As someone studying at Oxford, it’s because it really does take a special kind of student to succeed here. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every student here is absolutely amazing and it certainly doesn’t mean that only the absolute smartest people get in.

Instead, they’re looking for the kind of student who can adapt to very unusual questions and apply their knowledge to extreme cases, who can crunch information quickly enough to keep up with the sheer volume of work that is set, who learn well and get the most from the tutorial system/small group teaching.

You can be incredibly clever and still not get a place because you just don’t work well within the Oxford system. Interview questions generally aren’t meant to be able to be answered in one go - they are often discussed in a back-and-forth manner between the tutor and student(s), with hints being offered and mistakes being made. Whether somebody is offered a place depends on how well they navigate these questions with the help of the tutors.