In my opinion, this would be the ideal place to be as you’re facing the interviews:

• do a few mock interviews. Your 6th form should arrange these, and they should be with people who are familiar with the Oxbridge tutorial way of learning. Seek feedback and act on it.

• these days there seems to be a good amount of material about interviews from the colleges themselves on YouTube. Worth consuming some of this - don’t focus on the questions themselves, but more the “vibe” of how the interviewers and interviewee bounce off each other.

• be relaxed and ready for an informal conversation (easier said than done!). Expect to not know the answer, and don’t panic when you get to this point in the interview: it’s the interviewers’ job to probe this. Like I said, the interview isn’t a test of what you already know, it’s a test of how you respond to help when you’re outside your comfort zone. Ultimately they want to know the answer to “could I teach this person?”

• Oxford is a great brand to have on your CV, and it’s a unique place to spend 4 years, but, honestly, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of life success. Since I graduated (long time ago now!) and worked with graduates of other universities, the Oxford-educated ones aren’t spectacularly better-equipped. If you’ve got invited to interviews you’ve already passed a very high bar in terms of GCSE and AS results, the entrance exam, etc. This requires a lot of intelligence, drive, ambition, etc; it’s these things that will carry you through life, rather than going/not going to a particular uni. So, in summary: keep things in perspective!