3x interviews (20 mins)
1st interview: concept of religion; 2nd interview: aspects of personal statement & A level; 3rd interview: pre-interview text, personal statement & submitted essays
Mock Interviews; Cambridge HE+ website
Try & visit Cambridge before the interview; enjoy your time while you're in the city
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.
3 interviews total. I had two at my chosen college (Pembroke) in the morning, and an additional interview at Newnham in the afternoon.
At Pembroke I first had an interview with the theology
At Newnham just before the interview I was brought to a private office where I had ~15-20 minutes to read over an article related to the subject. I was then interviewed by two
Pembroke (with DoS) - Discussed the concept of religion & its relationship with/difference to ideologies. I felt ok with this as I'd thought about the idea before. We then discussed prayer, its meaning & significance.
Pembroke (with another fellow) - The fellow told me she was particularly interested in medieval religious writings, and we discussed a lot about language. She knew I had studied Latin A level from my UCAS form and in my personal statement I had said how interested I was to learn a scriptural language. We discussed the value of reading translations vs the original - this interview was more interesting, but I didn't feel like I did very well and came out a bit disappointed.
Newnham (two interviewers) - The article was about the relationship between religion & politics. We didn't discuss the article itself for too long, but I did have to show that I understood it. Later we talked about some stuff from my personal statement and the essays I had sent in which talked about Virtue Ethics. They also picked up on some unfortunate phrasing from my
A couple of
Open days are definitely helpful so that you're at least a bit familiar with your surroundings/the college grounds to ease interview day stress - or if that's not possible, the
Also, my biggest tip - enjoy your time in the city!!! I see over and over again how you should enjoy your interview because it's a subject you love, which isn't wrong - but make the most of the rest of the day and try and see a bit of the area around you if you can. It might just relieve the stress and nerves before or after interviews. (I had the most delicious blueberry pancakes between my interviews and honestly it was the highlight of my day.)