讀各種語言的(詩歌、散文、戲劇)，充滿熱情并具有豐富的想象力。

Q. Is it easier for organisms to live in the sea or on land?
對生物來說，生活在海里還是陸地上更“容易”?

A. 首先，應該定義“容易”——它是否意味著更簡單，更少的能量消耗，進化程度更低，更不容易被吃掉等等?然后，面試學生可以考慮海洋中存在的各種問題，如高鹽度、高壓力、缺乏光照等。在陸地上生活的問題包括身體的特殊結構，防止脫水，需要更復雜的運動系統(腿、翅膀等)，因此需要更好的感覺和神經系統等。然后問，動物和植物在哪一個生態系統更“成功”?所以現在必須將定義改為“成功”……

Q. The viruses that infect us are totally dependent on human cells for their reproduction; is it therefore surprising that viruses cause human diseases?
感染我們的病毒完全依賴人類細胞來繁殖; 因此，病毒引起人類疾病是否會讓人感到驚訝?

A. 就像大多數好的面試問題一樣，這個問題可以引起任何有趣的對話。大多數面試學生都會給出合理解釋，即病毒本質上是寄生的基因實體，但面試官并不想得到這些基礎知識。在教程式的討論中，優秀的面試學生將參與到一個悖論中，即病毒需要人體進行繁殖，卻給我們造成傷害。他們可能會指出，人類感染病毒后的一些反應(比如打噴嚏)有利于病毒的傳播。面試老師可能會將討論轉向與高死亡率相關的病毒感染，以及任何殺死宿主的病毒都有滅絕的風險——除非它也能感染其他宿主物種。面試學生可能會遇到這樣的例子:病毒從動物轉移到人體。然后面試老師可能會問，面試學生是否認為存在感染人類并成功繁殖但不引起任何疾病的病毒。我們如何去發現和鑒定這種病毒?這些問題考察學生以下能力，包括解決問題能力、批判性思維能力、求知欲、溝通能力、傾聽能力以及與教程式回答的的兼容性。

Q. Why is income per head between 50 and 100 times larger in the United States than in countries such as Burundi and Malawi?
為什么美國的人均收入是布隆迪和馬拉維等國的50到100倍?

A. 這個問題可能集中在最重要的經濟問題上:為什么有些國家富有而有些國家貧窮?和大多數經濟學問題一樣，沒有簡單的或唯一的答案。面試學生需要考慮所有造成這種收入差距的原因。

Q. How can we estimate the mass of the atmosphere?
我們如何估計大氣的質量?

A. 這個問題可以用多種方法來解決，并涉及我們的幾個考察標準:使用邏輯和批判性方法分析和解決問題的能力; 橫向思維能力和如何做假設;處理數量和單位的能力; 以及將熟悉的概念(壓力、力量等)應用于不熟悉的情況的能力。學生通常首先考慮大氣的組成，以及我們如何知道這一點，它的密度是多少，然后再考慮估算它體積的方法。我們來看看是否有更簡單的方法: 例如，你可以把地球和大氣層看作一個比地球稍大的球體，然后從這個球體中減去地球的體積，就得到大氣層的體積?這種方法的困難往往在于確定大氣層的終點以及密度隨高度如何變化，理想氣體定律等概念在這些情況下是否適用，而這些都是我們在討論中可能探討的不確定性。另一種方法是，我們是否可以在表面觀察到的大氣特性，使我們能夠估計其質量。其中一個性質是大氣壓，也就是單位面積上的力。這個力也可以描述為質量乘以加速度，在地球上是重力加速度。因此，如果我們對大氣壓有一些了解，我們就可以計算單位面積上的壓強。如果我們能估計出地球的總表面積(近似于球體的表面積)，我們就能因此計算出大氣的總質量。

Q. How many different molecules can be made from six carbon atoms and 12 hydrogen atoms?
6個碳原子和12個氫原子可以組成多少種不同的分子?

A. 這個問題給了考生一個展示化學知識的機會，答案并不簡單。大多數學生會先畫出由6個碳原子和12個氫原子構建的滿足要求的分子。如果學生不知道該如何解決這個問題，面試老師可能會讓他們想想每個碳和氫會形成多少個鍵。這個問題測試學生對不同種類分子的熟悉程度、將分子形象化并畫出來的能力、以及他們判斷用兩種不同方式畫出來的分子是否相等的能力。在這個過程中，面試老師還會觀察應聘者面對提示的反應。幾分鐘后，面試老師將會討論手性、順式反式異構現象、環應變和同位素效應等概念。學生可能之前沒有聽說過這些，這正是意料之中的事情; 面試老師想考察應聘者掌握新概念的速度，是否能給出合理解釋。面試老師可能會以一個更難的問題來結束討論，例如“一個分子只有在所有碳都形成四個鍵時才穩定嗎?”， 這個問題課本上并沒有，極具挑戰性，并讓學生批判性思考化學鍵的本質。

相信以上的幾個問題以及作答思路，會讓學生初具面試問題的基本印象。最后，與大家分享分科目牛劍面試題目：

面試題庫

Computer science?
? Who invented the computer?
? Tell me about binary searches. What about their efficiency?
? The game of chess will be played perfectly by computers. Is this statement true?
? How would you ensure security between two people, A and B?
? How small can you make a computer?
? What happens when light has to pass through a medium denser than air?
? What is the one fundamental difference between a spreadsheet and a database?
? Explain the principle of the global positioning system (GPS). What factors contribute to its ?accuracy?
? Can computers think?

English?
? Are there too many books?
? Define irony.
? Do you think there is any point to reading criticism?
? Does every work of literature always have a moral? Is there such thing as an immoral book?
? Do you think books transfer well to films? Give examples of this.
? How important is biography in the study of literature?
? If it could take a form, what shape would the novel To the Lighthouse become?
? If you could make up a word, what would it be? Why?
? If you could design the A-level English course, which texts would you include?
? Is good spelling merely a matter of etiquette?
? Is the Bible a fictional work? Could it be called chick lit?
? Is poetry meant to be difficult to understand?
? What makes a short story different from a novel?
? What is literature?
? What is a haiku? Why are they so different in structure to a sonnet?
? What is the difference between poetry and prose?
? What is the point of studying English?
? Why might it be useful for an English student to read the Twilight series?
? Why bother to write a poem?4
? Why do we bother studying literature that is hundreds of years old?
? Would you rather be a novel or a poem?
? Was Shakespeare a rebel?
? Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare’s plays?
? Don’t you think Hamlet is a bit long?
? Hamlet speaks to the ghost; what significance does this have?
? Do you think Hamlet knows he is being listened to when he says “To be, or not to be?”
? What does the ghost in Hamlet have to do with madness?
? How can a work of literature be beautiful?
? Should politicians study Eng

Geography?
? Would anything remain in the study of geography if we took the notion of place away?
? Give and explain some environmental impacts of industrial agriculture.
? Are fair-trade bananas really fair?
? How can computers aid geographers in understanding physical processes?
? How can volcanic eruptions change global climate, and at what timescales?
? How did the Ancient Greeks know that the Earth wasn’t flat?
? What are natural hazards?
? What are the limitations of hard mapping?
? What is the difference between a volcano and a mountain?
? What is the impact of globalisation and multi-national corporations?
? What is the role of maps in modern society?
? What is the population of Croydon?
? Why is climate so unpredictable?
? Why should we conserve?

History of art?
? What is your opinion of the Turner Prize?
? What work of art would you most like to own?
? Are the Old Masters overrated?

History?
? Assess the role of dance in history.
? Are verbal sources more useful than written sources?
? Are history and myth compatible?
? Define revolution.
? Does the past exist?
? How do you organise a successful revolution?
? How would you compare Henry VIII and Stalin?
? Is there such a thing as “race”?
? Is violence always political?
? Should historians be allowed to read science fiction novels?
? Can history stop the next war?
? Can we still learn lessons from 18th century warfare?
? Can losers ever write history? How?
? Compare and contrast the French and Russian revolutions. ? Compare and contrast WWI and WWII.
? Compare the French Revolution with a modern event.
? Do we ever learn from the past?

Law?
? Can you define intellectual property?
? Define “at fault”.
? Does a girl scout have a political agenda?
? If a friend locks me in a room, and says I am free to come out whenever I like as long as I pay ?￡5, is this deprivation of liberty?
? If a wife had expressed distaste for it previously, would her husband’s habit of putting ?marmalade in his egg at breakfast be grounds for divorce?
? If the punishment for parking on double yellow lines were death, and therefore nobody did it, ?would that be a just and effective law?
? If you could go back in time to any period of time, when would it be and why?
? Is someone guilty of an offence if they did not set out to commit a crime but ended up doing ?so?
? Is wearing school uniform a breach of human rights?

Maths?
? If you could have half an hour with any mathematician past or present, who would it be?
? Derive the formula for the volume of a sphere.
? Do you know what a hyperbolic function is?
? How would you prove that the square root of 3 is irrational?
? How many 0s does the number 30 have?
? How long does a mirror have to be for you to see your whole body?
? If each face of a cube is coloured with one of six different colours, how many ways can it be ?done?
? I drove to an interview at 50 mph and will drive back at 30 mph because of the traffic. What is ?my average speed?

Medicine?
? At what point is a person dead?
? How would you describe a human to a person from Mars? ? How would you measure the weight of your own head?
? How would you poison someone without the police finding out?
? How would you simulate altitude in your living room?
? If you were a grapefruit, would you rather be seedless or non-seedless?
? Should someone sell their kidney?
? Tell me about drowning.
? What do you like most about the brain?

Modern languages?
? Are you surprised that there is no Russian word for “privacy”?
? Chekhov’s great, isn’t he?
? Can you only understand or analyse a text properly in its original language?
? Can a language ever truly die?
? Compare and contrast Spanish and Portuguese.
? Does language define our identity?
? Do you think the number of languages in the world will change in the next century?
? How does the literature you have read affect your opinion of that society?
? How does Le Monde differ from an English broadsheet? ? How can you tell if a noun is masculine, feminine or neutral in German?
? How has travel influenced your relationship with language?
? How is the German mindset different to the Russian mindset?
? How many cultures are grouped together under the label “China”?

Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE)?
? Consider a production line. What could be done to help the worker get away from the ?routine?
? How would you market a rock band?
? Should governments subsidise agriculture?
? Would I be justified in saying that only morons play sport? ? Do bankers deserve their high pay or should government limit it?
? What is the difference between the buying and selling of slaves and the buying and selling of ?football players?
? What is the point of using NHS money to keep old people alive?
? How many petrol stations are there in America?
? Are there always winners and losers in politics?
? Do animals think?
? Can science and religion ever be comfortable bedfellows? ? If you are not in California, how do you know it exists?
? Is being hungry the same thing as wanting to eat?
? Put a monetary value on this teapot.
? Reflect on individual responsibility and the morality of air travel.
? Should there be an intelligence test to decide who could vote?
? What has been Britain’s greatest political achievement of recent years?
? What is Communism?

Sciences?
? Are humans still evolving?
? Are parasites bad?
? On a hot day what should you do with a fridge?
? Can you change an endothermic reaction into an exothermic one?
? Calculate the speed a coin will hit the floor when dropped from 2 metres above the ground.
? Compare and contrast electronegativity and ionisation energy.
? Compare and contrast hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid.
? Draw the shape of the molecule B2H6.
? Describe a heat engine.
? Does the snow falling on top of a train have an effect on its velocity?
? Explain the bonding in benzene.
? How does DNA fingerprinting work? What is its use?
? How can you store large amounts of hydrogen?
? How many atoms are there in a Brussels sprout?
? How many molecules are there in this room?
? How many molecules are there in a glass of water?
? How many pebbles would it take to fill a car?
? How much of human behaviour is genetically determined?

如果你也有留學英美或轉入名校的意向
如果你還不知道高中活動該如何規劃，適合參加哪些學術活動
可以添加翰林顧問老師一對一咨詢哦～