The Cambridge Law interview
Our Schools Liaison Coordinator breaks down the format of the interview, what to expect, and how to prepare.
You’ve nervously waited to hear back from the college you applied to when you see an email in your inbox…inviting you to interview for a place at Cambridge. You’re jubilant, excited and thrilled, and proud of your accomplishments thus far, thinking the work and time you put into your personal statement was absolutely worth it. And then the panic sets in — how do I prepare?!
Nearly every future Cambridge student has gone through these feelings of apprehension. Because the interview isn’t a universal aspect of university admissions, and one that is highly associated with Oxbridge, it can feel like it is shrouded in mystery, especially if your school hasn’t sent students to Oxbridge before or you don’t know anyone who has attended. There’s a prevailing (erroneous) mythology that to be successful at the interview you need to have had formal interview preparation from your school, or paid for support from for-profit companies to get ‘insider knowledge’ (a myth we hope to bust! All our resources are from the source, free, and publicly available). So the interview can feel like a really scary and overwhelming part of the admissions process. In this post, we hope to assuage those feelings. We’re going to break down what to expect in your Cambridge Law interview and how to prepare and show you that it’s not as mysterious, or exclusive, as it may seem.
The format
Interviews at Cambridge are usually held in the first half of December, so do avoid making unbreakable commitments during this time so you are able to attend your interview. If you are attending virtually, make sure you have the appropriate technology, internet connection, and space to interview.
The exact format for the Law interview varies from college to college so we can only provide a general overview of what to expect. Some colleges have just one interview, others may have multiple shorter ones. So do check out InsideUni, a resource created by Oxbridge students and vetted by Admissions Tutors, for college-specific details, or check out the admissions pages of the relevant College website (or email the college admissions team directly for more specific information).
The interview is generally between 20–40 minutes in length with a couple of the law fellows at the college. It’s a discussion-based exercise that will challenge you to think in ways you have not before and encourage you to apply your existing knowledge and/or skills to new problems or questions. In law, we do not expect you to have any pre-existing knowledge of law. Most students have never studied law before applying to university. It is a subject that demands you to take the skills that you know and have developed elsewhere and to apply them to legal problems. You may be asked to elaborate on something you mentioned in your personal statement like the argument of a book you mentioned, or a supercurricular activity you did. At many colleges you might be asked to complete a reading and reasoning exercise where you will be asked to read about the circumstances of a particular scenario(s) and/or an example of a legislation (or extracts from a case) and then through various questions to apply the law to the scenario, which may evolve as your interview progresses. This sort of reading exercise might happen in the interview itself, or for a short period before it. You might be asked to give advice to a hypothetical problem, or to think about a current events issue from a legal perspective (this doesn’t require any legal knowledge — interviewers just want to think about the sorts of issues that you might expect that the law has to deal with). Some examples of questions and their formats that have been asked in the past are available on our blog here and here. We also have lots of legal problems on our YouTube channel that can help you prepare for these types of questions, like this one from Janet O’Sullivan.
What are we looking for?
Contrary to the myths that perpetrated by some, interviewers are not asking you trick questions and the interview is not a final hurdle that you must pass in order to get an offer of admission. Our interviewers are 1) humans and 2) trying to understand who you are as a person and your suitability for the course, given also that it requires a great deal of self-motivation.
The interview allows the interviewers to assess:
• whether your interests and aptitudes are best suited for Law — do you have the skills that will allow you to study a demanding Law course?
• your genuine interest in and motivation for the subject — does Law actually interest you and why do you want to study it?
• your enthusiasm for complex and challenging ideas — do you thrive on an intellectual challenge? Are you confident in articulating your thoughts and comfortable in engaging with different ideas?
• clarity of thought and analytical ability — is your reasoning sound? Can you articulate your thoughts clearly and concisely?
• intellectual flexibility — are you open to new ideas/knowledge and able to think around or apply that to thinking about a problem? Are you curious?
You should expect the interview to be intellectually challenging and for the interview to put you through your intellectual paces — they are looking to see how you think, and how you respond to unfamiliar situations and new knowledge. This is because the BA in Law in intellectually demanding, and students do a lot of self-directed learning.
Most of the time there aren’t right or wrong answers, so don’t panic if you don’t have an answer to a question at the top of your head. If you don’t understand the question, do ask the interviewer to rephrase it. These are not signs of weakness but rather of someone who wants to make sure they understand what they are being asked to do and are taking the time to think thoughtfully. How you get to your answer and support it is more important that the answer you give in most cases. Showing your interviewers how you are thinking by thinking aloud will not only allow you to show your line of reasoning but it might make it easier for you to structure your response.
Oops!
Stumbled over your words? Completely blanked on the title book you read (Eve was framed) that you thought was really interesting and said something like ‘Bible…Eve….something…thingie’ and felt like sinking into the floor? Accidentally referred to your interviewer as Mum or Dad? Don’t worry! Accidents happen and your interviewers know that you are going to be nervous and that you have likely never been in an interview situation like this before. They’ve been given training to try and make you feel at ease as much as possible as well. And some of your interviewers will have been Cambridge law students themselves years before and likely had a similar experience (to say nothing of the fact that we all — throughout life — get nervous in interviews). It doesn’t mean that you did badly at the interview or that you have no chance of getting into Cambridge. Remember the rest of your application is just as important as the interview, that you are assessed holistically, and that your interviewers are people too. It is not in their interest to reject people just because they are nervous or make a mistake — we all do that. They will be trying to look beyond this to work out who you are. Having said that, how you handle your nerves — whether you stop talking or just move on and try your best — will either help or hinder the interviewer in that process. It is hard to work out who someone is if they do not say much. If you need more reassurance, some current Cambridge students have confessed their great interview fails for you. In short, don’t worry too much about it, laugh it off where you can, and try to have fun in the process.
How to prepare
• review your personal statement, any written work and your application in general. It might be good to flip through that book your mentioned or listen to that podcast again to refresh your memory. Think of ways you might expand on what you’ve written and think about why you put in in your personal statement.
• anticipate questions that are likely to come up — like why you want to study law as an academic subject
• stay on top of current events (i.e. have some awareness of them)
• practice answering questions in an interview with a friend, family member, mentor or teacher. Practice taking time to answer questions, asking questions to be rephrased or answering succinctly so these skills are more familiar to you to use in your interview — you do not need an “expert” to do this; the purpose is just to become familiar with the format, not to practice a particular style of interviewing.
• Don’t over-rehearse an answer; interviewers can often pick up when candidates are giving answers that are over prepared and thus are more demonstrable of your ability to memorise something than to think critically (if they do, they will likely pivot to something new). You should have an idea of topics you may want to talk about but let the conversation in the interview evolve organically.
• Review Cambridge’s Undergraduate Study website on interviews.
• Watch this video of advice regarding interviews from Cambridge Law students
Final thoughts
The interview is not too dissimilar to an undergraduate supervision (the small group teaching at Cambridge) in that you get to discuss an intellectual topic at length with experts in the field. Enjoy the process and the opportunity to engage with the topic! And finally, and most importantly, be yourself. Cambridge students come from all walks of life, from every background imaginable so don’t feel like you need to put yourself into a box about what you think a Cambridge student should look or sound like. We’re interested in you as an individual and your ideas!
