Cambridge English 2025 applicants

Applicant thread for English

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Reply 1

Anonymous #1

I find the Student Room and r/sixthform to be full with STEM students. Where are my fellow English applicants? What college have you applied to?

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Hey, I’m applying for English too. I’ve seen a few others on the official Cambridge thread - we must unite against the STEM bias!!

Reply 3

Anonymous #3

Original post by Anonymous

I find the Student Room and r/sixthform to be full with STEM students. Where are my fellow English applicants? What college have you applied to?

I applied for English at Peterhouse, hbu? :smile:

Reply 4

waidh7

I'm applying to Christ's (came off anon cause you'll be able to figure out who I am anyway in the tracking form lol). Peterhouse is nice - I was looking at it before but decided on Christ's instead because of the kitchens....and maybe also their college cats.

Reply 5

Anonymous #3

Hello, I got my interview notification from Cambridge yesterday and was just wondering if there was anyone else also interviewing for English so we can share tips ect.

If so, does anyone have any ideas on how to prepare? Wider reading recommendations? Are you doing practice interviews? What kind of things do you plan on talking about?

I was especially wondering how everyone plans on preparing for the admissions assessment.

Thanks, and I hope we can help each other out. 🫶

Reply 6

leafiegoesbrrr

Original post by Anonymous

Hello, I got my interview notification from Cambridge yesterday and was just wondering if there was anyone else also interviewing for English so we can share tips ect.
If so, does anyone have any ideas on how to prepare? Wider reading recommendations? Are you doing practice interviews? What kind of things do you plan on talking about?
I was especially wondering how everyone plans on preparing for the admissions assessment.
Thanks, and I hope we can help each other out. 🫶

Hi! Got my English offer for Newnham on Tuesday :smile:

I'm pretty lucky in the terms that my school are being very helpful and setting up some mock interviews for me, so I can give some tips after those. In terms of pre-preparing? I'm going over my personal statement, and any of the books or essays I mentioned. If I talked about a certain theme, I look over that theme. Same goes for the written work, making sure I know the essays I submitted inside out. I'm hoping to try and keep it on the books I mentioned, plus any that I think link in. So if you mentioned one novel, maybe read another one of that author's, or some articles about that novel.

For the admissions assessment, there's not much I think we really can do to prepare. Go over your terminology and things like that so you can be accurate, and just keep reading. We can't really predict what the theme will be, so we just have to know our stuff generally.

Best of luck to you :smile:

Reply 7

jilliams44

Original post by Anonymous

Hello, I got my interview notification from Cambridge yesterday and was just wondering if there was anyone else also interviewing for English so we can share tips ect.
If so, does anyone have any ideas on how to prepare? Wider reading recommendations? Are you doing practice interviews? What kind of things do you plan on talking about?
I was especially wondering how everyone plans on preparing for the admissions assessment.
Thanks, and I hope we can help each other out. 🫶

omg hi! I got an interview offer for Homerton English! I'm just doing as the others said and reading over things I've written and trying to find books relating to themes I'm interested in!

Reply 8

Anonymous #4

how did you guys find the CELAT today!

Reply 9

jilliams44

Original post by Anonymous

how did you guys find the CELAT today!

Omg I thought it was actually okay hbu?

Reply 10

Anonymous #5

how did everyone find the celat?

Reply 11

starrygirl232

Original post by Anonymous

Hello, I got my interview notification from Cambridge yesterday and was just wondering if there was anyone else also interviewing for English so we can share tips ect.
If so, does anyone have any ideas on how to prepare? Wider reading recommendations? Are you doing practice interviews? What kind of things do you plan on talking about?
I was especially wondering how everyone plans on preparing for the admissions assessment.
Thanks, and I hope we can help each other out. 🫶

Hey! I received an interview for Clare, here's what I'm doing to practise:

So my school are being super helpful - I've got 3 mock interviews planned and lots of meetings with my teachers to discuss my personal statement and refresh myself on it as it will probably come up in interview.

I'm making sure I'm refreshing myself on the reading list we were asked to submit and also going through my personal statement in depth - reading around the themes discussed and doing lots of wider reading for feminist literature as that's what I'm interested in.

How did you think the assessment went?

Reply 12

Saracen's Fez

Volunteer Section Leader

Hi folks! I've decided to repurpose this thread as the official applicant and offer-holder thread for 2025, and added a link to the directory in the uni-wide applicants thread

Reply 13

Anonymous #6

I applied to Girton for English and received my interview invite two weeks ago. I'm glad the stress of sitting the CELAT has gone. Now it's just the stress of the interview. How are people feeling about interviews?

Reply 14

Anonymous #5

Original post by Anonymous

really nervous! I definitely articulate myself better through writing and I get really scared she i’m out on the spot haha!

Reply 15

inkwardspots

Original post by Saracen's Fez

Applicant thread for English
Volunteer note: Please note that sharing or requesting social media handles or group chats is not permitted under the TSR community guidelines.

Hey! Applied for English at Downing :smile:

Has anyone got advice for interviews because my college has NOT been helpful and I'm tired of getting rejected when asking for interview help 😭

Reply 16

Anonymous #7

when did u hear back from downing?

Reply 17

inkwardspots

Original post by Anonymous

when did u hear back from downing?

Last Friday :smile:

Reply 18

fatimah6120

applied for english at robinson and received an interview offer! I'm quite worried about the interview as that is the final step but hopefully we all do really well inshallah. at the moment, just trying to set up a few mock interviews with teachers and doing wider reading :smile:

Reply 19

Anonymous #6

Hello, with the interviews (I have had mine). Does anyone know how important the extracts are in how they view you in interview? I realise that I completely got my extract wrong. I said it was the wrong century entirely. As practical criticism is such an important part of the course, how rejected am I? I cannot tell if they were trying to make me see if I got the wrong century to date the extract or if they were seeing how I chose to defend myself? If it was the former then I am totally rejected. If it was the latter there may be hope as they were seeing my reasoning and the way my brain works.
I believe my chances at an offer are completely decimated now.