Modern And Medieval Languages @ King's, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x interviews.

Interview content

Interview: discussion of unseen passage; grammatical problem solving.

Best preparation

Used askacambridgestudent.tumblr.com

Final thoughts

Practise talking through your thought process out loud.

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: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 30 minutes
Length of interviews: 20-25 minutes each
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The interviews were essentially like a supervision. I had been given a text in my post A-Level language and a grammar exercise half an hour prior to the interview. My interviewer and I had a brief chat in my target language about the grammar exercise and my background studying that language (how long I’d been studying it for, how skipping a year affected me, why I wanted to study languages at uni, etc).

We then switched into English and had a really productive conversation about the text, where he had me analyze it closely and comment on some recurring themes and my thoughts on the central character’s inner turmoil. Despite not having read the book which the extract came from (the text filled one side of an A4 page), I felt like I was sufficiently able to discuss the events and my interviewer pushed me on certain questions in a way that was thought-provoking and encouraging as opposed to aggressive or stressful.

The room was quite stereotypically Cambridge, with heaps of books, paintings, comfortable armchairs, and rugs, which created quite a pleasant atmosphere.

How did you prepare?

I studied at a state school in the States which hasn’t sent anyone to Oxbridge since the 80s, mostly because applying to schools outside the US is practically unheard of. As a result, I had virtually no guidance about interviews or even applying through UCAS.

I prepared for the application by reading other language applicants’ personal statements online, the askacambridgestudent tumblr blog, and whatever resources I could find on UCAS.

As for interviews, I watched all the mock interview videos I could find on YouTube — not sure about Oxford, but Cambridge has sample interview videos for a variety of subjects, including MML. While my interview wasn’t exactly the same, the videos gave me a basic idea of what to expect.

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

Having made it through the interview process, I now realize that interviewers care more about your thought process and how you can elaborate upon your ideas when pushed by a supervisor than they do about how much you actually know about your subject. Passion, enthusiasm, and being able to think on your feet are key!