My interview was in December at Emmanuel. My day was made up of a short test and then two interviews, one of each language I applied for. I applied for Spanish and French, both post A-Level.

The test was based upon a given, unseen extract in English which we had to summarise in either Spanish or French (we had the choice of the language we used for this part), and then a question where we analysed the text in English. The two interviews followed, with about an half an hour break in between, and before each one we were taken to a room for 30 minutes to read an unseen extract in the target language.

The interview was based on the text I had been given for half an hour before going in. This was, at least, the starting point of the conversation. After we had discussed this in both the target language and English, I was asked to read a passage in the language I was hoping to study. I was then asked questions about my further reading and other things on my personal statement.

At the time I felt incredibly nervous but I told myself that I should just try my best and that things would work out if they were meant to be. I had prepared a lot for my interviews and I knew my personal statement very well, which definitely gave me more confidence than I would’ve had without having done this.

After the interviews I felt really disappointed in myself, as if I hadn’t shown all I could do. This is so normal. You always focus on the bad points and never on the good! The interviewers know you’re nervous and almost expect you to make mistakes. The main thing is to try your best and your passion for your subject should enable conversation. This is both due to the fact that you have a lot of extra things to talk about and the conversations you have with such experts are genuinely captivating.

The best thing to do is to go beyond the school curriculum and read a relevant book, watch a relevant film etc purely because that’s what interests you and what you enjoy your time doing. I would also recommend knowing your personal statement to a tee as they will likely pick up on lots of small details from this.

Remind yourself of all of the subject-related things you’ve done and have something to say about these - it’s easy to forget what you’ve done, especially on the spot, so essentially just ‘revise’ your experiences before your interview so that they’re fresh in your mind. It’s also really important to be able to explain why you did this and what you learnt from it!

If the interview is hard and you’re worried that you didn’t know anything then it is very likely that you have been pushed because they’ve wanted to see how your mind works - this is a great thing! They clearly see potential! Just keep calm and remember than you will end up where is best for you.