English @ Fitzwilliam, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

2x interviews (30 mins each, 2 interviewers each)

Interview content

Expanded on personal statement; talked about pre-read poem

Best preparation

Mock interview to get used to an interview situation; used a spider diagram to make connections between literary ideas

Final thoughts

Try to show your passion for the subject

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

Two interviews, one more “general”, based around my personal statement and my reference, one based on the essays I had submitted and also on a poem that I had 15 minutes to prepare my thoughts on beforehand. Interviews were around half an hour with two interviewers in each. In between, I waited in an area with a few other students being interviewed. When it was time for my interview one of my interviewers came and picked me up.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Almost all questions were based on things I’d submitted to the college (essays/personal statement) - things like “could you define/expand on x”. The main unrelated question I can remember was about which subject I would have done instead of English. When it came to the practical criticism section of the interview - with the poem I’d had a few minutes to prepare - I was asked to give my thoughts on a particular aspect of it, and then given a suggestion to think about and discuss, and then responded to that.

How did you prepare?

Probably school-organised mock interviews to help with my nerves and get me used to the style of questioning. Apart from that, by far the most helpful individual preparation I did was to make a gigantic spider-diagram of themes, ideas, periods, and techniques in literally everything I’d ever read that had literary significance and making links between all of them. It helped me remember all the material I had at my fingertips to talk about and the interesting way that it interrelated.

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

Not really - just try and make your passion for your subject as obvious as possible and the rest should follow.