hey guys
i've been invited for interviews for phds but am really nervous! i'm not the best person at expressing my knowledge! was wondering if anybody had any hints or tips about interviews and how to make a good impression?
thanks

Obviously be fully-familiar with all that you wrote in your proposal, you will be quizzed on it. Make sure you emphasise your achievements to date. They are bound to ask you questions you do not know the answer to. Don't try to sound knowledgeable on something that you're not, instead just say that you don't know, but that you would have to find out.

Also, be clear on what your motivations are for doing the PhD and why at that particular uni. Most of all, sound keen, enthusiastic and motivated to do it whilst appreciating that the experience will be a rollercoaster ride. Perhaps something to think about is what you can do to make yourself appear better than the competition.

Good luck, you'll be fine!

In my experience one of the most important things is to come across as very enthusiastic..
Knowledgewise, don't worry about revising the entire subject, I think all you really need to do is make sure you are familiar with any techniques and ideas mentioned in the description..
Be prepared to answer questions like 'Why are you interested in this subject?' 'What do you enjoy about it?' 'Why do you want to do a PhD?'. There are no right or wrong answers but the supervisors wont be impressed if u can't answer them. One other thing I got asked a few times was what I planned on doing in the future and how i felt a PhD would help me to reach my goal.. Oh and have some questions to ask them that always goes down well

Hey Gayle, I concur with Tricky's comments.. the things you will have to demonstrate more strongly are reasons for wanting to do a PhD (and here you will have to have some idea about the PhD process, challenges etc.,), and that you have the enthusiasm and determination to see it through to the end.

Intellect, and to a lesser extent subject knowledge, are all assessed from your CV/degree result and proposal respectively. My guess is if you have been selected for an interview you have passed the latter requirements more or less. Always helps to read up on the departments/supervisors research interests and round your area.

Good luck

devise the perfect answer to the question 'why should we give you this position' i got asked it in all of my interviews. and read read read the subject area.

My interview was based almost exclusively on my research proposal. You should be able to explain it in detail, tell them about existing bibliography (although they won't expect you to have read everything), explain why your research will be important to the discipline, why it will be original and new, show that you know which are the resources you need and wheter they are available...

If you have applied to a PhD whose topic is already decided, you should show your knowledge of the topic, possibly doing some reading about it before the interview.