Classics @ Jesus, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

2x 30 min interviews, 3 hrs apart

Interview content

Poem with questions, given beforehand; personal statement

Best preparation

Read Ovid

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Read classical texts; do some interview preparation, little and often.

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: CAT

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 3 hours

Length of interviews: 30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was given a poem with questions on it before the interview. I thought about the questions before the interview. The atmosphere was fine. It was probing but the tutors weren’t out to “get you”, they were just interested in seeing what you could do. They spent a little bit of time on my personal statement but not too much.

How did you prepare?

I read a bit of Ovid every day, using a Loeb edition to check for the answer.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I recommend reading classical texts, both in the original and in translation.

The best thing I did was trying to do some form of interview work every day. It doesn’t need to be strenuous or time-consuming, but as long as you’re doing something consistently, you will notice the benefits!

I got much better at the language, but the main benefit I got from my work was confidence.