Human, Social And Political Science @ Robinson, Cambridge in 2020

Interview format

2x 30 minute interviews

Interview content

Interview 1 (sociology): discussion relating to a picture Interview 2 (politics): discussion of written work, then personal statement

Best preparation

Going over personal statement, practice talking about it, mock interviews

Final thoughts

Think out loud!

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.

Interview Format

Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 10 minutes
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

For my HSPS interviews, the first one was sociology-based and the second one was politics-based. In the sociology one I was shown a picture and had to share my thoughts on it and then they carried on asking me questions related to the picture and ideas around it.

For the politics one, half of it focused on the written work I had sent in for my application, where they asked me to expand on the arguments I had made in the written work and more questions related to the topic I discussed in it. The second half of that interview focused on a part of my personal statement and again they asked me questions and thoughts related to that bit in my personal statement.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I went through my personal statement line by line and annotated it and expanded on all the ideas on it - also made sure I knew exactly what I was talking about in my personal statement e.g. if I mentioned a book I went through the book again to remember key ideas. I also googled possible HSPS interview questions and had my sister ask me them and tried to answer them under pressure. My sixth form also carried out mock interviews and they were very useful and encouraging (definitely helped calm my nerves).

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Think out loud!!!! I got told this and it helped me so much. They want to see how you think and how well you’d be suited to supervision-style teaching so think aloud! For example, when asked a question, say things like “well the first thing that comes into my head when you ask that is XYZ… and I also thing XYZ… but also now that I think about it, ABC also can apply because DEF”.

Also, when interviewers challenge you (which they often do) it’s not because you’re doing something wrong, they want to see how you respond to new information/different arguments. Feel free to argue your initial point (as long as you can justify it) but also feel confident in accepting the challenging argument and rethinking and reshaping your initial argument.