Why an open fridge door can be a way to open your mind, too

Istill have fond memories of my Cambridge entrance exam 34 years ago because it was the first time anyone had put an exam paper in front of me containing questions for which I had not specifically been coached. My favourite was: “People could cool down their homes in summer by opening their refrigerator doors. Discuss”.

Oxford, sadly, seems to be rowing back on such challenges. The university’s director of admissions this week felt it necessary to advise applicants not to “overthink” questions they are asked at interview. Though the university didn’t quite say so, it was easy to read the subtext: that some students can’t cope any more with being thrown questions for which they have not been prepared and are getting too stressed.

But that, surely, is the whole point: to take applicants out of their comfort zones and test their real thinking ability. It shouldn’t just be Oxbridge, either. Why shouldn’t all universities set exams with questions that require students to think laterally – which is what, after all, they will have to do in the outside world?

And why not schools, too? A-levels have been widely criticised for producing formulaic education. Those who set them need to learn from Oxbridge interviews, and indeed from the old Common Entrance exams. The education schools offer would be greatly enriched by setting their pupils intellectual challenges such as: what does a rock look like? Or: is there any value to religion if there is no God? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, and no standard ways to answer them. And you cannot answer them simply by filling your head with geology or theology textbooks.

Another of my favourite questions is: is it easier for organisms to live in the sea or on land? At first sight it is silly, given every organism is adapted to its own environment. But it raises the issue: why did life originate in the sea rather than on land? It invites the examinee to explore their subject.

The traditional Oxford and Cambridge entrance interviews set a standard for uncovering an applicant’s wider thinking abilities. But there is a difference between an interesting interview and an interesting course.

The answer to the question at the beginning of this piece, by the way, sounds obvious but requires a bit of thought to explain: a refrigerator is a heat pump which can raise the temperature in one location at a cost of raising it in another. But as an energy-consuming machine, the net effect will be to generate heat, so if your priority is to cool your kitchen rather than preserve your dinner, you would be better turning the fridge off.

Having answered that, I was accepted into Cambridge to read engineering, but changed subject after a year of studies that I found more formulaic even than A-level. That, however, is another story.