MML Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.
Interview 1: discussion of unseen passage in target language, personal statement. Interview 2: discussion of unseen passage in target language, personal statement
Prepared to expand on content of personal statement
Prepared vocabulary to help summarise texts
Don't be afraid to ask for help!
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: Modern and Medieval Languages Admissions Assessment
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 30 minutes
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No
Both of
For Spanish, I had 30 minutes in a room with a piece of text in Spanish, which I could annotate and read through. When I went into the interview, I was asked to read a few sentences from the text and then explain in Spanish what I thought it was about. and answer some questions from the interviewers. I had the opportunity to ask about any words I wasn't sure about and there was no problem, they were very happy to answer my questions! We discussed the piece in Spanish for a while then moved on to a discussion of things I had mentioned in my personal statement. The discussions were in depth about one aspect of my personal statement and although I was nervous at first, I settled into it about halfway through.
For German, I was given a German poem with an English translation and had 30 minutes to read and think about it. When I got to the interview, I was asked some questions about it and we discussed the perspective, language and other aspects of the poem. We then talked about my personal statement, and specifically two of the books I mentioned. The discussions were scary at first but eventually I calmed down and settled into the flow of discussion. Just make sure you explain what you think and don't worry if you get a 'wrong' answer - a lot of the time, the answer isn't what matters, the process is!
One thing that really helped me to feel ready for my interviews was going through my personal statement and picking out anything I'd mentioned - a text, a film, a historical period - that I felt like the interviewers could ask me about. Then in a notebook I wrote a little bit about each thing - not too much, so I wasn't memorising things, but enough that I had a few basic points to discuss, I wouldn't be too thrown off if they asked me about my personal statement and so I had my thoughts in order. This also helped me to revise things I put in my personal statement!
Another thing I would recommend is practicing talking about your subject academically - explaining your view on things and vocalising why you think certain things. The best advice I heard was that the interviewers don't want you to know everything - they want to see that they can teach you. So practice verbalising and explaining the things you want to say about your subject; the most important thing is to show how you think.
I used the practice papers to get an idea of the style of question - for MML they are similar every year. I prepared some vocabulary and phrases that would help me answer the questions, which was to write a summary of an English text in my target language. So I prepared phrases like "the author writes" and "this implies" and "next they say" - anything like that which can be used to summarise a text. The other section involved analysing how the writer of that same passage explains their point of view. You don't have to mention specific techniques - I prepared by going through the specimen papers and planning responses, then reading other works like articles and persuasive pieces and highlighting ways the writers persuade readers of their views.
My advice would be to take the focus off of knowing the 'right' answer and instead focus on your ideas and reasoning behind what you think. The interviewers want to hear how you think and they don't expect you to know everything. Try to verbalise what you think so they can see how you got to the answer and don't worry if you seem to be going in the wrong direction. Don't be afraid to ask for help or guidance if you're feeling stuck - that's a valuable skill to have! At the end of the day, whether you get in or not, you have done brilliantly and now have a cool opportunity to talk about a passion of yours with experts in that field. You deserve a seat at the table. Let the interviewers see how you reach the answers and what you do know, and treat the questions as a way to discuss and share ideas about your subject.