The ELAT

The English Literature Admissions Test.

Has anyone done this, or can say what to expect?

And it's like, only Oxbridge that require it...

Anyone else going to be taking this year?

=)

Reply 1

Kater Murr

It's basically just some passages and a poem, and you analyse them. Fairly easy to do well, fairly hard to do very well.

Reply 2

Reverie.

Drummer23

The English Literature Admissions Test.

Has anyone done this, or can say what to expect?

And it's like, only Oxbridge that require it...

I've done it - consists of a handful of extracts/poems; you pick two or three and compare them in order to answer a nice broad question. I enjoyed it as there's quite a lot of freedom etc. The sample paper on the ELAT website shows you what to expect, pretty much. It's only Oxford that requires it, not Oxbridge.

Just ask if you want to know anything more specific. :smile:

Reply 3

zef99

is it at all like the aea in English?

Reply 4

epitome

To an extent, in that all these qualifications are just comparative exercises. Like doing a literature degree, really! :wink:

The only real difference of the ELAT from the old individual college tests is that marking & standards are centralised. They're not substantially any different from any other pre-interview test for the applicant themselves.

Reply 5

rainbow drops

i'll be taking it. i'm not sure how much emphasis they place on it, since we'll only be the second year of applicants to take it... hmm. it looks quite fun though :smile:

Reply 6

*pitseleh*

I've done it. Do you know there's a practice test on the ELAT website? To be honest I found the practice one quite a bit easier than the real thing due to the subject matter, but it will at least give you an impression of what the test entails.

Oh, and it's only Oxford that require the ELAT. IIRC, Cambridge have their own tests during the interview period instead (at least, some colleges do).

Reply 7

Jackett

I did it last year (first set of people to sit it), got a decent score (I think I was in the 'probably should be invited to interview bracket, second out of four brackets) and have since got an offer. (at Teddy Hall! Woo! :P)

Since you're applying for English lit at Oxford, you'll probably find yourself actually quite enjoying the paper. I thought it was quite well-designed so that you can play to your own strengths and you don't have to have vast reserves of technical knowledge or period in advance. Plus, it's still fairly new, so people can't be heavily coached like the BMAT or LNAT. I think they just use it to weed out the weakest applicants - lots of people at interview were in the 3rd bracket, so it's not that important to score highly (though I tried - and failed - to find anyone in the bottom one).

So, yeah, don't worry about it too much, just try to focus, do a practice paper, and enjoy it. You should note that the ELAT won't stop them giving you a passage/poem to analyse before your interview, though.

Edit: Oh yeah, first post! :biggrin:

Reply 8

tigrrmilk

Jackett

Hey, I'm going to Teddy Hall too! Well, hopefully. English is the best subject, clearly...

Yeah, OP, the advice you've been given is pretty sound, but remember that it's definitely not everything... I was pretty ill for my ELAT and did it wrong and got a low mark (I was in the 'probably won't be invited to interview' bracket) but I managed to get an offer anyway. Unless it becomes drastically more important this year then if you don't feel like it's gone massively well then all probably isn't lost. Try to enjoy it, anyway (if that's possible!) :smile:

Reply 9

*pitseleh*