IceBus said:My opinion of Oxbridge is also tempered by the fact that people from our school got in who were far less intelligent than some who got turned down - but must have appealed by coming across as studious when in actual fact they could rote memorise facts without being able to form their own opinions on anything.
IME the opposite was the case. Mindless automatons were turned down as being unsuitable. Oxford interviews and entrance exams (they no longer do the latter, formally) are generally designed to look at lateral thinking and ones ability to digest pertinent facts, for example.