Linking forms of higher branched covers of knots

It is a common practice in knot theory to study knots in terms of branched coverings of the three-sphere branched along the knot in question. In particular, one can use the linking form of the branched cover of a knot. In several cases this strategy applied to double branched covers turned out to be quite effective. On the contrary, repeating this strategy for higher branched covers very rarely given interesting knot invariants. In this talk we will give an explanation of this difference between double branched covers and higher branched covers.