Human, Social And Political Science @ Homerton, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

AHAA; 2 x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: politics, seen reading ; Interview 2: social science, unseen reading

Best preparation

Practice papers!

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Refresh pre-reading knowledge and keep up to date with politics

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

Skype interview: No

Time between interviews: 1 Hour

Length of interviews: 20 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I had one politics and one social science; I knew this prior as I had looked the interviewers up on LinkedIn. In both we talked about aspects in my personal statement - not books but original personal examples I had of anthropology in action.

I had unseen reading for one interview and seen reading for the other (30 minutes reading beforehand). I felt relatively relaxed because as a post A level student I knew I was intelligent enough to get in so really this was a test of character. The room was an office and I had a comfy sofa allowing me to show a relaxed posture.

How did you prepare?

I did 2 of the 3 practice papers, and was only able to do 1/8 questions. This was the case in the exam too, but clearly that one question was the one for me!

What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

I had a mock interview with two teachers unrelated to my subject and unaware of the Oxbridge process. The best thing was to look at current events for Politics and have all my pre-reading and research at the front of my mind.