History of Art Admissions Assessment; 1x interview
Interview 1: analysing pieces of art
Made a checklist of what to consider when analysing art
Practised making observations and comparisons
Show the interviewers that you are there to learn
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: History of Art Admissions Assessment
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No
I had one interview with two interviewers. The first half of the interview was about my personal statement and in the second half I had to analyse some pieces of art. My interviewers were both very nice and put me at ease. I had heard lots of rumours about people being asked random, very difficult questions in their interview but that wasn't the case at all.
They know that not many people will have studied History of Art before, so they aren't looking for facts or in depth knowledge of particular subject areas (unless you have written about that in your personal statement) and instead are looking for your observation skills. I prepared by annotating pieces of art and familiarising myself with a few technical terms. I found it useful to make a checklist of things to think about when presented with a piece of art. I made sure I was familiar with everything I had written in my personal statement and thought about what questions could be asked in reference to it, but didn't learn answers.
For the History of Art test there isn't a specific question to answer and instead you have to analyse and compare two pieces of art, twice. You are not expected to name them or identify the period, instead you should make observations. There was one practice test on the website, so I annotated the artworks with points that I could expand when writing an essay. I found this useful as it helped me spot similar things in the real test. I would recommend practising annotating art under a time limit.
My advice would be to think out loud. Show that you are there to learn. Don't say 'I don't know', instead if you are unsure ask a question. Also remember to smile. It's definitely not as bad as you think that it's going to be.