Test taken: Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (note - this was the test in 2019, there is no longer an admissions assessment for Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic)
Number of interviews: 2
Online interview: No

For my College interview, the questions were quite broad, but still seemed to be focussed on my academic skills a surprising amount. I had expected it to be the other way around, that my College interview would be more general and the subject interview would be more academic, but really it felt like the other way around. I noticed a theme in my College interview that they really wanted to make sure I could handle studying history at a Cambridge level, since ASNaC has a lot of history papers on offer but I didn’t take A-Level History.

Both interviews were very personal statement-oriented, and both gave me the chance to talk about my EPQ project a lot since I did mine on a relevant topic. They were also both quite relaxed, although the subject interview I think was more so - I have never forgotten how comfy and cosy that sofa was! Everyone was much friendlier than I expected and it became apparent very quickly that they wanted me to be as calm and content as possible. I was warned that I might be thrown a strange curveball question, and I did get something like that in my College interview, but it wasn’t at all as strange as interview rumours would have you believe and it fit in perfectly well with the conversation we were already having.

Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic is a little unusual in that the interviewers don’t expect you to know very much about the content of the course when you apply, so for my subject interview I focussed on going over my personal statement and making sure I knew everything I had put on there inside-out. Even if you’ve put things on there that seem irrelevant to ASNaC, you should try to organise your thoughts on them - I got a question that managed to connect medieval history with a small mention I’d made of climate justice activism! But that was quite unusual and they were very kind about it; they were more interested in how I reacted and laid out my thoughts than my actual answer. It’s also a good idea to think about more personal questions on the subject, like why you want to study it or why you think the field is important.

Finally, I sat down with one of my A-level teachers for a very general practice interview. It wasn’t very detailed, but it didn’t have to be - just getting used to answering (and being asked!) questions about your goals and why you want to go to Cambridge can be very helpful! It certainly eased a lot of anxiety I had and helped me to be more relaxed in the interviews themselves. A practice interview doesn’t at all have to be a totally accurate recreation of the real thing in order to help!

I just found as many past papers as I could and went through them in the two or three weeks leading up to the test - not even always as timed practice, but just to familiarise myself with the types of question that came up! The first couple of past papers I looked at were a little intimidating but once I got used to them I felt very comfortable and ready for the real thing, so I definitely recommend spending some low-pressure time going through them at your own pace as well as the usual timed practice.

The most important thing I can think of is that interviewers are generally more interested in how you think about questions than how you respond to them! They don’t necessarily want to know how much subject-related trivia you already know; they want to know what you’ll be like to teach, that you can adapt your thinking to new information, sometimes even that you have the curiosity and passion for the subject to ask interesting questions of your own. It’s less of a test and more of a discussion - I know that sounds clichéd but it really is true. It does them no favours if they make it impossible for you to succeed in an interview, and actually I’ve found in hindsight that, generally speaking, they want you to succeed. Curveball questions are more experimental than testing - they just want to see your thought process in action.

All in all, I would say that the best advice is to practice keeping calm in stressful situations just as much as you practice the questions and content itself. Keeping a level head can be tricky, but it goes a long way in helping you out when you inevitably face a question that takes you by surprise. You can’t prepare for everything they will ask you, but you can prepare for how you’ll think and feel when something a little unexpected comes up.