Classics (3 Years) @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Classics Admissions Test; 2x interviews.

Interview content

Interviews: personal statement, art comparison, discussions of an unseen text and a submitted essay.

Best preparation

Finding potential questions; speaking to students, professors; revisiting personal statement and old essays.

Final thoughts

Don't have overly high expectations of yourself; keep an open mind.

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: Classics Admissions Test
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours
Length of interviews: 1 hour
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Most of the interviews centred around my personal statement, a little on my submitted essay, a passage for me to explore and get ideas from, art to compare, a lot of challenges to the ideas I presented.

I relaxed as I went along and of course some interviews were a lot better than others - some things I was more confident with.

Be ready to admit you need to research more, and know that the interviewers try and bring out new ideas from you.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Speaking to students, contacting professors at the uni, talking to my teachers, practice interviews, researching potential questions and writing generalised answers on cue cards, revising my personal statement, revising my essays and ensuring I’d read all the material thoroughly, preparing questions for them.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Quizlet, emailing professors at Cambridge, talking to ex students, practise tests

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Don’t expect too much of yourself on interview day - you are nervous and they know that! Just be confident in what you do know and be prepared to take some challenges to a head.

Interviewers want to see a genuine interest in the subject. Keep an open mind and be yourself and you’ll be fab.