Music @ Christ Church, Oxford in 2019

Interview format

4 x 20-30 min interviews, 5 min audition

Interview content

Pre-reading which we discussed in the interviw

Best preparation

Read books relating to my personal statement, and mock interviews

Final thoughts

Take time in the interview to think

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.

Interview Format

Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 4
Time between interviews: Three in one day, one the following day
Length of interviews: 20/30 mins, one was a 5 min audition
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

There was pre-reading, one was about the Islamic devil in music, one involved being given a graphic score during the interview, in two I was given a score to look at before and analyse and then talked about it in the interview (Schumann and Schubert so lots of harmony on the spot!)

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Read books relating to my personal statement, mock interviews, best thing was looking at modern music, knowing a little bit about everything even if very little...

What advice would you give to future applicants?

They will make you dig yourself a hole! Take time in the interview to think. I kept rambling but the silences were ok - they knew you needed to think so don’t feel you need to talk all the time. Also, don’t mention anything you aren’t comfortable elaborating on