2x interviews
Interview 1: anthropology, discussing unseen material; Interview 2: archaeology, examining object
The interviewers really don't care what clothes you wear, they just want to meet you!
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: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 10 minutes
Length of interviews: 15-20 minutes
Online interview: No
The two interviews were themed: one was Anthropology-themed and the other was Archaeology-themed. In both cases we did not discuss my personal statement, but the interviewers had questions and prompts ready to start a discussion.
In the Anthropology interview, I was asked to talk about a set of given quotes from famous authors. What was nice was that I was free to discuss whatever came into my head. I think the examiners just wanted to see me grapple with material that I didn't know in advance, to see how I thought.
In the Archaeology interview, I was handed an old object and asked to imagine I had found it during an excavation - what would be my thoughts and reactions to finding this object. Again, I could just talk about whatever I wanted, there was no right or wrong answer!
I came from abroad in a school that had no resources for preparing for the interviews, so I was totally "blind" to the process when I arrived. Weirdly enough, that helped me to be more relaxed and to take things as they came instead of trying to predict what was going to happen or trying to judge how well things were progressing.
I can
For the same reason, I think it's worth thinking of the interviews as a chance to have fascinating conversations with brilliant people (definitely not as a right-or-wrong test!), and to not be afraid to ask the interviewers to repeat their questions or give you hints or extra prompts if you're stuck. That way they'll see that, even if you don't know everything outright, you're keen to find answers - and after all, that's the whole point of going to uni!