1x 35 minute interview
General questions then questions on academic papers set as pre-reading
Reading through, annotating and summarising pre-reading, also going through A-level notes and personal statement
Take your time before you answer
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: None
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 35 mins
Online interview: Yes
My interview started with general questions about why I had chosen Cambridge and Geography. The interviewers were really lovely and helped me relax into it.
The rest of the interview was based on questions about the two academic papers I had been sent in advance, half of the interview for one paper with one interviewer and the other half for the other paper with the other interviewer. I was asked to explain areas of the papers including key terms and to give my own opinions about what I had read.
I was sent two academic papers a week in advance of the interview. I read through these papers many times, annotating them, looking up key terms using the references provided at the end to make sure I understood every part, and wrote summaries to help myself remember the content of the papers when the interview came.
I also read through all my A-level notes and ensured that I knew how to back up everything I had said in my personal statement, however, my interview was based entirely on the papers so this was not much use for me.
Really take your time before you answer, don’t just rush into it. It’s fine to say that you don’t know if it’s a topic that you haven’t studied or come across before, but make sure you offer some kind of interpretation based on what you do know.
When the interviewer asks at the end if you have any questions, I found it effective to ask a question about some of the academic ideas we had discussed in the interview, it shows the interviewer that you will be engaging in a