Interview Questions

[drdoug]

I saw this article - Could you get into Oxford University - which has a series of interview questions from Oxford.

I thought these were interesting questions so I thought I’d have a quick, time-limited stab at them. Googling not allowed, which was insanely frustrating at times.

Q: Why is income per head between 50 and 100 times larger in the US

Comments

[vinaigrettegirl]

Being a geographer I'd be looking at the income per head question in part from physical geography in a non-determinist way, considering soil mining, use of environment, and mass migration of peoples over the last 20K years, and then cultural and livelihood practices with regard to brides and offspring. The southern hemisphere has a landmass deficit, the savannahs are a relict fire-based landscape, cultivation systems that preserved land capital died off about 500 years ago (or more), and polygamy with high birth rates and high rates of maternal mortality continued to be of cultural value when in the global north those values and practices were on the wane. Of all the things that influence economics, the valuing of social relations, especially family relations, is the least-well-recognised driver of much else that happens. This is certainly an issue in Malawi and Burundi. People there make the best possible choices from what they understand and what they think can be achieved, just as in every country, but their concept of 'best'

[merryhouse]

I'm sorry, I can't get any further than "they fall off", which suggests strongly to me that I don't understand the instruction...

What is the orientation of the hands in relation to gravity? What is the orientation of the rulers in relation to the hands? What is the movement that brings the fingers together?

I notice that I am confused ;-)