English Language And Literature @ Christ Church, Oxford in 2019

Interview format

4 x 20-45 min interviews

Interview content

A short text to look at before and personal statement, and in one of them I was given a poem to analyse in the interview

Best preparation

I revised texts on A-Level course and personal statement, and had one practice interview with my school teacher

Test preparation

Past papers

Final thoughts

They want to see how you work things out so try and 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: English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)
Number of interviews: 4
Time between interviews: Shortest 3hrs longest 24hrs
Length of interviews: One 45 mins the rest 20 mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In 3 of them I had a short text to look at before and then spoke for half the time about that and the rest on my personal statement, one of them I was given a poem to analyse in the interview

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I revised texts on A-Level course and personal statement, had one practice interview with my school teacher, I think it would have been more helpful to have a practice interview with a stranger or teacher who didn't teach me.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Looked at past papers

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Think of things beforehand that you like talking about to do with your subject and then you can steer the discussion towards those if you're stuck. I don't think they're looking for particular answers but they want to see how you work things out so try and think out loud