2 x 20-30 min interviews, ELAT
Poem pre-reading and discussion; personal statement and general questions
I looked over my personal statement and made sure I had enough to say about all the books and other stuff I had mentioned on there.
Practice papers under timed conditions
I think it’s important to understand and remember that the tutors who are interviewing, the huge majority of the time, want you to do well. They are not trying to ‘trick’ you or ‘expose’ your weaknesses, they really want to see what your ideas are and what it would be like to work with and teach you.
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: English Literature Admissions Test (
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: A day
Length of interviews: 20 to 30 mins
Online interview: No
In my first interview showed up thirty minutes early and was given two poems. I had to choose one then had 30 minutes to close read them and get a feel for the text and the ideas it dealt with. Then for the actual interview the two tutors and I discussed the poem I had chosen for about 20 minutes. For my second interview, the two tutors took me through my personal statement and asked me about some of the things I had mentioned. This led to follow up questions about my broader thoughts on topics I had briefly mentioned on the statement. I also got asked some general questions in my second interview that weren’t specifically relating to my personal statement like ‘do you think it is important to read texts with an understanding of their historical context?’
I looked over my personal statement and made sure I had enough to say about all the books and other stuff I had mentioned on there. You don’t want to go in and have the interviewer ask you about a poem you remember nothing about!
I looked over all the ELAT past papers that had been made available online. I did a few practice papers under time to get a feel for what the task would be like, especially with regards to analysing new passages and writing under time.
I think it’s important to understand and remember that the tutors who are interviewing, the huge majority of the time, want you to do well. They are not trying to ‘trick’ you or ‘expose’ your weaknesses, they really want to see what your ideas are and what it would be like to work with and teach you. So do try to be yourself and are enjoyable to talk with. Also it is useful, for English at least, to do some broader reading that is not within your high school reading list or curriculum. Being able to mention this broader reading you have done on your personal statement shows the tutors that you really want to study English and have the drive to get through a three/four year English degree (which does involve a whole heap of reading!).