Theology, Religion, And Philosophy Of Religion @ Corpus Christi, Cambridge in 2022

Interview format

2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: general questions on course and personal statement; Interview 2: discussion of pre-interview reading, then of personal statement

Best preparation

Reading over personal statement and written work

Final thoughts

It's not as scary as everyone says! Take time to think and breathe

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: 4 hours
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In the first interview, I was asked about how my course related to other courses, and non-course-specific material which made me think about the wider impact of my course. They then asked me about my personal statement in general.

For the second interview, I had pre-interview reading for 30 minutes, so the first half of the interview was talking about this, and the second half they asked me about some specifics of my personal statement.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I read over my personal statement, written work I had submitted, and any other work I had mentioned in my personal statement. I spoke to a family friend who had applied to university to do my subject, and she advised me about the details of the pre-interview reading, and what type of questions I could expect, but every interview is different, so some of this wasn't helpful!

What advice would you give to future applicants?

It's not as scary as everyone says! I actually found it quite fun looking back, as I was speaking to some experts in the subject that I love, and it was really interesting having a conversation with them.

Make sure that you take time to think and breathe; don't just say something because you think you need to fill the silence! Some questions you won't know the answers to immediately, or they won't have a distinct answer, so always talk through your thought process with the interviewer to show how you're thinking, and don't be afraid to ask them to repeat or explain a question.