History of Art assessment at interview; 2x interviews
Interview 1: comparing images, personal statement; Interview 2: more detailed analysis of images
Read some texts recommended on the department website
-
Practise analysing and comparing unseen images
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 of Art admissions assessment at interview
Number of interviews: 2
Skype interview: no
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of first interview: 15 minutes; Length of second interview: 20 minutes
The first interview was a more “relaxed” interview about why I applied, but still involved subject specific questions. For example, I was given two images to compare - a similar task to the written exam I had done the day before interview. Other questions revolved around my personal statement in this interview, such as why I found things I had mentioned interesting. The second interview was more formal, with two interviewers testing my visual analysis skills. Again, pairs of images were shown to me, but this time both interviewers would push me further in my observations and ask me to elaborate on or explain arguments I made.
I looked at past admissions test papers and read a couple of texts recommended by the applications page on the department website.
My advice would be to look at exemplar sets of images on the department website, and try annotating them/analysing them. Don't worry too much; for History of Art, there is only so much preparation you can do.