Cambridge MML Application Advice

Hi, I'm a Year 12 student currently looking to apply to Cambridge to study Modern and Medieval Languages, ideally French and German.

Currently I'm studying for five A Levels- German, French, English Lit-Lang, Music and Psychology. I'm predicted A*A*A*A* and then an A in French. I'm going to be taking German this year hopefully (I do it outside of my Sixth Form) and I only started French in September. At GCSE I got 9999888888.

I'm not sure which college I'm going to apply to yet, but I have looked at some of the undergrad application data online and seen that potentially Trinity has a slightly higher acceptance rate? I had it at 48.5% for my course, from 2013-2022, but I don't know how correctly I'm interpreting that, considering that some like Churchill had a 126.5% success rate; I'm assuming this is because not many people actually applied there and then more got pooled there or put there from an open application.

I do a fair amount of extra-curriculars, including DofE (I have Silver, doing Gold), school band, committee roles at my sixth form, and I'm going to be going on a charity trip to Africa this year as well. I play Piano to Grade 5 and Guitar, which I'm hoping to get to Grade 7 this year.

My school is a pretty run-of-the-mill state comprehensive, and usually there's only a handful of people each year that even think about applying for Oxbridge/similarly difficult unis.

I had a few questions, though, so if anyone could provide a bit of insight that'd be great.

Firstly, I've heard that sometimes Cambridge gives out offers based on four or even five A Levels, rather than just the usual three, even if they're unrelated. Is this a common thing? Because, frankly, if I'm going to be forced into a horrendous five A Level offer, then I might just opt out of Pyschology or Music or both, because ultimately they're largely irrelevant to what I want to do, and focus on my main three, which I know I am fully of the ability to get A*s in, and to potentially get a more lenient A*AA offer. Essentially I'm weighing up the costs and the benefits, because it is a lot of work doing all of these extra subjects that ultimately my heart isn't completely in, and I'm worried that I might not be able to dedicate the rest of my time to the subjects that really matter, especially German, since I do it outside of school and finding time for it is more of a challenge, and also in terms of wider reading and supercurriculars and whatnot.

Second question is more related to the MML course itself. I understand that I cannot take French ab initio, but that's fine because I'm doing it at A Level anyway. Ideally I should have German as my main. Problem is, would I still have to get an A* in French to do it because it's only post-A Level? Or would they accept my German at A* and then be more lenient with the French, just so long as I have the A Level and it meets the rest of the offer? Let's just assume I'm offered A*AA, and I get A* German, I'd assume that I'd only need to get an A in French? Or would it not matter at all and the rest of the grades could be in any of my subjects? I'm guessing that this is all highly subjective and individual, however.

And finally, if anyone has any advice on which colleges would be best for MML, any resources that are available for helping to prepare, or any advice whatsoever that you feel is relevant, I would really appreciate it. In short, I suppose I'm kind of wondering what other people would do in my situation! Especially if they have experience with the whole Cambridge application process.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi my daughter took 4 A levels and was made an offer including the 4th. It wasn’t a problem as she intended to take it. Her offer was AAAE in any order. She applied tio Trinity Hall and is very happy there. Probably not as many applicants at some of the colleges out of town but the pooling system should cover that. All the info regarding applicants and offers is now available for last year so take a look at that. I know that Selwyn made the offer 2A* A for most MML applicants. Also had many applicants maybe because college is the same street as Sigwick building.

Hi, I'm in Y13 and have applied for MML for 2024 entry (fingers crossed for the 24th lol). Hopefully I can help with some of your questions.

I wouldn't worry about the acceptance rate for each college. Oversubscribed colleges will pool strong candidates whom they feel have a good chance of being taken by another undersubscribed college, and so it generally works out. Just choose your favourite college and apply to it, honestly. That said, I won't deny that I spent ages looking at entry stats for each college before realising that, in the end, there's not much much point.

I would also say that Cambridge aren't all too bothered about your extracurriculars. You can most definitely mention it in your personal statement, but definitely spend most time discussing your passion and engagement with language and culture.

As far as I know, Cambridge won't give you a more difficult offer if you apply with four A-levels (for MML at least- different story with further maths and stuff I think).That is, you could end up with an offer of A*AA and no mention of the fourth (or maybe an E in the fourth like the person above suggested). Maybe have a look on the website at the standard MML offer for each college. And on that note, yes, sometimes they specify where they want the A* (or two if they want two), but again, this is on the website. Like for me, personally (well, I haven't got an offer (yet, and maybe I won't lol)) but it should be A*AA (or at least that's what Jesus claim) and it shouldn't matter where I get the A* (like I could get an A* in EngLit but not in either French or Spanish even). But you're right that offers do vary. And yeah, honestly, I would drop either of Music or Psych (unless you really insist on taking them) because the extra work just isn't worth it; the vast majority apply with three A-levels anyway.

In terms of advice of what to do, at this point I would just suggest maybe starting exploring anything supercurricular that interests you. Books, films, cultural phenomena, etc. They'll care not only that you're competent, but that you're passionate.
Good luck! And pm me anytime if you'd like.

edit: I found the link to grade requirements by college for 2024 entry - https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/mml_subject_requirements.pdf

I’m a 4th year mml student at Cambridge and I do French and German. If I were you, I’d suck to fewer subjects rather than more. There’s not need to do extra. Most schools don’t allow extras so the colleges can’t expect people to have more than three. Plus, while I haven’t heard of it happening for MML before, some 4 a level offers are starting to appear which wouldn’t be at all fun for you.

Secondly, during the course we don’t have a ‘main’ language as such. I do French and German, and I’ve also ended up taking Modern Greek in second and fourth year. We also have comparative papers where we compare language groups, and where having extra languages is useful. anyway, usually the offer they give out is A*AA and they don’t mind what subject is which grade, so don’t worry too much there!

Thirdly, the important thing for the personal statement is to show your enjoyment of languages. They don’t mind so much about extra curriculars… having a life outside of academia is important, but they’re not worried about it. So focus on talking mainly about subject-related stuff. Within that bracket, you can talk about anything. I talked about reading Harry Potter in French in my personal statement. Just try to have a relatively even split between the space you give to the two languages, and think about what you learnt from anything you read or did. Quality over quantity!


Resources

Cambridge specific resources

General tips

Let me know if you have any more questions!

That's great, thanks a lot! I'm definitely going check out those resources, and focus on the wider reading/supercurriculars around my main subjects, and at the moment I seem to be doing okay with less time spent on the others- I'll probably only drop them if they have an adverse impact on my other grades, but since I'm hoping to take some A Levels early this year (German and possibly English Lang&Lit) I could probably focus on the others more next year.

Can I ask what studying MML is like in general? What are the supervisions like, what are lectures like, workload etc. And does it vary a lot of what you study in terms of texts or parts of the culture? Because if there's some topics/areas of study that always come up I could definitely try and read up on them so I can have a head-start so to speak, or at least something else to put as supercurricular on my eventual application.

Thanks again!

So, you can look at all of the subject areas if you go to mmll.cam.ac.uk/mml/ia , but in general we divide our time between language and culture. In first year, you do translation into English from your languages, and you do ‘Use of French’ and/or ‘Use of German etc which is essentially grammar with idioms, different registers etc thrown in. The textbook for French was always French Grammar in Context which I actually love as textbooks go!

For the literature side, you do a paper for each of your languages, in which you’ll study a text or film or cultural element from a few different periods. For example, for French you do a bit of Balzac, a bit of Marie de France (I loved that, even if old French is hard!), Cléo de 5 à 7, and loads more. German is more divided between history, linguistics etc so you’ll do those as well as literature in first year. But again, look at the website for the specifics!

I love MML as a degree. I find everyone really nice and supervisors are, on the whole, really constructive. Of course there is always the odd one who isn’t up to standard, but that’s the same wherever you go. most of the teaching is centralised, meaning it’s the same regardless of which college you go to, and all our classes are mixed between colleges. The only real difference is who your oral supervisor is, as different colleges employ different people to do those, although always native speakers, and whether you do Critical Theory or not - essentially extra classes in important topics like Race Theory, Feminist Theory, Classism etc. Some colleges do this, some don’t. I’m at Corpus and I’m very glad I get to do them because I find them really interesting! Unlike other degrees, you can find you’re being pulled in a lot of different directions because of the breadth in what we study. But if you like variety, that’s not bad thing. In first year you’ll settle into a work routine and know what you have to hand in each week, and I definitely found it manageable.
I would say that there is no way you’ll have a head start, though. If you get in and accept the offer you should read what we call the ‘primary texts’ the summer before, if you can, but honestly rn you should just be working out what you like reading and doing with your languages. The lectures will set you off on the right foot, and your A levels will give you the skills to deal with the work. The big task is to learn how to have a work-life balance so you can enjoy Cambridge as much as possible.

Lmk if you have any other questions!

Thanks a lot! What exactly was the interview process for you like?

Hi, I'm a Year 12 student currently looking to apply to Cambridge to study Modern and Medieval Languages, ideally French and German.

Currently I'm studying for five A Levels- German, French, English Lit-Lang, Music and Psychology. I'm predicted A*A*A*A* and then an A in French. I'm going to be taking German this year hopefully (I do it outside of my Sixth Form) and I only started French in September. At GCSE I got 9999888888.

I'm not sure which college I'm going to apply to yet, but I have looked at some of the undergrad application data online and seen that potentially Trinity has a slightly higher acceptance rate? I had it at 48.5% for my course, from 2013-2022, but I don't know how correctly I'm interpreting that, considering that some like Churchill had a 126.5% success rate; I'm assuming this is because not many people actually applied there and then more got pooled there or put there from an open application.

I do a fair amount of extra-curriculars, including DofE (I have Silver, doing Gold), school band, committee roles at my sixth form, and I'm going to be going on a charity trip to Africa this year as well. I play Piano to Grade 5 and Guitar, which I'm hoping to get to Grade 7 this year.

My school is a pretty run-of-the-mill state comprehensive, and usually there's only a handful of people each year that even think about applying for Oxbridge/similarly difficult unis.

I had a few questions, though, so if anyone could provide a bit of insight that'd be great.

Firstly, I've heard that sometimes Cambridge gives out offers based on four or even five A Levels, rather than just the usual three, even if they're unrelated. Is this a common thing? Because, frankly, if I'm going to be forced into a horrendous five A Level offer, then I might just opt out of Pyschology or Music or both, because ultimately they're largely irrelevant to what I want to do, and focus on my main three, which I know I am fully of the ability to get A*s in, and to potentially get a more lenient A*AA offer. Essentially I'm weighing up the costs and the benefits, because it is a lot of work doing all of these extra subjects that ultimately my heart isn't completely in, and I'm worried that I might not be able to dedicate the rest of my time to the subjects that really matter, especially German, since I do it outside of school and finding time for it is more of a challenge, and also in terms of wider reading and supercurriculars and whatnot.

Second question is more related to the MML course itself. I understand that I cannot take French ab initio, but that's fine because I'm doing it at A Level anyway. Ideally I should have German as my main. Problem is, would I still have to get an A* in French to do it because it's only post-A Level? Or would they accept my German at A* and then be more lenient with the French, just so long as I have the A Level and it meets the rest of the offer? Let's just assume I'm offered A*AA, and I get A* German, I'd assume that I'd only need to get an A in French? Or would it not matter at all and the rest of the grades could be in any of my subjects? I'm guessing that this is all highly subjective and individual, however.

And finally, if anyone has any advice on which colleges would be best for MML, any resources that are available for helping to prepare, or any advice whatsoever that you feel is relevant, I would really appreciate it. In short, I suppose I'm kind of wondering what other people would do in my situation! Especially if they have experience with the whole Cambridge application process.

Thanks a lot in advance!

I do a fair amount of extra-curriculars, including DofE (I have Silver, doing Gold), school band, committee roles at my sixth form, and I'm going to be going on a charity trip to Africa this year as well. I play Piano to Grade 5 and Guitar, which I'm hoping to get to Grade 7 this year.

None of this is relevant so I would not include it in your Personal statement (or whatever it will be replaced with next year), unless you can somehow make it relevant to your chosen subject. Use the limited word count to focus on what is relevant.

It is getting more common these days for Cambridge to make 4x A-level offers for those applying with more than 3 A-levels. I've not heard of any 5x A-level offers.

Hey! I had two interviews- one for French and Portuguese respectively. I did a lot of preparation for everything I had mentioned in my personal statement, and then very little came up in the end haha. I really enjoyed my Portuguese one though, and the tutors were really friendly. I can't say too much though as you're not meant to reveal the contents of the interview.

Good to hear you enjoyed it at least lol! I've hoped that it'd be more or less an academic sort of conversation- kind of like you'd do when you're actually studying there- so if I get interviewed I'll probably just head in there to learn something new and have fun. I'd imagine they'd look on you far more favourably if you enjoyed being there and were engaged rather than being all stiff and acting as if it were an interrogation or an exam. Because, if you get an interview, then they've basically already deemed that you're good enough to make the cut, right?- the interview is just getting it down to the people that they like, not just the students or the grades, or so I imagine. But I can't imagine there's a right or wrong way to interview, because they're very personal and each one is very different. So if I get that far I'll show up with passion and interest and a lot of wider reading done, and hope that they like me as a person and student overall!

That's useful to know. I've heard of the personal statement being a sort of 'love letter' to your chosen subject, so I'd imagine that I ought just to focus as much as possible on what I've done language and linguistics wise. I kind of like how those sorts of things don't really matter, though, because, well, it means there's less pressure to do kind of random extra curriculars that otherwise might just take up time and aren't relevant. And I think whatever the new system that's replacing the personal statement is coming into play either the year after mine or the year after that. I'm kind of glad it's not my year, though, because I think writing a personal statement would probably suit me more than whatever sort of questionnaire they'll put up to replace it.

I suppose that they might give me a 4 A-Level offer, but since I'm intending to take two this year won't that realistically only be a two-grade offer as such? And yeah I'd have to say I'd be pretty mortified with a five A-Level offer lmao. But I really doubt it since my other subjects aren't really relevant to MML at all- but maybe if they're feeling cruel? At least from what I've seen on the spreadsheets from the Applicants thread on here (though I don't know how much it can really be trusted lol) I don't think I've seen many 4 A-Level offers at all for MML. I'd imagine that they're more common for those courses where there are more subjects that are relevant (ie Further Maths). Standard offer is A*AA pretty much everywhere I've looked, but given that I'll ideally be applying with two A Levels already, any offer they throw at me isn't going to look so bad.

So both of my interviews started off with discussion of an extract I had been given some time to read just beforehand. And then conversation went into other things (including my P.S a bit). It definitely is an academic conversation and you're right in that they're trying to replicate the kind of interaction you might have in a supervision. The most important thing they're trying to see is that you're teachable and responsive, I feel- that you can listen to what they say, possibly change your opinion, and be able to express your ideas well. Get an idea of what you're like beyond your grades, etc.

I wouldn't say that everyone getting an interview is necessarily good enough to make the cut. I think with Cambridge, they tend to interview most people anyway, and for MML, the vast vast majority get an interview. The interview simply serves to distinguish the most teachable (or so at least has been my impression). You'd do well check out the youtube channel 'Ilya's Cambridge Advice' as he's put lots of good info out there. There's lots of info on the official uni website as well.

You're right though; they definitely want to see enthusiasm!

I could be wrong, but if you have 2 A-level already, I would not expect them to give you just a 3 A-level offer, as then you could be tempted to drop two of the A-levels you are currently doing, and just focus on one of them. Having 2 A-level already is quite unusual so not sure what offer they would give you to be frank.

Hi, I'm a Year 12 student currently looking to apply to Cambridge to study Modern and Medieval Languages, ideally French and German.

Currently I'm studying for five A Levels- German, French, English Lit-Lang, Music and Psychology. I'm predicted A*A*A*A* and then an A in French. I'm going to be taking German this year hopefully (I do it outside of my Sixth Form) and I only started French in September. At GCSE I got 9999888888.

I'm not sure which college I'm going to apply to yet, but I have looked at some of the undergrad application data online and seen that potentially Trinity has a slightly higher acceptance rate? I had it at 48.5% for my course, from 2013-2022, but I don't know how correctly I'm interpreting that, considering that some like Churchill had a 126.5% success rate; I'm assuming this is because not many people actually applied there and then more got pooled there or put there from an open application.

I do a fair amount of extra-curriculars, including DofE (I have Silver, doing Gold), school band, committee roles at my sixth form, and I'm going to be going on a charity trip to Africa this year as well. I play Piano to Grade 5 and Guitar, which I'm hoping to get to Grade 7 this year.

My school is a pretty run-of-the-mill state comprehensive, and usually there's only a handful of people each year that even think about applying for Oxbridge/similarly difficult unis.

I had a few questions, though, so if anyone could provide a bit of insight that'd be great.

Firstly, I've heard that sometimes Cambridge gives out offers based on four or even five A Levels, rather than just the usual three, even if they're unrelated. Is this a common thing? Because, frankly, if I'm going to be forced into a horrendous five A Level offer, then I might just opt out of Pyschology or Music or both, because ultimately they're largely irrelevant to what I want to do, and focus on my main three, which I know I am fully of the ability to get A*s in, and to potentially get a more lenient A*AA offer. Essentially I'm weighing up the costs and the benefits, because it is a lot of work doing all of these extra subjects that ultimately my heart isn't completely in, and I'm worried that I might not be able to dedicate the rest of my time to the subjects that really matter, especially German, since I do it outside of school and finding time for it is more of a challenge, and also in terms of wider reading and supercurriculars and whatnot.

Second question is more related to the MML course itself. I understand that I cannot take French ab initio, but that's fine because I'm doing it at A Level anyway. Ideally I should have German as my main. Problem is, would I still have to get an A* in French to do it because it's only post-A Level? Or would they accept my German at A* and then be more lenient with the French, just so long as I have the A Level and it meets the rest of the offer? Let's just assume I'm offered A*AA, and I get A* German, I'd assume that I'd only need to get an A in French? Or would it not matter at all and the rest of the grades could be in any of my subjects? I'm guessing that this is all highly subjective and individual, however.

And finally, if anyone has any advice on which colleges would be best for MML, any resources that are available for helping to prepare, or any advice whatsoever that you feel is relevant, I would really appreciate it. In short, I suppose I'm kind of wondering what other people would do in my situation! Especially if they have experience with the whole Cambridge application process.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Yeah definitely fair to consider that they give out interviews to most- I suppose with the more competitive courses they might be more selective. But then again since everyone's applying with predicted As and A*s it probably doesn't make too much of a difference.

I've seen Ilya on YouTube a little- I thought he definitely provided some insight into Cambridge itself and how to get there. But I'll probably have to have a deep dive of the rest of his videos at some point because they are very informative.

I'm aware that there is a written test on the day of the interview as well- it's the one that's an hour long and requires you to respond for the first question in one of the languages, and then in English for the second, right? I've seen some practice papers online, but is there anything much to do to prepare for that beyond just those? And is is especially important when they're considering your application?

Hi Meerscheinechen

Parent to a Y13 who applied to Cambridge this year (not MML though) and a former MML student at Cambridge. Studied there in from 1994-1998.

Firstly 5 A levels is a lot. I understand that the offer would normally be an A in one (both) of the languages you are wanting to study. Maybe talk to your teachers about your chances of getting an A* in French whilst doing the 5? In my experience as well (all be this very dated), in languages it is harder to predict/ get top grades in mocks from the outset as there is a breadth of vocabulary/ grammar you need that you get after exposure to a language over time.

Offers at Cambridge do tend to include a grade for all your A-levels. This might, however, be something more like AAAC, assuming the subjects are not related to what you want to study. (Hopefully I will be able to say more on this next week as my child should get acception/ rejection next week and this is the stiuation they are in). My understanding is that you would still need the A in French even if you want German as your main language, unless you are actually doing the A level out of school, in which case an A in German would be ok and an A in French I guess. I studied an abinitio language on top of doing French and German and I was specifically asked for an A (no A*s back in my day) for French. This summer the John's admissions tutor confirmed in an Open Day talk that they give offers based on all your grades and do not want students to then drop an A-level (or two!) to focus on their "main offering" so if you decide to focus more for the French, drop one or two before you put your UCAS in.

As for colleges, they are all a personal choice and are all good. Try and go to Open Days to see them if you can. I went to Newnham (all women) which was right opposite the faculty which was great! I loved it. I can honestly say it was the happiest time of my life.

For preparing: the best piece of advice I was given was from my French teacher and that was to read foreign newspapers to keep on top of foreign current affairs. This was a great piece of advice as on the morning of the interview, I glanced at headlines about a shock swing towards the former communist party in the local elections in Berlin. I was asked about the elections in my interview - up to that point I had NO CLUE there were elections... so I could go "oh yes, wow, look at what happened in Berlin!" whilst knowing nothing... the interviewer had not yet seen the results so I appeared bang on top of things. 🙂 Same interviewer however asked me too if I had read any literature in translation for my ab initio language. I hadn't done this for the interviewer but fortunately had read Anna Karenina years ago and managed to drag up enough memory to talk about it.

Good luck - hope you choose Cambridge and love it half as much as I still do.