Modern And Medieval Languages @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

LAA; 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: Informal, general language questions; Interview 2: Pre-interview reading, personal statement

Best preparation

Practise papers

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Past papers and online interview questions; reading around the subject

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: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between interviews: 5 minutes

Length of first interview: 30-45 minutes; Length of second interview: 30-45 minutes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The first interview was the more relaxed and informal of the two, focussing on my arrival into Cambridge, my impression of the city and general ideas about the MML course. As my interviewers were non-specialists in my languages, the discussion was based around more basic language questions, such as the differences between French and German grammar. We discussed an unseen text on translation, where both encouraged me to link my thoughts to anything I'd read or seen recently. Here, extra reading for interview came in useful, for example parallel texts. It lasted around 20 minutes or so overall.

The second was the more testing of the two. Both interviewers specialised in my subject, so it immediately felt more intimidating. The interview lasted considerably longer, focussing on a text I had been given to look at around half an hour beforehand. My personal statement was only discussed where it contained concrete examples of texts or extra work, such as my EPQ project or TV shows I'd found interesting.

How did you prepare?

I used practice papers from online, which were marked by school teachers.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

Teachers in school and subject teachers supported me by marking past papers, and I also spoke to my family with experience of Oxbridge interviews. I found example interview questions online and would test myself with family/friends. Most importantly, and something I should've done earlier, was invest time in reading extra books to use as concrete examples of extra learning. This helped to establish common interest with my interviewer.