I had two interviews, one at the college I applied to and one at a randomly allocated college. Both had 2 interviewers. The type of interview was roughly the same.

In my first interview I had to verbally translate sections of a passage of Latin I had been given around 20 minutes before. I was also asked some literary questions on it. I was asked a bit about a book I had mentioned in my personal statement and about the essay I had submitted in advance. In the second I had to respond to an English passage I was given. Then I was given a picture of an artefact and asked what sort of questions I would ask to find out what it was (they were interested in the the process not me knowing the details). I found the stuff we discussed interesting but felt a bit out of my depth as I’d never considered lots of it before.

Reading things I was interested in about the subject. There isn’t a right or wrong thing to read for classics, just whatever about the ancient world you enjoy most. Mock interview preparation at school was useless as it was so much more aggressive and not at all like the relaxed discussion of the interview.

I was told interviewers want someone they can teach, not someone who knows it all already. So the best advice is not to panic if you get it wrong or don’t know what to say, but to breathe, try again and explain your thinking so they can see it.