History Admissions Assessment; 2 interviews
Interview 1: discussion on school work, submitted essays and personal statement Interview 2: discussion of supra-curricular subject exploration
Practice talking about personal statement, being familiar with it, and looking at Youtube resources
Past papers
You're not expected to be an expert, show your enthusiasm and 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.
Test taken: History Admissions Assessment (HAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 30 mins
Length of interviews: 20/25 mins
Online interview: Yes
My first interview focused on much of my academic work and what I had learnt in school, there was some discussion of my submitted essays however it was mainly about things I had written about in my personal statement. They really drilled into the different parts and pushed me to think about opposing ideas and alternative views. There was not an expectation that I would know all the answers but it was to assess the way I approached the questions.
My second interview was less academic but still focused on my subject, mainly on out-of-school aspects of my reading and exploration of my subject.
I had advice from friends. The most important way I found to prepare was to just have someone ask you about your personal statement, as being comfortable in articulating your thoughts about the topics in your personal statement is very useful. YouTube has useful resources about what to expect in the interviews. Being familiar with what you have written in your personal statement and being comfortable talking in detail about those areas is useful.
There were some past papers online for the
For your personal statement, show your interest in your topic through specific examples of interest and how you have explored an area thoroughly. You are not expected to be an expert in the whole of your course but having specific areas of interest allows you to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the subject.
In the interview take time to think but don't worry if you don't know the answer, they are trying to see how you are thinking. Don't be afraid to change your mind when you are discussing things with the interviewer they want to see that you are willing to learn when challenged, however, you can also disagree with the interviewer if you can explain your thinking. It is not a test of knowledge but instead, it is a test of how you think and how you react to alternative viewpoints.