Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA); 2x interviews
Interview 1: submitted essays, SAQ; Interview 2: personal statement, A Level choices
Analysed own personal statement and submitted essays
Kept up with the news
Don't be afraid to change your answer based on new information.
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: Arts-Humanities Admissions Assessment (AHAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 40 mins
Online interview: No
My first interview was mainly based on my pre submitted essays - asking questions and debates based on points I made. A lot of debate questions on topics I’d mentioned I studied in the
My second interview was also based on my personal statement, a lot of questions on relevant work experience I'd done, what I learned from it, and what I would have done differently. There were also a few questions about social research in general as this was what my internship was in. They also asked me about my A Level choice (English) which didn’t directly relate to the degree.
Re-read over my personal statement and any books I mentioned in there and thought of possible questions I would have reading it. I did the same with the essay I had to pre submit and just analysed it in depth. I made sure I really knew everything I spoke about in my personal statement and any other admissions things, and also kept up with the news.
Practice papers and just keeping up with news.
Make your personal statement PERSONAL (as long as it’s relevant to your subject). I spoke about how being disabled made me want to study social constructs for example. Also recommend centring your personal statemen around one theme in lots of different ways, mine was all round the theme of inequality for example, expressed in different ways, to show really where my interests and passions lie within the subject.
Don't be afraid to disagree with the interviewer, especially in a humanities and debate based subject. The interview won’t go anywhere if you just agree with everything they’re saying, they want to see your own individual thought processes. Be yourself, and I know it’s hard but try and enjoy it. Don't be afraid to ask for a moment to think, or to change your argument or process based on new information given to me, saying, “oh I never looked at it like that before, and given x I can now know y and conclude z”. I felt really made sure I got the most out of the interview. If you’re not sure ASK, it isn’t a test of your intelligence but rather of your ability to thrive in an Oxbridge