Linguistics Admissions Assessment (LAA); 2x interviews
Interview 1: personal statement, sociolinguistic trends; Interview 2: general motivations
Got enough sleep and stayed calm
UK Linguistics Olympiad past papers
Be prepared to hypothesise and think on your feet
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
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of interviews: 15-30 minutes
Online interview: No
In my linguistics-specific interview, I was asked about an item off my personal statement - something I had done rather than read/thought about. I was then asked some questions about the languages I speak. We discussed my personal linguistic background and some hypotheses for sociolinguistic trends in the UK. Then before I knew it they had whipped out a problem sheet - including historical changes in English and ambiguous sentences.
My general interview essentially just explored the question of why I had chosen linguistics - it was general, casual and fun. I think I was also asked why I wanted to go to Cambridge and why I had chosen my college.
I made sure I knew a lot about the things on my personal statement - but really general gists are okay, you are unlikely to use random memorised facts in your interview. I got enough sleep and stayed calm - that was most important.
Practice papers and also UK Linguistics Olympiad past papers - I didn't prepare very much they are not looking for knowledge!
For interviews - stay calm, don't spend millions of hours preparing, it is more important to know what interests you and makes you passionate about the subject than knowing facts. Don't be surprised if presented with problems and/or have to hypothesise and think on your feet. Have some friends ready to talk to throughout the day if you need.