TSA; 2x interviews
Interview 1: prepared text; Interview 2: application and school studies
Past papers!
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Get used to reading and discussion
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:
Number of interviews: 2
Skype interview: no
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of first interview: 20 minutes; Length of second interview: 20 minutes
It was a relaxing, conversational interview. We talked mainly about the pre-reading I was given 10 minutes before the interview, which formulated discussions about the issues raised in the pre-reading and how to address them.
Only in my second interview did we discuss my UCAS application and this discussion was based around my
I went through past papers, and the sample papers they had online.
I would practice finding news articles or opinion pieces, reading them, and thinking about the issues that arise in them and how to deal with such issues, as this is largely what my interview was. Furthermore this will give you plenty of context and real world examples to use to enforce any arguments you make in your interview.
My expectation was that the interview would be difficult and they would ask me hard questions I didn’t understand but it felt more like a debate I may have had in a class at my sixth form college. The interviewers are looking for enthusiasm and someone willing to actively debate the arguments in pre-reading with them.