Test taken: Philosophy Test
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 10 minutes
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

First Interview: In the general interview, they asked me first what I liked to read. Then they asked me why I wanted to study philosophy. They went on to ask about a philosophical essay I'd submitted to them. There are essay competitions run by the various Oxbridge colleges throughout year 12 - it's a good idea to enter these. They finished by asking about various other extracurricular activities from my personal statement including playing the piano and cello and the fact that I'd taught myself some Arabic.

Second Interview: The second interview was a philosophy specific interview. It had two questions. First, a question on metaphysics, and second, a question on ethics.

The most important thing for a philosophy interview is to express yourself clearly and to always and only say what you think. Changing your mind is more than fine. As is arguing with the academics. They don't care what you think, they care that you are thinking well. You must have a reason for everything you say, and a reason for holding that reason. The academics interviewing you don't care about what you've read so far. They don't care about what you know. What they care about is that you are clever, and that you are interested. So to prepare: Do lots and lots of Philosophy. Read lots of stuff that interests you. Think lots and lots. Write lots and lots and lots. Get very very interested in the subject - just pursue any aspect of it that interests you. Be proactive in discovering new and interesting topics in philosophy. Spend time thinking hard.

Far and away the most effective way to prepare for the Cambridge Philosophy test is to do critical thinking questions from the TSA papers that Oxford and Cambridge use. TSA stands for Thinking Skills Assessment. You can easily find these papers online, for instance here: https://stepmaths.co.uk/tsa/cambridge-tsa-past-papers-and-solutions-and-score-conversions/. The critical thinking questions are typically the ones that start with a paragraph of text and don't include maths. They make up exactly half (25) of the questions in a TSA paper and shouldn't be too hard to spot. These questions are the closest thing available to what you will have to do in the Philosophy Test for Cambridge. If you get good at these critical thinking questions, you will be good at the Cambridge philosophy test questions. You must be able to do these questions not only accurately, but also at speed. The speed you need to get to is between 45 seconds and 1 minute to answer a question. The fastest way to do these questions is to NOT RUSH. If you rush, you will not think clearly and that will slow you down. Instead, take all the time you need, and absolutely no more. The way you decrease the amount of time you need is by practising giving your complete focus and undivided attention to the questions in front of you. As for the essay in the second part of the test, the most important thing is that you write clearly. Be pedantically, crystal clear about what you mean. The academics reading it care about clarity above all else. For this just practise talking about philosophy and expressing yourself clearly. Get very articulate.

Do lots of research and lots and lots of prep. Research is to find out what sort of prep you need for your specific test, your particular college etc.