No admissions test; 1 interview
General questioning about interests; Questions focused on source interpretation
Reading previous students' testimonies; Practice interviews; Self-testing
N/A (no admissions test taken)
Go over the content of your course; Don't put too much pressure on yourself
Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.
Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.
Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 40-50 minutes
Online interview: Yes
We started with some general questions about why I wanted to study geography and where my areas of interest were. We talked about my NEA [Non-Exam Assessment] and it led into a source on climate change.
After we completed that, we had a map-based source that we had to interpret. We finished it off with general conversation with some interests but we were a bit late so had to finish in a rush.
I read a lot of articles about people's past experiences. I did 2
Definitely practise interviews and questions ahead of time. And read into your course: I noticed that the sources were highly centred on our course details like climate change and globalisation, so if you read up on the content it might help.
I didn't particularly want to apply to Cambridge in the first place so I didn't put that much pressure on myself as I wasn't that bothered about the outcome. So definitely take it easy and don't put pressure on yourself and be yourself. They're really looking for an authentic person with a passion for the subject, so be interesting and not all about academics: have a personality