Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: Between the first two it was a quicker turnaround time, a little longer for the third. Never felt in a rush to get to an interview though.
Length of interviews: Can't really remember, maybe 30-60mins
Online interview: No

The interviews definitely got less stressful as it went on! The first one was a bit shambolic from my perspective (although clearly not too bad). It was at Emma, and for it, before I went in, I was given a poem to analyse - I think because I had done English at A Level. There were two interviewers, which was slightly daunting at first, feeling outnumbered. But they were very friendly. We spent the first half discussing some of my personal statement. I remember topics like world religions and why religions existed in the first place coming up. Then we moved on and discussed the poem together. I felt much more comfortable from then on as this was more familiar territory for me (it's okay to not be an expert in everything!).

My second interview was very much focused on my personal statement. It felt like a "Let's check you have done all you said and somewhat know what you're talking about" kind of interview. It was with a languages professor which meant we spent a while discussing translations of the Bible and their significance. Again, I was getting more comfortable with the setting and so was a bit more myself in this interview.

Then we had a test in the Faculty of Divinity. We watched a 10-15min pre-recorded lecture and then had to answer some questions about it. This was hard. It was on a completely new topic for me, and the paper was very long given the time allowed to complete it. I hadn't done any practices for this, although I was expecting this format.

Finally, I headed to my last interview which was with two interviewers again. This time, I had to annotate a short narrative passage from the Bible before going in. I really enjoyed this interview, I felt very relaxed and we had a good conversation. Some topics came from my personal statement - such as predestination and religion and the secularisation of society. We also discussed the passage I had read beforehand. It was a process of starting off with what I had observed and then being pushed by the interviewers to see more. It felt less like being grilled about what I knew and more being helped to think more deeply and broadly about the passage.

Ultimately, I felt mixed leaving the interviews - we are always the worst at judging how they have gone. My advice would be to be ready for a conversation rather than an interrogation; make sure to rest between interviews - don't spend ages going over notes because it won't really help, just make you tired; and be open to thinking about both new ideas, and also familiar ones but perhaps in a way you haven't done so before. Don't worry if you think you put your foot in it or feel bad leaving them, you probably did much better than you think! The best thing I was told before my interviews was to treat them as mini supervisions, as that was basically what I found mine to be.

I wish I could say I felt very prepared going into my interviews but that wasn't really the case. But I did do some things to help, the first of which was to make sure I had done everything I'd said I had on my personal statement! This is where most of my attention was focused, partly because I decided that I couldn't be ready for everything but I could be well prepped on my interests in the subject.

From there, it was looking online at videos and guides to what to expect; attending a few talks my college put on about the application process; and going to a mock interview with teachers at my college (although they were not theology teachers so it wasn't super useful...).

Most of this was helpful, especially the advice I found on how you should answer questions: thinking out-loud rather than being fearful of being wrong.

Other people did much more than I did: attending Summer schools, having mock interviews from external groups, writing and reading lots of essays and books. I'm sure some of this would have been useful, and if I was applying for a different course it may well have been necessary, but I personally didn't find it too stressful going through the interview process with the prep I did. Learn and think about your interests, look at advice on how to answer questions, and be confident in your own ability!

Know your personal statement well; approach the interviews with respect but feel comfortable to be yourself and discuss ideas; know that the interviewers are on your side - they want you to do well; give yourself a break between them, instead of reading notes and worrying about the next one coming up; take your time with answers, rather than rushing in with the first thought that pops into your head; don't be scared to think out-loud; afterwards, don't over-think your answers; don't spend ages comparing your experience with others - that can easily become disheartening if you think you did badly and they think they did well; and, finally, back yourself to do well!