History Admissions Assessment (HAA); 2x interview
Interview 1; academic, source-based Interview 2; general interest
Reread personal statement and submitted works
Online practice papers
Show an interest in the discipline of History as it is today.
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: History Admissions Assessment
Number of interviews: 2
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes
The first interview was preceded by them sending an extract 20 minutes before which you had to read and analyse. The interviewer then asked me about the key arguments in different sections and asked me to analyse them. At one point they asked me a question to which I did not know the answer - always have a go.
The second half of that interview involved another unseen source, this one was a picture. They asked me to describe it, what it could have been used for, what it tells us about the period etc.
The second interview started more based on my submitted work. I was asked about my opinions on it and some other questions on the period and the political thought behind it (it made sense for the essay). Then they asked me about how many Histories there are of a particular event.
I checked my personal statement for every book I had mentioned and made notes on the key arguments and ideas from them. I made sure I had an opinion on them, not necessarily all positive. Essentially you need to be ready to talk about anything in your personal statement at some length so brush up on it if you are unsure.
You can find the papers online so I did a few of them to prepare and get an idea for what I was actually going to do. You can find the markschemes too but
Stay calm if things go wrong, they are very understanding, especially online. Be aware that they will let you just keep talking so make sure to limit your answers and don't start waffling. Maybe brush up a bit on historiography e.g the rise in LGBTQ History in recent times. Show that you want to engage with the discipline of History as it is today.