By Cyril KimbiMost candidates prepare for the written paper and treat the oral as something that will take care of itself. Then they arrive, are asked why they want the school, and produce ninety seconds of nothing. The oral is the stage where preparation is rarest — which is exactly why it moves rankings.
What a panel is actually assessing
Not charisma, and not your life story. In practice a panel is checking four things:
- Do you know what this training leads to? A candidate who cannot describe the job at the end of the programme looks like someone who chose a name, not a career.
- Can you reason out loud? Given an unfamiliar question, do you structure an answer or freeze?
- Are you honest about limits? “I don’t know, but here is how I would find out” scores better than invention, every time.
- Can you be followed? Clear, ordered speech at a normal pace.
Notice that three of the four have nothing to do with knowledge. They are habits, and habits respond to rehearsal.
The four questions that come up everywhere
Whatever the school, some version of these appears. Prepare them properly and you have covered most of the ground.
- Why this school, and why this field? The weak answer is about prestige or family expectation. The strong answer names something specific about the training or the work.
- Tell us about yourself. Not a biography. Ninety seconds: where you are academically, what drew you to the field, what you have done about it.
- What will you do if you are not admitted? A trap only for the unprepared. Having a genuine fallback shows judgement, not weak commitment.
- Something about the field itself. Current issues, basic realities of the profession. This is where reading beyond the syllabus pays.
Answering a question you cannot answer
This is the single most useful skill, because it will happen.
The method: say plainly that you do not know, then show your reasoning — what the question relates to, how you would approach finding out, what you can say with confidence. A panel that wanted only correct recall would have set a written test. The oral exists partly to see how you behave at the edge of your knowledge.
What loses marks is bluffing. Panels are made of specialists; invented detail is obvious to them and it undermines everything you said before it.
Preparing in the last three weeks
| Week | Work |
|---|---|
| 3 weeks out | Research the school and the profession. Write one page on each. |
| 2 weeks out | Draft answers to the four core questions. Say them aloud, do not memorise. |
| 1 week out | Mock interviews with someone willing to interrupt and push back. |
| Final days | Documents, route, timing. No new material. |
Say answers aloud. An answer that reads well silently often collapses when spoken, and discovering that in the room is expensive. Recording yourself once is uncomfortable and unusually effective.
Do not memorise word for word. Memorised answers sound memorised, and they break completely when the question is phrased differently — which it will be. Learn the three points you want to make, not the sentences.
Language, when the oral is not in your first language
For a candidate sitting an oral in their weaker official language, the honest advice is to reduce ambition rather than raise it: shorter sentences, simpler constructions, a slower pace. Clarity scores; complexity attempted and lost does not.
Practise speaking about your field in that language for a few minutes daily, well before the oral. The vocabulary of any single profession is narrow and learnable.
On the day
Arrive early enough that lateness is impossible. Bring every document, plus copies. Dress plainly. Greet the panel, sit when invited, and let a question finish before answering — candidates interrupt far more than they realise under pressure.
If an answer goes badly, leave it there. Panels score the whole interview, and visibly recovering from a poor answer reads better than the poor answer costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does every concours include an oral?
No. Check the arrêté for your examination and year at the source.
Should I memorise my answers?
No. Learn your points; memorised sentences break when the question changes.
What if I do not know the answer?
Say so, then reason aloud. Bluffing is what actually costs marks.
How should I dress?
Plainly and neatly. The aim is to be unremarkable in appearance.
Is admitting a fallback plan a weakness?
No. It reads as judgement, provided your interest in this school is specific.
