Jurica
Four chapters, built from primary admissions data.
Once you are shortlisted, the interview score is the best guide to who receives an offer. This chapter explains how the interviews are organised and scored, what tutors look for, and how you can prepare.
Put what you’ve read into practice with a free diagnostic test and a full LNAT mock exam.
Try Jurica for freeOnce you are shortlisted, the interview becomes the most important part of your application. Each interview is scored from 1 to 5, and among candidates interviewed for 2025 entry, the interview score separated those who received offers from those who did not far more clearly than the LNAT score did.[1]
Oxford's FOI release for 2025 entry includes the first-college interview score of every interviewed candidate.[1] The chart shows how many candidates received each score, and how many of them went on to receive an offer.
As you can see, almost every candidate with a score of 5 received an offer (71 of 73), while almost none of those scoring 1 or 2 did (4 of 140). Scores of 3 and 4 are where the outcome is least certain: 28% of candidates scoring 3 and 65% of those scoring 4 received offers. (Two of the 571 candidates in the release have no first-college score, so the chart covers 569.)[1]
How does this compare with the LNAT? Among candidates shortlisted for 2025 entry, the Faculty reports an average Section A score of 29.18, against 30.96 for offer holders, a gap of 1.78 marks (about 6%).[11] The interview gap is much larger: 3.24 for everyone interviewed against 4.03 for offer holders, a difference of 0.79 points (about 24%).[1] Once you are in the interview pool, in other words, the interview score is the better guide to who receives an offer.
Other FOI releases show the same pattern in other years. Offer holders averaged 4.2 at their first college in the 2023 and 2024 cycles and 4.0 in 2025, and 3.6, 3.6 and 3.7 at a second college.[25] In the 2023 cycle, 70 offer holders had a first-college score of 5, 109 a score of 4 and 33 a score of 3, while interviewed candidates who did not receive an offer averaged 2.84.[31]
Your LNAT still counts after shortlisting. The rank the Faculty uses after first interviews is the shortlisting rank, both LNAT scores included, with a small addition for first-interview scores.[12] Even so, among those interviewed, the interview counts for most. Tutors are assessing how you reason out loud about an unfamiliar legal problem, how you respond when challenged, and whether you change your mind when given a better argument.
Each interview is scored on a five-point scale. The Faculty's 2024-25 and 2025-26 reports, and its admissions manual, give one label for each score and no further description:[11][12][27]
Mansfield College's feedback for 2024-25 lists the criteria its tutors applied at interview:[13]
You will notice that these overlap closely with the LNAT essay criteria, so the interview asks for many of the same skills as the essay, spoken aloud. Note also that you are not expected to know any law. The Faculty states that existing knowledge of the law is not a criterion of admission,[34] and Lincoln College says its interviews require no previous legal knowledge.[32]
Interviews for 2027 entry are held online in December 2026.[15] If you are shortlisted, you will usually have two interviews with your first interviewing college, which is not always the college you applied to. Some candidates then have a further interview at a second college.[12]
The Faculty's Law Admissions Manual for the 2024-25 round, released under FOI, adds some detail. After first interviews, colleges may offer only up to 75% of their places, and the number of second-interview slots is at least the number of places still unfilled. Interviews may also use a short extract from a judgment or newspaper article (two or three sides of A4), which some colleges give candidates half an hour to read beforehand.[27] If you are given such an extract, we recommend reading it twice: once for the overall argument, and once to mark the points you might be asked about.
The table shows second-college interviews in the last four rounds, from the Faculty's reports (the 2025-26 round was for entry in 2026):[9][10][11][12]
| Round | Second-college interviews | Of those, offered a place | Offers made by the second college |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 142 | not reported | not reported |
| 2024-25 | 154 | not reported | not reported |
| 2023-24 | 157 | 73 (46.5%) | 24 (9.95% of all offers) |
| 2022 | 215 | 118 (54.9%) | 25 (10.4% of all offers) |
Second interviews are a way of moving candidates between colleges. Mansfield's feedback describes them as part of the movement of candidates from oversubscribed to undersubscribed colleges,[13] and the Faculty's 2025-26 report says the slots are filled in rank order after the first interviews.[12] They settle fewer offers than their number suggests: in the two rounds where the Faculty reported it, about one offer in ten was made by the second college (10.4% in 2022 and 9.95% in 2023-24).[9][10] Far more offer holders end up at a college other than their first choice (41.3% in 2024-25 and 44.4% in 2025-26 by Mansfield's count),[13][16] but that figure also includes candidates moved before interview, when those not reserved by the college they applied to are redistributed.[12] If you are called for a second interview, you are still very much in contention: in the two rounds with figures, roughly half of the candidates interviewed at a second college received an offer (54.9% in 2022 and 46.5% in 2023-24).[9][10]
Priority for the most deprived backgrounds. The 2024-25 and 2025-26 reports both state that priority for second-interview slots goes to candidates from the most deprived backgrounds.[11][12] The Faculty says this is based on data showing that these candidates may perform less well at first interview in a way that does not predict how they will do on the course.
During final decisions, the Admissions Coordinators circulate a spreadsheet of strong candidates who have not yet received offers, and colleges can make offers to candidates on this list without interviewing them. The 2025-26 report notes that three colleges did so that year, and the 2024-25 report says the same of the round before. Neither report says how many candidates received offers in this way.[11][12]
Oxford publishes a handful of sample Law interview questions written by its tutors, but there is no full question bank.[21] Beyond these, the Faculty's report says only that candidates are asked about their existing schoolwork and given scenarios to test their reasoning,[12] and Mansfield's feedback says its candidates discuss a short case document read before each interview.[13] Lincoln College says its candidates are typically given a set of legal rules and a set of facts, and asked how the rules would apply to those facts.[32] The examples below are our own, written to illustrate three kinds of question that fit these descriptions. They are not taken from Oxford's published samples.
What tutors look for: whether you can pick out the relevant facts, draw distinctions, and refine your answer when the tutor pushes back.
What tutors look for: whether you can handle abstract ideas, explain the distinctions you draw, and test a definition against awkward cases.
What tutors look for: careful reading, a fair summary, and the confidence to point out where the author's argument has a problem.
The eight tips below are our own advice, based on the criteria above; they are not quotations from Oxford. Neither Mansfield's nor Keble's published feedback gives tips or interview scores,[13] but Keble's comes closest: on the 2025 round, it says weaker candidates tended to adopt a position without fully articulating their reasons or dealing convincingly with counterarguments.[22]
Many candidates list the arguments on each side and stop there. We recommend taking a view, giving your reasons and then dealing with the strongest objection to it, because tutors are looking for judgment.
If a tutor disagrees with you but gives no new reason, it is better to hold your position and explain it again. If they give a reason you hadn't considered, say so and revise your answer (for example, "That's a fair point, let me revise.").
It is tempting to give the first answer that comes to mind. Take a few seconds to work out what the question is really asking, and what makes it difficult, before you reply.
A case learnt in advance and brought into the conversation is usually easy to spot, and it does not show tutors how you think about the problem in front of you.
Notice which points the tutor follows up. If they keep returning to one phrase you used, they probably want you to explain or examine it further.
Test each general principle you state against a specific case, and be ready to move between the two. A principle with no example is hard for a tutor to assess.
If you don't know something, say so plainly and then reason from what you do know (for example, "I don't know this area specifically, but the principle would seem to be…"). Pretending to know is the worst thing you can do.
Tutors will sometimes change the facts of a scenario several times. Treat each new version as a fresh question and work out whether your earlier answer still holds.
Essay practice helps here too. The tutors' criteria[13] and the LNAT essay criteria[4] overlap heavily: both reward independent critical judgment, close attention to the question, clear structure and awareness of more than one line of argument. For this reason, we recommend treating your essay practice as interview practice as well, for example by talking through your essay plans with a teacher or friend and asking them to challenge you.
The [n] superscripts above link here. Each link opens the FOI request page, the Faculty or college document, or the official University page named.
Per-applicant LNAT scores and offer outcomes for 1,814 applicants to Law (M100) for 2025 entry, and a separate sheet of first- and second-college interview scores with 571 records. Law with Law Studies in Europe is not included.
First publication of the 80%/10%/10% (cGCSE/MCT/essay) shortlisting weighting. Without-cGCSE 50/50 fallback. Spreadsheet-of-strong-candidates rescue mechanism.
1-5 interview scoring scale, GCSE-shortlisted vs GCSE-offered means, second-interview priority for deprived backgrounds, no final admissions meeting.
College-level statement of the six tutor criteria applied at interview.
Second-college interviews in the 2022 round: 215 candidates, 118 of them made an offer, 25 of those offers made by the second college (10.4% of all offers).
Course-1 / Course-2 split, super-LNAT pull-in rule, bGCSE pull-in rule, second-interview redistribution detail.
Published A-Level offer, application timeline, course structure, online interviews in December.
44.4% of offer holders in the 2025-26 round received their offer from a college other than their first choice.
Sample interview questions written by the tutors who conduct the interviews, with a section for Law.
Two twenty-minute interviews built on scenarios; one remark on what separated the best candidates from weaker ones.
Reply of 28 September 2021 from Oxford's Information Compliance Team: essays are marked by comparative marking, which produces a ranking that scores are then assigned to reflect, and the reply lists the features of essays ranked highest and of essays ranked lower.
Response of 23 December 2025. Law (M100) only, UCAS cycles 2023 to 2025: applications, shortlisting and offers by domicile; offer holders' LNAT scores (minimum, maximum, mean, quartiles); average first- and second-college interview scores; offer holders' A-level bands and GCSE profiles.
Response of 30 July 2025. The Faculty's 57-page manual for the 2024-25 round (2025 entry), with the contextual-data and shortlisting-rule annexes redacted. Covers shortlisting (2.0 plus 0.5 candidates per place), the reasons a rank may not be representative, reasons for rejection before interview, the 1-5 interview scale, second interviews and essay marking by comparative judgement. One older annex still describes the essay as a choice of five questions passed unmarked to tutors; the rest of the manual and the Faculty reports describe central marking.
Response of 13 November 2023. Law (M100), 2023 cycle: LNAT scores, first-college interview scores and outcomes for the 582 interviewed candidates, of whom 212 received offers.
Lincoln's course page. Describes its two interviews, which need no previous legal knowledge and typically give candidates a set of legal rules and a set of facts.
The Faculty's criteria (application, reasoning ability, communication). States that existing knowledge of the law is not a criterion of admission, and that offers cannot be made on predicted grades alone.
More on the overview, LNAT, and grades.
Headline numbers, five-cycle funnel, demographic baseline.
Open Overview →Distribution, offer-rate curve, calculator, marking criteria.
Open LNAT →The 80/10/10 shortlisting algorithm and A* distribution.
Open Grades →Figures are taken from primary FOI and faculty reports.
View the sources →