Test taken: HOAAA (History of Art Admissions Assessment)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 15 minutes
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: Yes

My first interview was a more general one, without History of Art specialists. We spoke about broader ideas in art, such as what it is, as well as why I like the subject so much, among other questions that just came out of what I was saying. This interviews was the more relaxed one and I definitely found myself smiling while answering questions. The second one was a bit more strict, mostly taking the form of their question, my answer, they say okay, next question. This was primarily about my personal statement and it was conducted by art historians. It was more stiff and worried me a bit, but it turns out I did very well, given that I got in. This was not what I expected because I was told that if the interview isn’t conversational, it isn’t going well. Clearly, this is not true. Don’t worry about that! They seem to change up the style a lot, just work with what you’re given and don’t think about if it’s one thing or another. There are almost no factual questions outside of what you spoke about in the personal statement. The one that they asked me felt quite optional, and was not even the point of that section of the interview, so if that happens, don’t worry. HOA is a subject which they do not expect you to have broad or specialist knowledge on already, just stick to what you know and don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know, but feel free to make some informed speculation. I did that (the question they asked me had two parts, I answered the first one correctly because I knew and the second one I got a few details right because I did some informed speculation) and I think it was the right thing to do and they seemed satisfied.

I primarily went through my Personal Statement and tried to expand on every possible point - doing additional reading, thinking how I could explain them better, thinking of what they could catch out and ask about, what were the critical moments that they would probably want to hear more about. I was advised to structure my answers almost like an essay paragraph - point, evidence, explanation, link to the question. The most difficult thing was actually thinking of good evidence, so be sure to think of all the artworks you feel comfortable talking about, maybe write down a list of everything you feel like you could use so that you can refer to it when a question catches you out. I also had people do mock interviews with me. I had access to people who had gone to Cambridge, which is obviously an advantage, however if you don’t, that will still be okay. See what people notice in your Personal Statement and thus want to ask about, put yourself in a position to think on your feet. Actually having to formulate a verbal response is harder than it may seem, so put yourself through it as much as possible. If people don’t want to come up with questions, write some down for them or give them some general topics to think of questions for, even simple ones.

There aren’t many HOAAA practice papers, so since I had History of Art teachers, I asked them for help thinking of images to compare and write about. However, this can also be done on your own! Even if the pair isn’t particularly thought through or have many points of comparison, it could still be a good exercise for creative comparison skills! This can be done, for example, by using pieces posted by museums or galleries on Instagram and just using those. Also, find lists of art historical vocabulary and try to assess which ones you feel like you could honestly remember (some of them are hard to parse or remember the spelling of, don’t worry about them), write them down, then try to use them in the visual analyses. There are some things I just avoided because I didn’t feel comfortable with them, you can do the same. You don’t need to always time them - for the first few, I tried to develop a list of points of comparison I could always make - what is the material, what are the dimensions, does it represent figures or a landscape or something else, is it naturalistic, etc. - and tried to make that into a checklist for every image or pair of images I saw. Every visual analysis is an opportunity, because you can always think "I see (thing) done (a certain way)" and then in another work, you can think if that certain technique or form of depiction or whatever else was used. If not, why? That might be a good starting point for a fascinating argument!

Just try to enjoy the interview as much as possible. I know that sounds insane, but I think what helped me is remembering that I love my subject, I love talking about it, this is an opportunity to talk to experts about the subject I love the most. They do like to see excitement, so don’t be afraid to show it! I stuck to what I knew, and that was just fine, so don’t think that you’re not doing enough or are repeating yourself, what matters is that you’re being insightful and making an effort. You go to university to learn, you aren’t supposed to know everything, especially with HOA, since they don’t teach it in a lot of schools, so no previous knowledge is even expected. Take that unique aspect of this course and just talk about your interests, since they are the only thing your interviewers should reasonably ask about.