Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge

TSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > University of Cambridge > Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge

What will the application process be like?

Sample Personal Statements

TSR has a Personal Statement section here with guides and help. See TSR example Cambridge Personal Statements and Laguages Personal Statements

Written work

You are likely to be asked to send in a couple of essays written in the course of your school work. You shouldn't write these especially for Cambridge and both you and your teacher will have to sign a coversheet for each essay saying that it is the original assignment that you handed in at school and hasn't been re-written. What this means is that you need to make sure that you're working really hard on your school/college work and have at least a few examples of your best work ready to submit when Cambridge asks you for them.

The essays that you send in could be pieces you wrote in the languages you are planning to study at Cambridge. They may also want to see an example of your writing in Enlgish - you could send in a piece on any aspect of literature, history, thought, culture, politics etc. There isn't usually any word limit, Pieces written in a foreign language are likely to be shorter, Pieces written in English are probably best if they are between 1,500 and 2,500 words long (that is an opinion, not an official Cambridge guideline).

They will be looking at:

• Your ability to write accurately and idiomatically in the target language
• Your ability to structure an argument
• Your ability to analyse a question / a piece of literature / a source
• Your writing style

Note, however that they don't expect you to be prefect! They realise that you will imporve a lot over the course of your sixth from studies and will be better by the time you start at university.

Test

Often you will be asked to sit a short test whilkst you are in Cambridge for the interview. There is a sample test here. The tests are always designed so that you don't need any specific preparation for them - just turn up and do your best.

Interviews

Watch the mock interview filmed by Emmanuel College here. In your interview, you can expect to talk for up to 10 mins in the foreign language if you are studying it post-A Level. You will probably be given a passage to read before the interview. This could be literature or a more argument-based piece. You might be asked to read a section aloud so that they can look at how fluently you read and what your pronunciation is like. You will have a discussion about the piece which will enable the interviewers to see your level of comprehension and how well you respond to new material and ideas. There will probably also be some wider discussion. This might relate to interests you have mentioned in your Personal Statement or written work.

How should I prepare for MML at Cambridge?

This advice may be useful in preparing for your interview but is intended for more general preparation throughout your A level (or equivalent) courses. It's probably stuff you're doing already, but there's no harm in setting it out even so. Note that the Cambridge website has a lot of information on it for preparation in the summer before you start at Cambridge (see, for example French department essential advance preparation for undergraduates and Preparation for ab initio Russian) so read what follows in combination with that.

For Ab initio languages:

• Learn as much of the basic grammar as you can. Get hold of a good grammar book to work through and consider doing a language course if you are able to.
• Learn as much as you can about the country/countries covered by your language. History, politics, culture etc. Visit if you can, and if you do, make sure that you make the most of it - talk to the locals as much as possible, visit places, pick up magazines and newspapers to read at home.

For Post-A level languages:

Language work

• Make sure that you really know all the grammar you cover in your A level course. Revise it often. Create tests for you to do at different stages of your course. It is really important that your grammar foundations are solid if you are going to build on them successfully!
• Read as much as you can in the foreign language - this can combine with your preparation for the literature paper if you're doing it. The more you extend your vocabulary etc the more easily you will be able to read and the more enjoyable and fruitful it will be. Don't worry if there are a lot of words you don't know at this stage and certainly don't look up every one in a dictionary as this will slow you down too much. Just look up a few key words and try to get the gist of what is being said. It doesn't matter too much which authors you read during your A levels - follow your interests. Your language teacher should have suggestions if you ask them.
• Spend time abroad if you can (though don't worry if you can't) and make sure that if you do, you're in an environment where you're talking as much as possible with native speakers - it's no good going abroad but then mainly speaking English because you are with family etc.
• Listen to a radio station in your language rather than English radio. Watch films in the language. Use facebook in the language. Use your phone in the language. When you visit tourist places, get the leaflet in the language rather than English (or get both and compare them). You get the gist! Make the language as much a part of your every day life as possible.

Scheduled papers

• You have a choice of literary or linguistics options alongside your language work (in German there's also a thought paper for first years if you want to take it). See the Cambridge MML website for further details about the papers available - there's a lot of detail there.

For literature papers,

• The main thing is to READ - poetry, novels, plays, essays - whatever interests you. Read anything during your A levels then tackle the set texts during the summer before you start.
• If there is a particular period or movement that interests you, you might want to explore it more generally with an introduction to to period (which may well give you an idea of what to read next too!). Find the corresponding paper introduction on the Cambridge website as there are often suggestions for introductory reading there.
• You might also want to start thinking about different ways of approaching literature. A primer in literary theory could be interesting and useful. Here are a few suggestions:
  • Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction - a lively short text,
  • Andrew Bennett, Nicholas Royle: An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory
  • Peter Barry's Beginning Theory

Don't feel that you need to agree with or memorise everything in these books - just use them as a way to stimulate your thinking about the foreign texts you're reading.

Where can I buy my set texts?

Note that it's really important to get the editions specified by Cambridge. If you don't, you may not have the same quality in footnotes etc and you'll spend the whole time faffing with page numbers when you want to discuss passages. Note that all the books will, of course, be available in the Cambridge libraries.

• London shops:
  • Grant and Cutler (Foreign Language Bookseller on Great Marlborough Street),
  • The European Bookshop (5 Warwick Street, London W1B 5LU. Tel +44 (0)20-7734-5259),
  • The French Bookshop (28 Bute Street, South Kensington, London SW7 3EX Tel +44 (0) 20 7584 2840),
  • The Italian Bookshop (5 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4EZ).
• Cambridge shops: Heffers Academic Bookshop (20 Trinity Street, CB2 ITY). There's a notice board outside the MML Library where part IB/II/grad students sell on their old texts.
• Second hand online: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/
• French Online shops: http://www.amazon.fr/, http://www.chapitre.com/ and http://www.fnac.com/
• German Online shops: http://www.amazon.de/

Tips for reading specific Part 1A texts

FRENCH: Montesquieu, Les lettres persanes

• do a google search of french history of the period - there is a lot of social comment and time-relevant points.
• Think about narration - who narrates it, what are they narrating, what is the relationship between narrator and author?
• Think about the "epistolary style" (or however its spelt) and how that multiplies the "writer" and the "reader".
• Think about who the characters are, what identities are imposed on them and by whom, what identities they impose onto others.
• Think about how "real" the personas and the premise is - did montesquieu want to make it "real"?
• Think about the ideas of "insider/outsider" "native/foreign" and the role of the "other"

What is your timetable and workload like in Part IA?

For each post-A level language e.g. French:

• A Use of French class once a week (1 hour) + 3-4 hours' homework.
• 2 scheduled paper lectures a week.
• A grammar lecture once a fortnight in the first term.
• Translation class once a fortnight (1 hour) + 3-4 hours' homework.
• A scheduled paper supervision once a fortnight (1 hour) + essay (maybe taking 3-4 days depending on how you work).
• Oral supervisions with a native lectrice/lecteur once a week or fortnight depending on your college.
• (possibly some extra college-based critical theory/western culture seminars once a fortnight)

For an ab initio language e.g. Russian:

• A Use of Russian class once a week (1 hour) + 3-4 hours' homework.
• 1 scheduled paper lecture a week in 2nd term (there is no scheduled paper work in 1st term).
• A grammar class once a week (1 hour) + 3-4 hours' homework..
• A translation class once a week (1 hour) + 3-4 hours' homework.
• A scheduled paper supervision once a week in 2nd term (1 hour) + fortnightly essay (maybe taking 3-4 days depending on how you work).
• Oral supervisions with a native speaker twice a week.

The Sidgwick Site

The MML Faculty is in the Raised Faculty Building, a sixties building on big concrete stilts, on the Sidgwick Site.

• Map of the Sidgwick Site (Number 8 is the MML Faculty)
• Sidgwick Site section on Cambridge audio tour
• The Raised Faculty Building
• The Sidgwick Site on Wikipedia

MML Exams

You take Part 1A exams at the end of first year, Part 1B exams at the end of second year and Part II exams at the end of 4th year. The exams are set by the MML Faculty and you will sit them in the lecture theatres on the Sidgwick Site.

Result breakdowns are given here

What do people do after graduating in MML?

After doing their degree in MML about 30% of students go on to do postgraduate study. The rest go on to teach languages (10-15%), go into translation, journalism, publishing, international diplomacy, become civil servants etc.

More information about MML graduate destinations is given here

Links

• University of Cambridge MML Website
• University of Cambridge MML Applicant Toolkit - there is a lot oif very useful information here!
• Youtube clip - a day in the life of a Trinity linguist