4x20-30 min interviews over 2 days
Pre-reading and discussion
Reading personal statement books and mock interviews
Take time 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.
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
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!)
Read books relating to my personal statement,
They will make you dig yourself a hole! But they can also help you to get out of it. Take time in the interview to think. I kept rambling, but silences were ok - they knew you needed to think so don’t feel you need to talk all the time. It's totally fine to say "can I think about that please". However, the tutors can help you even more if you articulate your thought process - the interviews are a discussion.