History @ Pembroke, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

History Admissions Assessment (HAA), 2x interviews

Interview content

Discussion of personal statement, written work, and a pre-reading source

Best preparation

Reading back through personal statement and submitted written work

Test preparation

Past paper

Final thoughts

Try not to stress, focus on showing how you think

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: History Admissions Assessment (HAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: c.30 minutes
Length of interviews: c.15 minutes 
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Across my 2 interviews, I'd say 25% was on my personal statement, 50% on the two submitted essays, and 25% on a source that I had been given for the first time 10 minutes before the interview.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I read through my personal statement and submitted written work to familiarise myself with the topics. There's not much else to prepare for a History interview in my opinion.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I did one past paper. It's not an exam you need to or can prepare much for. Just try not to stress over it.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

They like it when you can show that you change your mind with time or new information. Don't stress too much over it and don't panic when they throw you curveballs or questions you don't know the answer to - they care about how you think far more than what you know. Many people who got in thought that their interview went badly!