Translated by OfferLand from the original Traditional Chinese post. View original
mrharrystudy
Feb 4, 2025
✨ Interview with a 2025 UCL MSc Finance Admit
📍 Interviewee background
Serina
Bachelor's: National Chung Cheng University
Major: Finance
GPA: 4.13/4.3
Financial industry internship*1
IELTS: Overall 7.0 / R: 8.0 / L: 7.5 / W: 6.5 / S: 6.5
Admitted to:
❤️ IG post
📍 A lasting impression of the UK
I'd been on a short study trip to the UK before, and it left a deep impression on me. I saw how teaching methods and the environment differ in Western countries, so when choosing where to apply for my master's, I decided to aim for an English-speaking country in Europe.
The UK has an excellent academic reputation internationally, and a master's takes only 1 year, which fits my financial and career plans very well. On top of that, it's very easy to travel from the UK to other European countries, a great chance to travel and experience different cultures while studying abroad.
📍 What to know when choosing a program
When choosing a master's program, first think about your future career direction. Once your goal is set, look for matching programs and assess whether the knowledge and skills you'll gain can help you reach that goal. Schools' program pages all provide statistics for reference, including the jobs and industry breakdown of past graduates, which you can use to check whether the career outcomes match your expectations. You can also compare the course focus and structure at different schools to choose the content that suits you best and interests you.
Take finance as an example: besides pure Finance, there are options like Accounting & Finance, Finance Analytics and Fintech. These programs have clearer application areas, but after assessing myself, I wanted to study financial theory and practice in depth and build up my professional skills, so in the end I chose the MSc Finance.
📍 Why UCL?
I chose UCL not only because it ranks near the top worldwide. The main reason is that I studied finance, and London is one of the world's major financial centers. Its business school is also located in Canary Wharf, surrounded by office towers that house the world's big banks and financial institutions. I felt that studying in this kind of environment would be very helpful for future jobs or internship opportunities, so UCL became my first choice.
📍 Prepare for the interview early
After you receive the Video Interview (Kira), you have 1 week to complete it. I'd suggest starting to prepare and practice as soon as you submit your application. The interview has 5-6 questions, each answered in about 1-2 minutes, and there may be a writing question.
Preparation: start by finding past years' questions on Xiaohongshu to practice with. Some programs reuse questions similar to previous years, but others change them often, so be ready to adapt.
Tip: before the actual recorded interview, there are usually practice questions you can use to test things. Use them to practice a few times so you get used to recording while looking at the camera; it also helps you feel less nervous.
📍 Choosing a consultant
I consulted about four agencies, paying particular attention to how my conversations with the consultants went and whether the overall service matched my needs, and assessing what help I'd get at each stage of preparation. With a limited budget, I wanted to find the agency that suited me best. Throughout the application, Harry always reminded me in time about things to watch for and deadlines, and replied to messages very efficiently, so overall I felt completely at ease leaving it to Harry to help.
📍 Do you need IELTS prep classes?
Whether you need IELTS classes depends on your own needs. For example, how long you have to prepare, whether you prepare full time, or whether you prepare in your spare time after classes (or work) all affect how you plan. I think classes helped me learn the different question types and answering techniques faster when time was limited. I found writing and speaking tutors on an online platform. With the teacher's weekly writing corrections and instant feedback during speaking practice, I could fix mistakes right away and also see my blind spots for the test more clearly.
For listening and reading, I only practiced by doing questions, starting from Cambridge IELTS 11 and working my way through the later books. I think reviewing wrong answers is crucial. Especially for listening, carefully analyze which sentence you didn't catch or which words you didn't understand; for reading, find the words in the passage that correspond to the question. Also, do extra practice on question types you often get wrong, and after a while you'll see steady progress!
📍 How to prepare for listening
I recommend practicing listening at 1.2x speed to train yourself, and you must do listening and reading questions every day so you don't lose your touch. For speaking, I recommend watching IELTS Advantage on YT to see how band 9.0 speakers answer, and learning from them. For writing, I recommend downloading Simon's model essays and practicing by following his structure. Tell yourself every day to write at least one Task 1 or 2; you'll get a lot out of it!
📍 Recommended YT channels
This channel's videos cover IELTS test techniques, vocabulary for all kinds of speaking topics, idioms and practice questions. Practice with them when you have time or on topics you're less familiar with.
This channel's videos cover test techniques for listening, speaking, reading and writing, and explain how to solve questions in quite a lot of detail. I followed her approach when doing reading questions, so when you're just starting out and not yet familiar with the question types and techniques, you can refer to these videos!
📍 A few words for everyone
If you plan to apply but haven't decided yet, I think you can start by choosing a target country and learning about different schools and programs. When you have time, read posts online or go to study-abroad fairs to get a basic idea of the application process! Once you're sure you want to study abroad, start preparing your master's application documents and the IELTS early. Begin by organizing your past university and work experience so writing your CV and SOP goes more smoothly. Some schools also require IELTS scores at the time of application, so if you can get your score early, you'll feel less pressure and have an easier time later in the process.
【OfferLand Partner Study-Abroad Consultant】
🙋🏻♂️Harry, independent UK and Australia consultant
👉🏻 Click to ask 👈🏻
Want to study in the UK but save on agency fees? Want to study in Australia but save on application fees?
Want to apply on your own but still have someone to help?
✔ A consultant who truly looks after students: efficient and quick to reply!
✔ Best of all, there are [no agency fees]; a modest service fee applies only to certain specific services! You'll be told in advance about anything that costs money
✔ Plans your study-abroad timeline and watches the application details, gives you an admission-chance analysis and a strategic university application plan, customized document coaching, plus follow-up housing (off-campus), visa and pre-departure services
Schools in this post
See each school's applicant numbers, admit rates and past applicants' results