English @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

2x interviews (20-30 mins each)

Interview content

Discussion of unseen poems and personal statement

Best preparation

Practice interview

Final thoughts

Know your personal statement; be smiley, friendly and open

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

I had two interviews, about 20-30 minutes for each one with 2 interviewers in each, and they involved unseen reading and analysis and detailed discussions of elements of my personal statements as well as a couple of general questions about English and criticism as a discipline.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was given unseen poems to read aloud, then asked for notable aspects of their style and form. We also discussed when they might have been written. I was also asked to offer an interpretation or reading of them. Then the interviewers each selected elements of my personal statement and quizzed me on some relevant texts and authors to those which I had written about, offered me opposing critical ideas and approaches and guided me to discuss literary style. The main emphasis was challenging, unpicking and unravelling statements and assessments I made of the texts and styles.

How did you prepare?

Practice interview with school (or anyone available), just getting used to having to articulate opinions and ideas on the spot and out loud to other people about my personal statement.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

Know your personal statement A LOT, don’t expect any fireworks, don’t cram too much in, be smiley, friendly and open.