6 x 30 min interviews, ELAT
What is useful is familiarising yourself with analysing poems you don't know if you don't have an unseen paper at A level
I would say the thing that got me through interviews was just trying to be confident with my answers, but making sure I really thought about it and wasn't chatting really impulsively.
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.
Test taken: English Literature Admissions Test (
Number of interviews: 6
Time between interviews: around half an hour
Length of interviews: 30 minutes or so
Online interview: No
I didn't really to be honest. I was on a trip when the ELAT was placed so had to find local test centre there. I looked at one past paper and because poetry is unseen I thought doing past papers wouldn't really help me? Unless you want to test yourself for time. But what is useful is familiarising yourself with analysing poems you don't know if you don't have an unseen paper at A level. I did, so kind of knew what it would be like? What I think made me succeed looking back on it is that I took a while really thinking about which poems/extracts on the paper I liked the best and chose two which I thought I could connect strongly because ultimately they are testing your comparison. I continued to refer to the question and really thought about forming and argument, which I think they were probably looking for.
Don't be afraid to talk about the books you want to talk about and your interests in interview. I, for example, hardly read fictional books outside of my degree and am really interested in science literature e.g on human medicine and neuroscience. I wasn't afraid to mention that when asked about what books I like, and possibly this made me seem more interesting and honest? I also wasn't afraid to talk about personal theories in interview and also be argued against with tutors. I would definitely look over my personal statement again. I didn't do that and forgot the name of a main character in a book which was super embarrassing! I would say the thing that got me through interviews was just trying to be confident with my answers, but making sure I really thought about it and wasn't chatting really impulsively.