English @ Peterhouse, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT); 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement; Interview 2: unseen extracts

Best preparation

Watched interview videos online

Test preparation

Past papers.

Final thoughts

Practise talking about your subject outside of the classroom

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.

Interview Format

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

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked about my personal statement (books, essays, work experience) and my written work, as well as being asked about two unseen extracts, one criticism and one poetry.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Re-reading and taking notes on my personal statement, practice questions with teachers, watching interviews videos online, re-reading all the books on my personal statement.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Past papers.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Don’t worry too much about the admissions test. For the interview the most important thing to practise is talking about your subject outside of the classroom. Don’t put down anything you didn’t read/understand on your personal statement, and remember the interviewers aren’t trying to trick you.