Test taken: English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: a few hours
Length of interviews: 20 minutes of prep time to look over passage, 20 minutes actual interview
Online interview: No

There was a poem for each interview, and they seemed quite tailored to what I was interested in as i expressed in my personal statement (classics, 20th century literature etc.) and it appeared that everyone had different poems. You had to arrive at a room 20 minutes before your interview, where you were presented with the poem and had those 20 minutes to look it over, make notes and just develop your thoughts about it. Then you were taken to your actual interview, where for the first 10 minutes you could just talk about your poem to the interviewers - they let you take the lead and just come out with what you were thinking, and simply probed in a few placed to see if you could develop it further and extend your thinking. After that they asked about things mentioned on your personal statement, asking things for example: if you had mentioned a poem saying it was your favourite in a collection, why, what exactly made it excel over others? asking you to define terms you had used (e.g. mine was "instapoet") and why that term was important, was it accurate to the phenomenon it described, what were some issues with it, why did the thing need a name anyway etc. Basically they wanted to see if you had fully developed thoughts about the literature you mentioned past just "i have read it and i liked it" - they want you to be thinking why all the time and be able to question your own thinking and extend it.

Went over my personal statement and marked everything that I had mentioned, then created a folder with a tab for each thing I mentioned. In each tab I put basically everything i knew about each book/poem/author etc. and everything i could think about it, and went over those notes repeatedly and developed them up until the interview

Practice papers with teachers marking them and giving me advice through in-person consultations. Practicing my analytical skills and gaining more knowledge about language analysis & practicing my writing for it.

1) Enjoy the interviews and treat them as an opportunity to learn, because yes, you might not be accepted so this is your one chance to actually be taught by Oxford professors! also if you think about them like that it will take the pressure off and you will be able to shine through 2) They want to see the enthusiasm and a willingness to learn - if you have gotten to the interview stage then they already know that you can do it academically, but what they want to know now is actually whether they want to spend the next few years in your company, teaching you and talking to you for hours each week. Show your passion for the subject, and not just "I really like reading" but allowing yourself to find the challenges they present you interesting, saying your thoughts out loud even if they are half-formed so you can lead them through your thinking, ask the interviewers questions that might help your understanding and develop your thoughts further (e.g. I asked if the poet was a certain nationality, and when they confirmed I began to talk about and consider the historical and social connotations underpinning the poem within this new context, evaluating how that played into the meaning we had already established was in the poem) 3) Don't be afraid to be wrong and not know things in the interview - in both interviews I conceded I didn't know things and I think what made me a better candidate was the fact that i asked about it straight after admitting I didn't know, and when they told me the missing information, I used it to develop a new thought and connected the dots they were trying to get me to connect. They don't expect you to know everything (otherwise what would be the point in coming to the uni and being taught) but they want to see that you *want* to know everything you can, because then you will be a pleasure to teach!