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French studies uni interview

Helpppp! Just been invited to interview at Uni of Manchester for French studies.
Does anyone know how the interview goes? Which questions are asked in French which in English? What sort of questions they ask? Any top tips on uni interviews would be really appreciated thank you :biggrin:

Reply 1

spookyplacenta

In the same boat as you; just got an interview for French and Italian this Thursday (13th). Someone help us!!!

Reply 2

LucyFDiamond

Good luck for tomorrow!! If you have any tips after please could you post them on here! Like what they ask you etc.

Reply 3

weevilface

I had an interview at Manchester this February for Russian and I was beyond stressed and panicking about it. I asked a girl from school who'd gone for an interview there and she said she just got asked to expand a bit on her personal statement and to speak some simple sentences in the language e.g. where did you go on holiday, that sort of thing.

I was super stressed, I reread everything I'd talked about in my personal statement, was practising and preparing all these new sentences etc and it ended up being fine. My interviewer didn't even ask me to speak in Russian. She asked why I wanted to study Russian, why I chose Manchester, how I felt about my year abroad. I felt more like it was for the university to get inside the minds of people applying to their course and they just wanted to chat about you to get an idea of your knowledge and enthusiasm.

It was only 10/15 minutes and fairly simple and informal, nothing to get too stressed about. Just make sure you DO know about things you've mentioned in your personal statement, practise a little bit of the language.

Oops I just noticed this is from two weeks ago but I'll post for future stalkers' benefit and I hope your interview went well! I actually really enjoyed the Manchester visit day. :biggrin:

Reply 4

spookyplacenta

I sent LucyFDiamond a pretty lengthy paragraph about my experience too if she would kindly share that/ if I can find it again!

Reply 5

LucyFDiamond

Hi Lucy! It was absolutely fine. The whole day was great. There was like a Q&A thing with some students (ask them why they chose Manchester just in case your interviewer asks you this; you can steal their ideas!) and a lecture with a language prof. And a careers speaker too. The interview itself was great. They were running late so it only lasted for 10 minutes. It was in her office (very jnformal; everything that your college has said to you about body language and foot positioning or whatever isn't hugely important.). She asked me about the films I'd written about in my PS, which was fine because that's my main interest. In terms of preparation, I would say just make sure you can back up the claims you've made in your PS, and that you know what you're talking about.
Language wise, she asked me what I wanted to do. I said if we had time, potentially Italian but preferably French, but we didn't, so I closed the interview by saying ciao as I left.
I received my offer this morning; ABB including French and Italian which is reasonable.
Basically anyone who turns up gets an offer unless they've bull****ted all the way through their PS and they don't exist tbh!
You will be absolutely fine, don't panic, and get as many free pendant as you can! Good luck :smile:

Thank you very much :smile:

)))

(Thanks Lucy!)

I went for an interview at Manchester for German earlier this year so I know how panicky it is but the actual interview is super easy :smile:

The person who interviews you should have a copy of your UCAS personal statement or at least have read it so they know a bit about you and you just chat about why you want to study that course, why that uni, etc.. I had one question in German about if I'd been on holiday there and it went really badly I thought I'd messed the whole thing up but the lecturers are so used to it that they're fine about mistakes. I agree that pretty much everyone who does the interview gets an offer so try not to stress too much and good luck to everyone applying!