Test taken: Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: Yes

I’m not going to lie and say that I relaxed into my German interview, because I didn’t entirely, but it did teach me that you cannot predict what will happen.

I first got given a poem on the screen, which I had to translate (if they do this, it’s better to tell them all the words that you don’t understand rather than try to impress!), and then there was a follow-up question about the theme of the poem, which then broadened out into any similar themes I had noticed in my reading.

Unlike others, it was not focused on my statement at all. The main issue with my interview was that the tutor who conducted the German part of the interview was sat in a very echoey room, very far away from the microphone, so I could not hear a thing!

I spent 10 mins telling her, in German, that I couldn’t hear her and answering questions that I thought she had asked, so my teacher emailed my college afterwards because I couldn’t hear what the tutor was saying. In the end, it worked out and I had an offer, so you really can’t tell how you think you are going to do. My best piece of advice is to see it as a mock tutorial because that’s what it essentially is. It’s to see if you fit the teaching style and it is just a conversation. It’s also over before you know it, so don’t panic!

I was lucky enough to get a mentor through Zero Gravity - it is a free scheme for state-school, first-generation applicants and it gives you a mentor to practice interviews.

Before I knew I had an interview, I had already done about 5 mock ones, so I was comfortable talking about what I had read and my thoughts. I would recommend looking into Zero Gravity, but talking constantly to your teachers about your personal statement and your reading is the best help - arrange meetings with them for about 20 minutes and just talk!

I also went through a variety of texts (poems, extracts from books etc.) with both my mentor and teacher as this is a feature of the interview. I became a lot more confident in analysing unseens and picking out language features and ideas.

To sum up, you just want to engage in conversation about your subject and go through a few unseens so the interview process is not a shock to the system on the day.

I used every single past paper of the MLAT I could find. I started doing them casually in my free time, and towards the run-up to the test, I would do them in time conditions. Once I had done a test, I would give the answer paper to my German teacher and we would sit down together and mark it.

By doing lots of past papers, I noticed a few patterns in grammar structures and grammar topics they like to test, so I made a list of them. I made sure that I could do those reoccurring things well and that made me feel as prepared as I could be.

You also can’t guess what words will come up, so I made sure that I knew the basic words that I hadn’t seen in a while.

My advice would be to practise the interviews even before you know you have one. This means that you will be comfortable with the format, and even if you don’t get an interview, you will have had some intellectual discussions so it’s a win win!

It is also good to view the interview as a conversation and mock tutorial because they just want to see if you fit the teaching style. They know you are clever and have the potential to go to Oxford, however, the 2:1 teaching is not for everyone, so rejection is not a reflection of your ability. My final piece of advice is to speak everything you think - even if you think it is silly. They want to see how your brain works and how you get to your answer, so voice everything!