Anglo-Saxon, Norse, And Celtic @ Fitzwilliam, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x 20 min interviews, few hrs apart

Interview content

Interview 1: in department, sources, personal statement; interview 2: in college, source

Best preparation

Mock interview, went over personal statement

Final thoughts

Think out loud, don't worry if you don't know

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: Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Admissions Assessment
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: A couple of hours
Length of interviews: Approx 20 mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview was a departmental one, in which I was given an extract to read in the common room, before being called in. I was first asked questions about the extract; what I had learnt from it, what I thought of it and the like, with no expectation of knowing anything beyond what was provided. I was also provided an image and asked to explain it, before being asked a little about my personal statement and about my own interests in the various elements of the course. The entire interview was a very relaxed and friendly discussion, with an encouragement to think aloud.

The second interview took place in the college I applied to with two academics not from my subject. This time there was no preparatory work, but instead I was given a source unrelated to my subject and asked questions about it, simply to see what I noticed and to understand my thought process. Again the interview was very relaxed, with no sense of pressure or intimidation and a willingness to help if I couldn't think of anything more to say on a question.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

To prepare for my interview I was very fortunate that someone at Cambridge had previously gone to my school and helped applicants prepare, and by coincidence one of their friends was an Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic student. Her help in a 'mock' interview was particularly useful in understanding that it is much more a conversation about the passion you have for the subject and an exploration of the way you think rather than being another admissions test or a grilling.

Beyond that, I made sure that I knew what I'd actually put in my personal statement and that I was prepared to talk about all of it.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I only looked at the past papers available on the department website as they were more than sufficient for an idea of how the admissions assessment worked, with the first section being questions on short articles on unrelated subjects and the latter a short essay response to short text related to the subject, but with no prior knowledge required.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

My advice would simply be to relax, as the interviewers aren't trying to intimidate you and don't expect you to know absolutely everything about a subject. Make sure to think out loud so you can help them understand how you work, but don't feel as though not knowing an answer to a question is a bad thing. If they provide alternative views they aren't saying you're wrong, they just want to see how you can respond to new information.