ELAT; 2x interviews
Interview 1: unseen text, EPQ discussion; Interview 2: unseen text, personal statemen
Practice papers, and making notes
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Be yourself, treat the interview like a discussion
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.
Test taken: English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Skype interview: no
Time between interviews: 10 minutes
Length of first interview: 30-40 minutes; Length of second interview: 30-40 minutes
In both interviews I started by discussing an unseen poem or piece of prose they’d given me. I was given around 10 minutes to have a read before the interview, and then we chatted about them.
In my first interview I spent some time discussing my
In my second we talked more generally about books (some of which were on my personal statement).
I used past papers, and practised analysing poems and pieces of prose.
I spoke to teachers for advice and some of them were kind enough to
I made lots of notes and re-read things in preparation for the interview, although looking back, I feel like I just did it to make me feel a little more
The interviews are such a strange experience and are never the same for any two people. I don’t think that there is a perfect way of preparing. My best advice would be yourself and just try and treat it like a discussion because that’s what it will probably end up being.