Modern Languages Admissions Test; 2x interviews.
Interview 1: personal statement; Interview 2: unseen poem, personal statement, speaking about books in target language.
Discussion group, discuss articles.
Revised grammar, practice papers.
Being able to remain level headed and think critically about such question is important as it shows that you can approach anything, even if you don't give a perfect answer.
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: Modern Languages Admissions Test (
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: a day apart
Length of interviews: around 30 minutes each
Online interview: Yes
1. In the first interview, there was very little structure and they didn't talk much about anything particularly specific to my course. They did still talk about my personal statement throughout, and they linked it to my other A levels. The interviewers also brought in some of their own research interests in a way that combined with my interests that I had talked about. What was consistent throughout was that we would start by discussing an interest broadly, for example translation or art, and then we would keep narrowing down the questions that became increasingly more difficult.
2. In the second interview, I was given a poem to read for 2 minutes in the interview, and then we discussed its general meaning. I would be asked to point out certain ideas and where they occurred. At the end of this, I was given a chance to offer any other things I found interesting about the poem. Then, we spoke about my personal statement, mainly in the target language. This mostly consisted of speaking about certain books I had read and the ideas within them in the target language. I would say this was not what I was expecting and it was quite challenging to express complicated ideas in a different language.
Revised basic grammar points throughout the year and only started to complete the practice papers closer to the date of the exam. If there was anything I wouldn't have gotten right on the practice papers, I would look up other things similar.
Make sure to read around things that are interesting and not stick to just classic texts. For example, reading recent academic writing can be interesting and provide new ways of thinking as well. The interviewers are obviously looking at your thought process, but I think it's just as important to show that you have a wide variety of interests that you can discuss and freely give information on. I think it's also important to have general strategies for approaching difficult questions, as the interviewers keep asking questions until you are put on the spot. Being able to remain level-headed and think critically about such questions is important as it shows that you can approach anything, even if you don't give a perfect answer.