Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: One day
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

The interviews were split between human and physical geography, both with two academics. In the first interview on human geography, we talked about fieldwork and interesting geographical patterns in my home town, I think they wanted to see why I was interested in geography, what had inspired me as I had grown up, and if I could apply that knowledge I'd learned in school at home. Then I was asked to make a balanced argument over a particular statement and draw a conclusion, and then I was asked to interpret a graph. I felt welcomed and the tutors were reassuring, friendly, and they seemed very comfortable and understanding of nerves which made me feel a little more at ease.

The second interview was a bit more technical, I feel like they wanted me to apply more theory to real world situations. I was shown a map and asked to predict what might happen if there was a change in the environment, which was a difficult question. I felt underprepared for it because I'd only ever had one go at a practice interview, especially with interpreting different types of figures and trying to apply a concept to it. I felt more relaxed in the second one because I felt like I knew what to expect, and the tutors gave more hints to help find the right answer while in the first one I felt like I was being left hanging at some points.

I read through some notes from my textbooks to make sure I was confident on basic theory and I did one practice interview with a teacher after I pestered him for a while. I found that practising interpreting figures like graphs and diagrams was really helpful preparation as they asked for this in both of the interviews. I re-read my personal statement and re-capped on the books I'd included to make sure I knew what they were about. I also looked online to try and find past questions.

Make the most of your time at the interviews and try to get out to see the city as well. Don't hole up in the room you're given, there's only a certain extent to which you can prepare. There might be lots of very confident applicants but try not to get psyched out by them. I think I expected it to be less friendly than it was, but from what I could tell the interviews were as expected. I wish I had done a bit more preparation, maybe engaged in discussion a bit more beforehand, and I wish I hadn't have let people psych me out. I think the interviewers are looking for someone they can teach and they think will do well, they don't want to have people who won't put in the effort. I think you need to be agile and think quickly on your feet and will make thoughtful, but instinctively enthusiastic responses to questions.