ASNAC interviews

I was just wondering if any1 who was interviewed to do ASNAC could tell me what their interview was like? Also what sort of work/topic of essay they submitted with their application?

Reply 1

Rembrandt

You're likely to be asked why you're interested in the course, just to make sure you're not freeloading to get into Cambridge! If you've done any reading before the interview you'll probably talk a little about that (I had a discussion about the Mabinogion with my interviewer), and also about the papers you might take for Part 1. Apart from that they'll be throwing hard questions at you just to see how you think; to give you some idea, I was asked how modern scientific techniques can help with Dark Age historical research and how you could ascertain the history of a manuscript from its physical condition.

I think everyone comes out of their interviews feeling they've done badly. They don't expect you to know the answers to these questions, they just want to see how you try to answer them!

I sent two history essays and a French essay, but I was doing History, French and Spanish A-Levels so my hands were tied. If I'd done English or another essay-based subject I'd have sent an essay from that instead of French.

Reply 2

Mop

DanGrigg

You're likely to be asked why you're interested in the course, just to make sure you're not freeloading to get into Cambridge!

I once accused an ASNaC friend of exploiting a back door into Cambridge. I got punched. :frown:

Reply 3

zed328

Hi DanGrigg
I've already done quite a lot of reading so that should be ok... I first tried translating Beowulf when I was 12 and i'v been readin celtic mythology since i was about 6 so I reckon i can show why i want to do ASNaC too. :smile:

I might have a bit of a problem about essays tho', I'm doing the french bac and we don't really write essays over here unless you're doing a litterature based bac (and mine is science based...)
Which college did you apply to? --i'm thinking about Pembroke but I'm not sure yet.
What else did you apply to do? cuz i wanted to put down Chinese at SOAS as well but I'm not sure how I'd explain it in my personal statement... :confused:

I once accused an ASNaC friend of exploiting a back door into Cambridge. I got punched. :frown:

Reply 4

Deborah

zed328

Which college did you apply to? --i'm thinking about Pembroke but I'm not sure yet.
What else did you apply to do? cuz i wanted to put down Chinese at SOAS as well but I'm not sure how I'd explain it in my personal statement... :confused:

Hi zed328!
I'm going to Pembroke this year to study ASNC - how exciting! It's a great college, and the director of studies (Dr. Russell) is really nice.
The main advice I would give you is read lots, which it sounds like you've already done, and have some idea (though it doesn't need to be set in stone) of what modules you want to do. But I think Dan has said this already. I wasn't actually asked about why I wanted to do ASNC - I think I wrote down some reasons on my CAF form, so they felt they didn't need to ask me, but I think it's safe to say it's a pretty standard question with such an unusual subject. I think they ask you stuff based on what you've studied at A-level - they asked me a lot about the German language structure, since I did German A-level.
With regards to other subjects and application, etc, I had the same problem. I applied for German and Russian at five other universities. But when I went to the open day, they said that they take this into account, because there are no other ASNC courses in the country, so they know that you have to speak more generally on your personal statement. What I did was talk about languages and their origins, etc, in my personal statement, and then did a really specific ASNC statement on my CAF form.
Hope that helps - and hope your application process goes well!

ASNAC interviews

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