Test taken: CAT
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 day
Length of interviews: 30 mins
Online interview: No

In my first interview, I was interviewed by 3 tutors. I was asked about an Ovid poem I had been given to look at for 15 minutes beforehand - I was first asked to talk about what I found interesting, and then I was asked more specific questions about the meaning of certain lines. From the second tutor, I was then asked to translate a Latin passage aloud - though I was able to ask for help, and the tutor wasn't mean, that was pretty stressful! The 3rd tutor asked me questions about one of the essays I had mentioned on my personal statement. She asked me to defend some points I'd mentioned, and some of my more general views about the translation of ancient literature.

The second interview I had was with 2 tutors, and it was for philosophy and ancient history. The philosophy tutor started with a big "philosophy" kind of question (I don't want to repeat it in case they do reuse it!) that asked me to think about how we perceive the world. I basically tried to find an answer to this question for 15 minutes while he occasionally asked me some more specific questions to get me to think about a different aspect. The other tutor asked me about another essay I'd put on my personal statement on Roman history; we basically just had a conversation about my opinions on Roman identity, social change under the empire, and how I thought this might relate to the modern world. I definitely found this interview easier, I think I was a bit more relaxed and it made the whole experience easier!

To prepare for the interviews I essentially did the same thing that I’d been doing for my personal statement – just spending some time each week (maybe like 3 hours) reading articles, books, and related podcasts to my subject. I had 3 main topics for Classics that I put on my personal statement so I kind of just tried to keep my brain ticking in terms of those - so for example I would read a chapter of a book vaguely related to the Roman empire, or on translation, and then make a few notes on my phone about what I found interesting. I also made sure that I re-read all of my set texts, including the introduction in the textbooks, and anything I'd put in my PS such as an essay I submitted to an essay competition.

I tried out some standard personal statement questions with my parents, like why I wanted to study classics, and my opinions about certain books on my personal statement. I was also very fortunate to have had two mock interviews at school – one where I had to comment on some different English translations of a Latin poem, and one where I discussed my personal statement and my opinions on the general relevance of classics. I did think these were useful for getting used to talking in an academic way in a pressured situation, so if you can mimic this by setting up an interview with a teacher, recording yourself, or talking to a parent it might be good to have a bit of an idea before you have the real thing. But if not then it's completely fine - a lot of people don't do this too!

This is a more general point than interview, specific, but I would say in general the most useful thing I did was just listening to podcasts/reading books related to Classics and making my own notes on these. I think this helped me get more confident about having my own academic opinions and interests rather than just trying to answer exam questions.

I essentially tried to do a Latin translation from my textbook or past paper from online once a week from the start of Year 13. I also made sure to write down any new vocab in a notebook and learn that (I use Quizlet!). In the week before the test, I did all the rest of the past papers in proper timed conditions and also brushed up on my grammar just as I would for an actual exam.

I would say: try to relax at your interviews! I know it's so hard when you actually have them, but try not to view them like they're a test or an exam. From my experience, they're more informal than that - obviously it is a bit of a stressful environment, and it is academic, but the tutors want to have an interesting conversation. Also, make sure you show the tutors your thought processes! Even if you don't know the answer, it's better to say what you're thinking out loud; for example, if they ask you to translate something and you don't know what a word means, you could say 'I don't know but it's x grammatical form', 'it looks like x word', or 'in this context it could mean x' rather than just saying you don't know and giving up.