Human, Social And Political Science @ Pembroke, Cambridge in 2021

Interview format

1x interview

Interview content

One interview: questions relating to personal statement, submitted work, the HSPS course, and broader discussion

Best preparation

Reviewing personal statement and EPQ, practice interviews

Final thoughts

Think through your ideas out loud, and try to think from multiple perspectives

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: None
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 25 minutes 
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I only had one interview and it was almost completely academic i.e. no questions about my hobbies or interests etc. To start with the questions came directly from my personal statement, but as we went on the questions became more abstract. I had spoken about Western feminism and a lack of intersectionality in my personal statement so the interviewers asked me questions relating to that.

After we had covered the academic points in my personal statement (books I had read, my EPQ, TedTalks I had watched) and the submitted essays I had given, they asked me about the course. This part was quite short and it focused on what I thought would be most challenging about HSPS.

I would say that I got less nervous as the interview went on. I was really scared beforehand but the interviewers were very nice. There were two and at times it felt a bit like a ‘good cop bad cop’ scenario. They were very encouraging of my response though so I felt comfortable throughout the experience.

I had no resources in my HSPS interview. I know some colleges ask you to analyse a source or talk about a set problem. Mine was more tailored to my interests

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Going over my personal statement and making sure I knew the content well (especially the books I had spoken about) was the most helpful thing I did because the majority of my HSPS interview was centred around my personal statement. We also spoke about my written work and why I chose those two pieces to submit so definitely good to have a reason for choosing those essays. Finally, we spoke about my EPQ so being able to summarise efficiently what my EPQ aimed to do was very useful. I remember finding this a little tricky because I hadn’t thought about it in roughly a year so definitely go back over that for a refresh!

Aside from resources, I had two practice interviews at school. One was more character-based e.g. questions on my hobbies, qualities etc. The second was solely academic and to be honest, was actually harder than the real thing. Most of the questions my teacher asked came from my personal statement though which was helpful because some of the real questions were similar to practice ones I had already encountered. Some people say practice interviews make you sound overly rehearsed but I found them very useful!

What advice would you give to future applicants?

I think the best advice is to think through your ideas out loud and to try and think from a number of perspectives - especially for a humanities subject. It’s easy to rush into what you think is a strong academic answer without considering all viewpoints. Then afterwards, I found myself rethinking everything I had said and wishing I had said certain things. Try not to do that and know that you did your best in the moment!