English Literature Admissions Test, History Aptitude Test, 2x interviews
Interview 1: Questions on unseen poetry; Interview 2: Questions on personal statement
Re-read personal statement, went over books mentioned
Talked about the subject to teachers with feedback
Have opinions about any books you have read
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:
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 day
Length of interviews: 15-20 minutes
Online interview: Yes
I had two interviews, one was an unseen poem that I talked through with the tutors, this also broadened out into a discussion of poetry. This was basically just thinking out loud and exploring possible interpretations of the poem.
The other interview was mainly based on my personal statement and was essentially a discussion of my thoughts of what I had read and why it interested me. It was fairly nerve-racking, however the interviewers were very friendly and this helped me to relax into it. I definitely made a few mistakes, forgetting certain details in books however, the tutors allowed for this and actually corrected me as well as clarifying some points.
Most importantly I reread my personal statement, highlighting any books or quotations I had used and going over my notes for these (this is what the interview mainly focuses on).
Doing wider reading was especially helpful, so this was literature that wasn’t mentioned in the personal statement but was closely related to it and could be brought up in an interview for comparison. It was particularly useful to do a lot of practice reading new poems and deciphering meanings, as one interview is an unseen extract that you talk through.
Also, it’s helpful to reread year 12 notes, but also particularly what you are studying at that moment.
Practice papers on the Oxford website. A lot of reading exercises e.g passages and extracts, it was helpful talking to teachers and tutors as they would give feedback.
If you are passionate about your subject, this will show in interviews as the interview is more like a discussion than a question and answer. I think this was the most important aspect of the interview. Therefore, it is good to have opinions about any books you have read and also engage with what critics or commentators have argued (agreeing/disagreeing with them).
Don’t try to anticipate what they may ask you instead make sure you have checked your personal statement before the interview and have refreshed your memory of all the books you have talked about (so you don’t make any mistakes over plot details!)
To be honest I had a lot of practice with doing interviews as I had a mentor for the oxbridge application process, so the interview lived up to my expectations and I was a lot less nervous about doing it. It is really good to do
Keeping a logbook of some sorts for books you have read is also quite useful as you may want to pull key quotations to use in the interview. For English it’s good to show that you have read widely but you also have a particular interest, this may be in a period of literature or a particular theme. Given that, I would say don’t panic about what you don’t know or haven’t read, just make sure you are really secure with what you have read and what you mentioned in the personal statement.