Human, Social And Political Science @ Fitzwilliam, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA); 2x interviews.

Interview content

Interview 1: ethnography discussion; Interview 2: personal statement, general discussion, logic puzzles.

Best preparation

Mock interview; not much else.

Final thoughts

Be yourself; don't worry if you can't talk about everything you wanted to.

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.

Interview Format

Test taken: Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: About an hour
Length of interviews: Supposed to be around 25min, but ended up being around 40min.
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In HSPS we were given an hour to read an ethnography and make brief notes, which we then discussed the material of. I think it was definitely geared towards speaking about feminism, but I curveballed it and talked about Marxism instead. The interviewers were cool -- one was a little more stalwart while the other was really friendly - and it honestly felt more like a talk between students than a hierarchy. Be yourself, crack some jokes, even though it's an academic interview they're also looking for personality.

The second interview was more focussed on my personal statement, but not totally. For instance, at some point one of the interviewers just asked me what I thought about what was happening in India at the moment, to which I replied "I don't really know could you explain it a bit" and it was all very calm. This was also very friendly, actually to the point where it felt more like we were sat chatting in the pub than at an interview. At the end they gave me a couple of logic puzzles but they didn't take much time.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I honestly didn't prepare for my interview much. I had a mock interview at my high school (I went to a different Sixth Form college) with my old History teacher which was useful, but that was really it. It didn't make me unprepared because really my interviewers were just looking for an organic conversation.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

First I looked at a past paper for my specific course with the answer booklet alongside it to get the gist of the logic they use for the assessment, and then took a stab at another past paper without the answers and marked it afterwards. That was all of the prep I did -- and the night before -- so don't stress about them too much. Most teachers will be happy for you to write a practice essay from a past paper, too, but I didn't do that.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Honestly, be yourself. I was far too intimidated going into the first interview and my nerves got the interview off to a bit of a shaky start, which was totally unnecessary. Once I cracked a joke and the interviewers laughed at it, things eased up a lot and I was more myself and could freely speak more. If you have an in-exam assessment like mine that you discuss afterwards you also won't be able to talk about all of your findings so don't stress about including all of your points - I talked about a small minority of what I wanted to because I went with the flow of the conversation. Don't try to live up to expectations because it'll end up just masking your own actual potential, which you clearly have if you're applying to Cambridge!