Architecture @ Girton, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x interviews (30 mins each, 2 interviewers each); 1x pre-interview essay (30 mins); 1x drawing assignment (30 mins)

Interview content

Pre-interview tasks: very general topics; interview 1: general motivations, personal statement, analysis of photographs; Interview 2: portfolio-based

Best preparation

Watch documentaries

Final thoughts

Try to be confident and maintain eye contact

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

I had both written assessments and interviews on the same day in Cambridge at the beginning of December. First, a 30 minute essay on architecture, followed by a 30 minute drawing assignment in the same room. Then I had 2 interviews throughout the day each with two interviewers. The first was a subject interview, and the second for talking about your portfolio.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The essay and drawing tasks are very broad so you can generally approach them by drawing and writing about what you know and do best. I found that the time restraints were difficult. In the first interview the discussion was on my motivations for studying for architecture, personal statement, readings, the subject as a whole as well as analysing photographs. It's a "malleable" discussion.

The portfolio interview was centered on the presentation of my work and the questions were mostly inviting me to develop on it.

How did you prepare?

Watching many documentaries on the subject to get a hang of the lingo and how to describe things, especially for non-native English speakers.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

In my opinion, confidence and eye contact might help the interviewers remember you.