I had two interviews - one college interview in the morning with the Arts and Social Sciences admissions tutor, and one subject interview in the afternoon, at the AMES faculty with the faculty chairman (who is part of the Japanese department) and the Selwyn Director of Studies. The college interview had a short reading beforehand, and I was asked about it in the interview, but wasn't told what I'd be asked about when it was given to me.

In my college interview, we mainly talked about my personal statement, especially a specific book I had read. We also discussed my motivations for studying the subject. Finally, we turned to the reading I'd been given, and discussed the underlying ideas behind it. This interview mainly felt like a nice chat, although since there was no table between me and the interviewer I was quite aware they could see my hands quaking!

My subject interview was more challenging - we warmed up with a question about visiting Japan and moved onto discussing bias in history. We briefly discussed language, and my learning of Chinese (which I was studying for A level). Finally they asked me about my extra curriculars, which threw me a bit - I assumed it wouldn't come up, and wondered if they'd already decided to reject me! But it turned out all right in the end.

Honestly I didn't really prepare that much, other than going over my personal statement and re-reading a book I'd mentioned but couldn't remember that well. I had done some preparation for language-based puzzles too, such as the Oxford OLAT admissions test, but I ended up not needing it (although others had language based tests so I suppose it varies). It was helpful to use "The Student Room" to find fellow AMES applicants though as we could support each other through the application process and share any knowledge we had, which is especially useful for an obscure subject like AMES!

Get yourself to Fitzbillies for a post-interview Chelsea Bun - interviews are hard so you totally deserve a treat!