Linguistics @ King's, Cambridge in 2021

Interview format

Linguistics Admissions Assessment (LAA); 1 interview

Interview content

Mixture of exercises (no prior knowledge expected); Questions on interest in linguistics

Best preparation

Went over notes and personal statement; Watched university's interview videos

Test preparation

Listened to podcast episodes (Lingthusiasm)

Final thoughts

Don't always assume interviewers have read your personal statement

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: Linguistics Admissions Assessment (LAA)
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interview: 25 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

We did a mixture of exercises which didn't require any previous knowledge and were more about your follow up thoughts, and then some questions about what topics I find most interesting in linguistics.

My interviewers were very friendly and after the initial adrenaline rush wore off it was just very interesting to talk about topics that I enjoy. They never expect any technical language so there's no need to try and use it.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I made sure to reread my notes/the books I had mentioned in my personal statement, as well as listening to podcast episodes about a wide variety of subject specific topics so that I was prepared for both what I had written about and maybe some wider linguistic issues.

I also watched the YouTube videos about the interview that were published by the University which were quite accurate to my experience.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I listened to a lot of the Lingthusiasm podcast which helped me gain background knowledge about a lot of general linguistics topics so that I felt more comfortable going into such an unpredictable test.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

One thing I would remind people is not to assume that your interviewers have read your personal statement as I referenced something I had said in that and realized they had no idea what I was talking about.