Thinking Out Loud — Showing Your Reasoning

If there is one skill that separates good interview candidates from exceptional ones, it is the ability to think out loud. This is especially true for Oxbridge interviews, where the entire point is to watch you reason through problems in real time — but it matters in every type of university interview.

Most students are not used to sharing their thought process. In exams, you think silently and write down your final answer. In classroom discussions, you usually contribute ideas you have already worked out. An interview is different: the interviewer wants to hear the messy, uncertain, evolving process of your thinking, not just the polished conclusion.

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Why Thinking Out Loud Matters

Interviewers are making a decision about whether to teach you for three or four years. They already know your grades from your UCAS application. What they cannot learn from a piece of paper is how your mind works.

When you think out loud, you give the interviewer evidence of: