Test taken: LNAT

Number of interviews: 3

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: 1-2 days

2x 1 hour (+ 45 minutes reading time); 1x 15 minutes

Both interviews were largely based on the 45-minute pre-reading beforehand.

For the first interview, the reading was an extract from some statutes/regulations, as far as I recall, with a series of questions to answer based on the text. These questions all seemed doable, although the time was tight - but this may have been due to nerves. The interview then started with the interviewers asking me a few general questions (off-the-record and just out of curiosity, I was assured) about how I prepared for the interview. They then asked one or two questions about something on my personal statement. Afterwards, the rest of the interview consisted of going through the questions on the reading and several more questions in which they challenged me to apply the reading to hypothetical scenarios. This was hard but actually quite an enjoyable mental exercise.

The second interview's reading consisted of a case which I felt was a little much to fit in the time limits. At the start of the interview I was asked some questions about my personal statement and why I want to do law. It wasn't especially "chatty" or "relaxed" at all, although I found out later (after being accepted) that my tutors had been deliberately playing "good cop, bad cop" with us all (none of us were quite sure which was which)! Afterwards, they asked a series of questions about the reading, which was mostly too specific to the text to describe here. At one point, it got a little political and I was able to debate a bit with one of my tutors, which felt more natural than the rest of the interview.

I used the LNAT practice tests for the multiple choice questions, and prepared essay plans for possible essays based on 'Debating Matters' topic guides.

For a law degree, research any legal issues in your personal statement in a lot of detail. Of course, all the basics like knowing why you want to study law and being prepared to explain that still apply. However, I would go further and read some cases and legislation if you can - not because you need to know any, but because you may have to read some in the interview and this can be difficult if you're doing it for the first time.

Otherwise, I would just say to keep reading the news regularly and try to consider political issues - debate them with friends if you can. Preparing for the LNAT essay section via essay planning on a variety of political questions can be a good way to help you to consider lots of different political debates and practise your argumentation skills. (Obviously any debating you do is also good practice, but I know this isn't always an option for everyone.)

Altogether, I feel like most of the difficulty came from the unfamiliarity of the style and content of the interview, which could have been minimised if I had known to do more legal reading prior to interview (especially of cases). Of course, more mock interviews would probably have helped to relieve stress too, but of course this isn't available to most students. That said, despite all the stress, everyone was in the same boat - and I still got in! I think the tutors were really fair in assessing the content of what people said, rather than how confident they were in delivering it.