Test taken: English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 45 minutes
Length of interviews: 15 minutes
Online interview: No

I was escorted to the correct rooms by students doing my subject, which was really useful as they calmed me down. In my first interview, I was initially asked a few questions about my personal statement and then the interviewer looked at the essays I had submitted, asking me whether I thought what I had written about could apply to other work by that author. The discussion was actually really fun and exciting, it was enjoyable to talk to someone about what I thought and my interviewer was encouraging rather than intimidating. He produced a piece of text from a poem (something I hadn't mentioned on my personal statement at all) and asked me to have a read of it for a few minutes, he then asked me what I thought it was about. Although I was a bit unsure, he helped explain what a few of the words meant and wasn't focused on how quickly I responded but just on whether I could try and understand it. We talked about it for a bit and the atmosphere was just really relaxed - when I first arrived he was still setting up and smiled, asking me to sit down while he got ready. We even spent some time joking around when he saw me admiring the bookshelves in his office - I was immediately put at ease.

In my second interview, I was given 20 minutes to look at a text and then taken to a different room to talk about it. This interview was more challenging for me because none of it was about my personal statement - I began by talking about what jumped out at me and although a lot of questions were quite abstract, she was really nice and allowed me to take my time thinking about answers. It seemed like she wasn't focused on what I said, but on whether or not I could grasp a new idea and think about it in relation to the text, as well as tie in the text with other things I had read.

Both interviewers were really nice and approachable and I actually found the experience quite enjoyable, I think the trick is remembering how lucky you are to get to talk to academics about what you love. When you are faced with an intimidating question just smile and say 'wow, I've never actually thought of that' and take your time whilst letting them know that you are enthusiastic and above all interested in what they want to say.

I had a look at previous example papers online and did a couple of practice essays which my English teacher kindly marked for me. For the ELAT, it is about being able to come up with ideas for unseen texts and compare two texts which is something you can do without even writing an essay. I looked at past papers that I didn't have time to do, and analysed the passages, brainstorming ideas. I also wrote out a timeline of the 'major' movements in English to help me understand the texts I was given a little better. For interview preparation, I looked at all the books and areas I had written about on my personal statement and did a small write up of each book, which included a summary and a list of interesting discussion points. I also put all these books into a long timeline which was really helpful as I could understand where a text would fit throughout history.

Talk to your teachers at school, asking them to spare 10 minutes at a lunchtime to ask you questions about a certain area of your subject.