2 x 20 minute interviews. 2 interviewers and 10 minutes pre-reading.
Part of interview about pre-reading text and was open-ended discussion. Explained themes in personal statement.
Reading news articles. Writing bullet points on additional experiences that did not fit on personal statement.
Dont downplay your strengths. It's difficult to judge how you did.
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.
My interview was in early December. I requested an early interview because didn't want them to clash with my upcoming school exams. There was a common room with other interviewees and a few undergraduate students for us to wait in for interviews.
I had two 20 minute interviews. Each one had 2 interviewers (3 faculty and 1 Master of college). Before each interview, I had 10 minutes to read a given text.
In the interviews, part of it focused on the text I was given. They were very general and the focus was on what I found interesting about the article. The conversation flowed from there on the ideas I brought up. They also asked me questions relevant to my personal statement, asking me to elaborate on particular experiences, such as a book I mentioned I had read, and also more personal aspects that I had mentioned in my statement.
Reading news articles really helped for this particular subject. I made some bullet points on experiences that I could not put into my personal statement, or further things I wanted to say about the things I did mention.
It is quite difficult to know if you did well or not in the interview, particularly as there is no right/wrong answer for the question they asked. Your experiences are your strengths, don't downplay them, they're what make you unique.