Test taken: Geography Admissions Test (GAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: I think they were roughly a day apart, both at around 9:30am
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: No

When I first arrived at college for my interviews I was so so nervous (to the extent that I could barely ask for my room key!). However by the time it came to the interviews themselves I felt so relaxed and welcomed which gave me a lot of confidence. The tutors are very welcoming and nice and they understand that you’re nervous (they’re probably a bit nervous too because it’s quite a big deal). So just take your time to think before you say anything and bring some water to sip and you’ll be fine! In terms of the interviews themselves, I got asked nothing on my personal statement at all and I’d guess that they hadn’t actually read it before. There were a lot of resource based questions and they love to question you further and further until you have nothing else to say so expect them to challenge you but equally expect to reach a point where you are stuck (this is fine)! If you make a mistake that is completely fine and feel free to say “oh actually I’ve changed my mind about that”, I think they like people who can accept if they’re wrong.

For a few months prior to the interview (before I knew that I even had one) I wrote down anything geography related that I found interesting in a small notebook. These were literally just bullet points from articles, podcasts, youtube videos, books (would recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling), TV programmes or anything that interested me. These were very specific and quite obscure so I only mentioned a couple in my interview but it was helpful for my personal statement and also reminded me of why I chose geography. I would recommend staying up to date with the news as probably the number one thing you do. It is helpful to go back over notes from year 12 but don’t worry too much if you don’t have time to because people will be applying that haven’t studied geography before and this is what the interviewers are testing. I did have a mock interview at a local private school which I did find quite scary and probably made me less confident in myself. However it was useful for practicing talking to a stranger in that setting and getting those nerves out the way for the actual interview. . The day before my interviews I had a look over my personal statement and tried to think about an example of human/physical geography from where I live and an example of human/physical geography I had seen/been a part of whilst travelling to interviews (these seem like popular questions so I just had something ready to talk about). I think that what’s great about a geography interview is that the tutors are after someone who can think of something to say when presented with new material so there’s not too much preparation you can do before hand. Just be confident and relax (I watched gossip girl before my interview). 

I only started preparing for the admissions test the day before and had no help from my school so had to try to prepare on my own. I started by doing the sample paper on the Oxford website in the set time limit and just giving it a go. Then I looked at at the sample paper guidance and tried to see where I was close to the suggested arguments and where I overlooked things and misunderstood things compared to their guidance. I spent a long time trying to understand the sample paper and getting a sense of what they were after. I then found a similar style paper on the Cambridge website for their geography admissions and annotated the graph and article but didn’t fully write it out. I think annotating any examples (you can just look for news articles to use or graphs published on websites such as the IPCC, PHE, the national geographic) is the most productive form of revision.

Be confident in yourself as you deserve your interview place. However accept that the interview might not go perfectly. Therefore expect to ask questions and admit to making mistakes. You can say to the tutors that you’ve changed your mind and make a better argument opposing what you initially thought. The tutors will always know so much more than you but don’t let that make you nervous just think of it as a great experience to meet experts in a subject that you enjoy. Just try to enjoy the experience regardless of whether you get a place.