The words to use
- Thinking aloud
- Saying your reasoning as you go, so the interviewer can follow, nudge and credit it, rather than thinking in silence and announcing a conclusion.
- Anchor
- Something you genuinely understand that is close to the question, used as a starting point to reason from.
- Supervision
- Cambridge's small-group teaching, where an academic questions your reasoning closely. The interview gives you a taste of it.
- Placebo
- A dummy treatment that looks the same as the real one, so expectations can't explain a difference between the groups.
