Interview in December. Firstly, I had one interview lasting about half an hour. This involved discussing answers from my SAQ and also the two essays I had been asked to send in before interview. We then discussed an unseen poem. There were two interviewers.

After this, I had an hour or so's break, and then had a one hour written test, in which I had to respond to two unseen texts.

Discussed an essay I had sent in before hand on Dr Faustus. The interviewer was a specialist in Marlow and so the questions asked were quite detailed and complex. They also asked about some of the answers I had given in my SAQ, and this actually pushed me to start rethinking my initial approach, and I started to develop a new line of argument in response to their questioning.

The test was a long essay question, which involved comparing two unseen texts and making observations about how they related. We were specifically encouraged to develop some kind of argument.

Practice interviews to get me used to talking about my ideas in a one on one situation. I was the first person from my school to ever apply to oxbridge, and had no access to any current students, and so was somewhat limitted in the support I could get or the knowledge I could source from other people, so my head of sixth form approached another local school and asked if I could do a practice interview there. This was actually very helpful, as it prepared me for the experience of being interviewed by someone else.

Also very important to read through your personal statement before interview, particularly for humanities subjects, so that its fresh in your mind and youre able to elucidate on/ clarify/ expand on any of the points or arguments you made if these are brought up at interview.

Student room was also very helpful for getting an idea about how the interview day would be structured.