1x test (1 hour); 3x interviews (30 mins each; 2 interviewers for 2 interviews, 1 interviewer for the other)
Personal statement, source analysis, discussion of issues within sources, discussion of wider reading
Mock interviews; practice talking logically and coherently about topics; look at primary and secondary sources; free courses at futurelearn.com
Stay calm; verbalise your thoughts and give responses, no matter how rubbish you think they are
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.
I spent one day in Cambridge total and that started with a translation
I then had three interviews in the afternoon, two at the college I'd applied to and one at a second college. When I got to the college I went to the bar area and some current students were available; they approached me and showed me to my interview room, which I had found out ahead of time on my interview invitation.
After I was finished at my first college I went to the second college and my interviewer collected me from the waiting area and took me to the room. I had two interviews with two academics, and one 1-to-1 interview.
I did find there was plenty of time between my interviews so the day overall wasn't rushed and didn't feel too packed despite having a 1 hour test and 1 hour 30 minutes of interviews total (half an hour each).
The interviewers tended to start from my personal statement, picking out something I'd read (primary and secondary sources) or studied in school and using that as a springboard toward further discussion – for example I was asked to critique a paper I had read.
I was also given an unseen source at one point and asked to make inferences based on it. Some questions were easier but some felt extremely challenging and at the time I didn't think I sounded very intelligent!
Lots of
I would say looking at primary and secondary texts – for Classics, reading ancient texts and then reading history books or literary criticism – was immensely useful.
I also took an online course at futurelearn.com.
I generally didn't feel I'd done very well and found it particularly
Remember -- they are deliberately challenging and the best thing you can do is say something in response to their questions, verbalise your thought process and stay calm!