Cambridge Classics Language Assessment; 2x interviews.
Interview 1: discussion of a visual prompt, personal statement; Interview 2: discussion of an extract and submitted essays.
Doing extra reading and forming your own arguments, drawing parallels between events, mock interviews.
Don't be afraid to correct yourself in the interview; feel free to make unconventional arguments if you have the evidence.
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.
Test taken: Cambridge Classics Language Assessment
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: Day 1 - two academic interviews with two different colleges (the Cambridge Classics department allocates applicants another college) about 2 hours apart. Day 2 - language assessment.
Length of interviews: 45-50 minutes
Online interview: No
In my first interview, they started off by giving me a visual prompt - the tomb of a Roman emperor and his inscription (though I didn't know it then). I can't stress this point enough - they really don't expect you to have encyclopaedic knowledge on the prompt, what they are looking for is how you engage with the material. For example, they asked me why I thought the tomb inscription was in two languages, etc. It can be quite nerve-racking, but the interviewers really do calm you down. I should mention that they were really quite happy to hear any ideas if you come across them at a later point of the interview.
Halfway through the interview, they moved into discussing my personal statement and asked me about some of the arguments I had put forward.
I was given an extract to read before my second interview, and the first half of this interview was a discussion about the extract. It was less of a 2-to-1 interview, and more of a roundtable discussion scenario. The next part of the interview was regarding the essays I had submitted, relating them to the Classicial world.
Lastly, this was more of a personalised question, but they asked me if I was willing to reflect on the linguistics part of the course since I had been focused on the historical and archaeological part of Classics. So, pro tip - it can't hurt to familiarise yourself with the degree structure of your course and maybe have a slighty deeper look at the papers offered in the 1st year.
Coming from a school that didn't offer Classics as a subject at either GCSE or A-Level, the best preparation I did was doing extra reading on my own. While it seemed daunting, in retrospect it wasn't - I just focused on the aspects of Classics I loved learning about the most, such as Art and Archaeology, and watched documentaries. The admissions team looks favourably on such approaches because it shows that you are willing to explore the subject on your own and not stick to the curriculum only.
Read and form arguments of your own - why do you support a particular interpretation, what evidence do you have and how you can deflect any counter points. Sounds challenging but it really isn't! It starts with asking the easiest questions - why you believe something is convincing, and how you can use it to support your arguments.
Also, draw parallels between events - I was over ambitious and compared the Gallic Wars to Brexit; a very risky move given my knowledge of Brexit, but the interviewer liked the fact I could draw parallels between events separated by such a huge time period.
Do some
1. Grammar practice: if you have any knowledge of Latin, have look over the vocab sheets and the tenses. Be ready for some basic translations and parsing of sentences. If you have no previous Latin knowledge, fret not- just have a gloss over the grammatical structural rules i.e. sentence structuring etc of English/ any other Modern Foreign language. 2. Have a look at the sample assessments in the Cambridge Classics profile/ Oxford Classics department. They are massively helpful and give an idea of what the test would like look.
My primary advice would be to believe in yourself and not panic! The interviewer doesn't expect you to know everything about your subject, but to have some honest opinion about it - no matter how unconventional and silly it may seem. If you think Virgil is better than Homer, then go for it! But don't forget to support your arguments with enough evidence.
Secondly, if you have made a mistake and want to correct it in your interview or if you want to change your opinion and are completely sure of it, just go back to it! The interviewer will be more than happy to engage with it and most importantly, you don't want to come out of the interview and want to kick yourself for not saying something you thought was valuable.
Most importantly, remember that the interview is meant to bring the best out in you, so go ahead and enjoy it!