History of Art Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.
Personal statement questions, discussion of images/sources, reasons for wanting to study History of Art at Cambridge.
Read a lot about art history and relate your readings to one another; visit galleries/exhibitions.
Try to enjoy it; show your enthusiasm and interest.
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: 2
Time between interviews: Can't remember.
Length of interviews: Can't remember, maybe 20 minutes
Online interview: No
Both of my interviews were of a similar format. We spoke a little about my interests that I had brought up in my personal statement. I was asked questions about images that were shown to me in the interview, where I voiced my thoughts aloud to show my thought process. I was quite nervous in my first interview but in my second I was very relaxed, my interviewers were really friendly and the room had a comfortable atmosphere. I was excited to be there talking about a subject I love!
In my first interview there were two things I was asked about that I could not remember well, and I was very embarrassed when I answered that I simply couldn't remember! But it wasn't an issue and we just moved on with the interview - it's not the end of the world if you don't know the answer.
In the second interview I was also asked about why I wanted to study at Cambridge, and why I wanted to study History of Art in particular.
I did a lot of reading, finding history of art books and articles that really interested me! I took notes on particular points and passages that stood out to me and how they might relate to any artworks I had seen or any other books I had read.
I also went over my personal statement quite a lot, and made sure to revisit everything I had mentioned in it so that I would be able to expand on it if it came up in my interview.
I also made sure to visit galleries and exhibitions! It was especially useful when I went to an exhibition about something I had mentioned in my personal statement.
I used example practice papers I found on the internet and drafted out answers, timing myself. I also practiced planning answers in 5 minutes by picking pairs of artworks at random from a textbook and quickly annotating them and coming up with ideas of what comparisons I could make between them
Try to enjoy it! I know it is scary, I was terrified, but I actually ended up really enjoying my second interview because it just felt like discussing my favourite subject with two academics who also love the subject! Show your enthusiasm and interest :)