HSPS Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews
Interview 1: Discussion of pre-interview text; Interview 2: Personal statement and general discussion
Read around the subject
-
Take your time on difficult questions.
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: HSPS Admissions Assessment
Number of Interviews: 2
Skype interview: No
Time between interviews: An hour and a half
Length of first interview: 20 minutes; Length of second interview: 20 minutes
I was given a text to study for 10 minutes prior to my first interview. We then discussed this text in my first interview, and moved on to answer questions surrounding the text and general discussion. In the second interview we discussed my personal statement, including books that I had read, before moving on to answering some very open ended questions.
I did practice papers and general reading around my subject, which is
Some of the questions they ask are very difficult to answer and are meant to throw you off, so don't be alarmed if you can't answer immediately, take your time and talk them through your thought process.