2x interviews (each 40 mins; 1 interviewer, then 2 interviewers)
Interview 1: source-based questions; Interview 2: discussion of submitted written work, personal statement, wider reading
Re-read submitted work; get a good night's sleep!
Stay positive
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.
My interview was just before Christmas. I arrived at Queens’ and waited in their cafe for about half an hour because I was early. Lots of people were revising notes they had with them but I wasn’t and don’t think that was a problem at all.
I had a one-on-one interview about source questions which I had half an hour to prepare for (I was given the sources outside the room). I then went back and chatted to some other candidates in the cafe before going to my second interview, which was two
In the first interview I had been given 3 sources on some medieval battles (I think!). I was asked questions about the differences between them and what I thought certain words might be referring to. I was fairly happy with this interview but knew I’d made some silly mistakes so wasn’t sure!
I was much less confident about the outcome of the second interview. I was asked to explain my arguments in the written work I had sent in, as well as explaining possible counter arguments. They then asked me harder questions based off books I had said I read in my personal statement, such as the role of natural resources in certain areas of the world, as I had read 'Prisoners of Geography'. I got these right after a lot of promting but didn’t think that the interview went very well because there were no super hard ‘Cambridge’ questions that I’d been expecting!
Re-reading the work I had sent in! And sleeping before so my brain was properly working as a lot of it was applying knowledge I already had, or facts I was given on the day so couldn’t revise for!
I really didnt think I’d got in after my first interview so it’s worth keeping positive and giving both your best shot!