Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: An hour or two
Length of interviews: About 30 minutes
Online interview: No

For the Spanish interview, I had two interviewers who were both native Spanish speakers - one was a Fellow at the college and one was a faculty member who mainly took notes. We mainly talked about things I had mentioned in my personal statement, particularly films I had watched in my spare time, and some that I had studied in sixth form. We talked about my interests in Linguistics, and the literature interests of the interviewers. I had been given a text in Spanish outside the interview room, and the Spanish speaking portion of the interview involved some warm-up questions about visiting Spain, and then discussing the themes and literary devices of this text. Both interviewers were very friendly.

For the Russian (ab-initio) interview, there were two interviewers again in similar roles. We talked about my motivations for picking Russian and then about the things I'd mentioned in my personal statement. We particularly focussed on my thoughts on a classic Russian book that I had read the English translation of. They showed me some Russian words (transliterated) to see if I could figure out what they meant. They were pleasant but gave nothing away about what they thought about my interview performance, which was quite daunting!

I made sure I had recapped the books I had talked about in my personal statement, and brushed up on my conversational Spanish, as I knew a portion of my interview would be in the language.

I worked out some answers to some probable questions I thought they might ask, like "Why this college?" and "Why this subject?".

I asked as many of my A-level teachers as possible if they could give me a mock interview. Even if they had no idea what sort of questions to ask, it was good practise being put on the spot and sounding confident even when I was terrified.

I practised speaking Spanish as much as I could too, to make sure I was as prepared as possible for the scariest part of the interview!

I also made sure that I was reading the news every day for the couple of weeks before my interview, because I'd heard that interviewers sometimes ask questions about current affairs. I did this for UK news, and news in the countries of the languages I was applying to study - i.e. Spain and Russia.

For language interviews, definitely try and be as comfortable as you can with speaking in the foreign language. Speak clearly and slowly, and articulate your thought process. It is better to speak in stream of consciousness style than have a period of silence followed by the perfect answer - they want to see your thought process!

Make sure you are honest about everything you have put in your personal statement because you will most likely be asked about the things you have mentioned.

If you are genuinely enthused by the subject and the university, this will shine through - make sure they can see your enthusiasm.