Test taken: English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

In my first interview, we discussed both of my written work essays and some of the things I had written in my personal statement. We also discussed some of my extra curricular stuff I had mentioned in my statement.

My second was similar but focused on my other essay a bit more, and I was asked by another fellow about my other A Level subjects (I did 3 STEM subjects and English). The fellow asked me about the relationship between these subjects and English academically. The fellow did **not** ask for my reasoning behind my choices or why I did such different subjects to English, nor did they insinuate that I had somehow picked “wrong”, but asked a question about how I felt they linked with English.

They did not discuss my ELAT or the course at all and they also didn’t discuss a significant number of texts I mentioned on my personal statement. I found that I wasn’t too anxious but I was still nervous and that I relaxed into it. I was a bit more relaxed for my second interview than my first and I actually found it intellectually stimulating and fun by the end.

Both times the interview room was essentially a living room of the Fellow’s flat, and I sat on a sofa across from the fellows - we talked across a coffee table. The fellows in each were very friendly and although they were combative in their questioning they were never combative in their tone of voice. In my second interview I was told beforehand that the interview would last between 25-30 minutes and that it would be similar to a supervision, and the fellow in question encouraged me to relax and let them help - this wasn’t prompted by anything so I assume they said this before every interview (although I wasn’t told this in my first interview). In both interviews we discussed something we were given to read and annotate in the 20 minutes waiting. I was allowed to look at my annotations and refer to them. There was no questions on the sheet - the instruction was to read and annotate it. I was asked my opinion on it around 1/3 of the way through the interview. Discussion followed from there. In the second I was given two short poems (around 10 lines each) with the question at the top of the page. I was not given any information as to who wrote the poems, or any other contextual data (they were listed as “poem 1” and “poem 2”). In fact one of the poems had its spelling slightly edited to obscure when it was written. We actually discussed these poems last.

I re-read my essays and looked at the texts I had mentioned in my personal statement, asking myself which questions they could ask on each text and making sure I still remembered key information about them if I had studied then a long time ago. I also had a couple of practice interviews with a teacher. This helped a lot as it not only allowed me to find out which parts of my knowledge needed gaps filled in but also allowed me to work on things like posture, eye contact and other parts of interview technique. One thing I would have liked to have done would be to fill in gaps in my reading - for example if I hadn’t read very much Shakespeare I would have been sure to have read an extra play before my interview in case they asked, or if I hadn’t read much Victorian literature I would have been sure to read a novel or two before going for my interview so I didn’t have that gap.

Practice papers which I handed to my teacher. I also had regular ELAT classes in my school where we went over papers and read different texts and extracts.

My advice would be: make sure you know all of the texts you’ve mentioned in your personal statement thoroughly. Make your answers comprehensive but concise (don’t ramble - they won’t interrupt you if you keep going); if they seem like they want to chime in, let them. Don’t worry about your ELAT too much. Sit up straight and make eye contact (even though this is very difficult!). It’s okay to be nervous because they expect it!. Wear something comfortable - don’t wear a suit if you don’t want to and don’t wear your school uniform, try to dress smart casual but don’t dress completely casually and make sure to wrap up warm. If you want time to think, you can ask them for time to think and they will give you time to think. Bring stationery. Get a good nights sleep beforehand, eat a good breakfast and use the bathroom before your interview. Try to enjoy it!