Philosophy admission written test at Cambridge

Hi ! I've just received my invitation for an interview at Cambridge University for Philosophy. I am familiar with the interviews process but I am worried about the written test, I am not sure what form my essay answer should take and if I am expected to make reference to my knowledge or to focus on the reasoning and development of ideas.

I've applied for Philosophy at Cambridge too (not heard about interviews though ). All the help for the test that I could find is the sample paper online at: https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/prosp-students/admissions-test

It's not exactly the most comprehensive thing in the world, but at least it'll give you an idea of the structure of questions. I've been told to answer the essay as analytically as possible, not referencing what outside knowledge I might have (i.e. from an A Level or wider reading) unless it is 100% relevant - it looks bad trying to wrangle in something that's not entirely right.

Essentially, the key is to show if you can think well, not just to spout everything you know.

Interestingly, both sample questions are ethics based. I assume this is because they don't want to ask us questions based on actual philosophical concepts because not everyone has studied it before. This might be useful in brushing up on some ethical and moral reasoning though, as it may well be useful!

Hope that helps. I've applied to Caius btw, where have you applied to?

Both parts of the test are looking at your reasoning and discrimination skills (thus logic). It is more important for you to identify key premises and critically assess them than it is to spout off philosophical 'knowledge'. All of those questions can be addressed without recourse to much academic philosophy. Good luck!