1. What are the most important aspects in a successful MPhil application to Oxford?
From my understanding, the most critical requirement for a successful MPhil application to Oxford is the grades from your second year; from what I have been told over the years, around 74-75% is the grade that would increase your chance of a successful application. Yet, if you are not confident with your second-year grades, one way to demonstrate your academic merit could be to take the GRE test and submit your grade, since it would provide additional evidence. I believe good academic records are a necessary but not sufficient condition when applying to Oxford.
For an Oxford application, you are also asked to submit a written document (for which I used my literature review for EC331: Research in Applied Economics). Given that it shows your ability to write and apply economic concepts to the real world, I would say that it is important besides academic records and references.

2. How important was getting a good academic reference from Warwick?
I am not entirely sure how much weight my academic references would have had in my application being successful at Oxford. In my case, I asked for academic references from Professor Jeremy Smith, Christian Soegaard and Emil Kostadinov. With two of the professors, I had spoken about my interest in doing a master's and consulted them for their advice since my first year at Warwick, and they also taught me throughout my years at Warwick. So, I am confident they were well-suited to write about my academic strengths and confirm my motivations for applying to the programme, which I had written about in my statement of purpose.

3. What knowledge and skills did you highlight for your application to Oxford?
In my application, firstly I highlighted my areas of interest in Economics and linked them to the modules I undertook at Warwick; in doing so, I emphasised the key skills I gained by undertaking them and explained how it would allow me to excel in the master's program.
In addition, I also wrote about what my internship at Goldman Sachs entailed as it was relevant to one of my motivations for applying to Oxford and reflected what my strengths may be in a professional setting for which the master's degree would be helpful.

4. Is there any specific advice you would give to students applying for an MPhil at Oxford?
I would advise students applying to Oxford to focus on their studies in the second year since that is the minimum required for a successful application at Oxford. Undertaking mathematically rigorous modules such as EC306 and EC338 would have a good signalling effect for applications and prepare you well for the programme (it seems like a good idea to think about your performance on the master’s programme, considering there is a big step up and an immense time pressure you would face).
Before committing to the master’s degree, it would be a great idea to seriously reflect on what you would like to do in the future and see if it would add value to your plan, since it is very intense and necessarily incurs opportunity costs in the sense that you may be better-off gaining skills and training in the field you would like to end up in. So, I would highly recommend you contemplate what you are good at and what type of person you are before deciding on applying.

5. Why did you choose to study this course?
To briefly explain the logic behind choosing this programme at Oxford, I was not been sure if I would like to do a PhD in the future or go into the private sector and was debating between the EME course at LSE and this MPhil programme. From consulting people in academia and the private sector, I concluded that the Oxford programme provides a great balance of academically-rigorous training and brand value for private-sector applications. Furthermore, it is a 2-year programme, which I believe is the perfect amount of time for you to explore your interests and strengths.

6. Did your undergraduate degree at Warwick prepare you well for your MPhil?
To briefly describe my module background at Warwick, I undertook quite mathematically-heavy optional modules at Warwick, such as EC119 Mathematical Analysis, EC221 Mathematical Economics 1B, EC306 Econometrics 2: Time Series and EC338 Econometrics 2: Microeconometrics. I feel that having studied these modules has certainly helped me follow the lectures at Oxford.
However, the pace of the master's degree is very fast and the economic concepts I have encountered before at Warwick are expressed purely in mathematical terms. So, I have had to spend quite a lot of time trying to understand them; yet, speaking to my friends on the course from different undergraduate programmes, this appears to be a common experience in having to adjust to the difficulty of master-level study. Hence, I feel that a BSc in Economics at Warwick has equipped me well for the basis of the programme.