ELAT; 2x interviews
Interview 1: discussing a passage of text in a group; Interview 2: personal statement, unseen poem
Researched authors of particular interest
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Practise analysing unseen texts
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:
Number of interviews: 2
Skype interview: no
Time between interviews: 30 minutes
Length of first interview: 1 hour; Length of second interview: 1 hour
My first interview was a group interview, with three other applicants. We were given a passage of text to discuss amongst ourselves, having had 15 minutes beforehand to analyse it individually and make notes on it. We were encouraged to build on each others points and challenge them to enrich the discussion. The interviewers did not participate, they just watched the discussion and made notes. I felt quite nervous at first, but relaxed into it as it soon felt like a classroom environment, such as a discussion in an A-level English class.
In the second interview, I was alone with two interviewers. I was asked questions about some texts I had mentioned in my personal statement. I wasn't too nervous at this point as I was fairly confident in my answers. I was then given a poem to analyse. I didn't immediately understand the poem and so began to
I prepared for the ELAT mainly by doing practice papers from previous years. Prior to the interviews, I identified some authors that I was really interested in (mainly the ones mentioned on my personal statement) and read more deeply in these areas, searching for similarities and differences between works of various writers. I spoke to family members and friends about ideas I had, not in a strictly mock interview context, but more to have a chance to vocalise what I was thinking and practice expressing my ideas coherently.
Looking back, it may have been helpful to do some critical reading, or to have an idea of who important critics were to add an extra dimension and more solidity to the opinions I was giving. Also, practicing analysing unseen texts more would probably have helped too.