History And Politics @ Robinson, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA); 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: unseen historical source, submitted work; Interview 2: conceptual discussion of politics

Best preparation

Reading notes on book mentioned in personal statement

Test preparation

Practice papers using unfamiliar sources

Final thoughts

Try to enjoy the experience of talking to experts in your favourite 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

Test taken: Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 20 minutes
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The interviewers mainly focussed on an unseen source and my submitted work in the history one.

The politics one was more conceptual. There were two people conducting each interview but generally one did more of the talking. They were really friendly and quite informal. Sometimes they'd ask about something I'd just said and otherwise go somewhere completely different.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Reading notes on the books on my personal statement and re-reading my submitted work. Also did practice interviews with teachers and friends.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practice papers, also those from the HAT done by Oxford but make sure to do comprehension. Try and choose the sources on topics about which you have the least knowledge as this will teach you just to focus on the source.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Don't panic. Try and enjoy the interviews as much as possible. It's your chance to talk about a subject you love with people who are knowledgeable about it.