Have I missed Cambridge?

Hi, I’ve applied for English and had my 2 interviews today.

My first went okay/ well, the second one was genuinely dreadful (I forgot some really basic aspects of my school texts, made some dumb claims and I could tell that the professor really disagreed with most of what I said).

In my GCSEs I got 9999999999, I’ve got predicted A*A*A* in Art, English RS and also A* predicted in EPQ.
I think the CELAT went pretty well, and my written works were alright too.
My teacher reference and personal statement were strong in my opinion (for example I won Commended in the Woolf essay prize).

Have I most likely missed it because of my poor performance in interview? Does anyone know how strongly Cambridge weight interview performance in their holistic assessment?

Reply 1

Stiffy Byng

19

The interview is usually the make or break factor in the decision making process. You cannot judge how well or badly the interview went,. All that you can do now is wait for the decision. Good luck.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post

by Stiffy Byng

The interview is usually the make or break factor in the decision making process. You cannot judge how well or badly the interview went,. All that you can do now is wait for the decision. Good luck.

Thank you, I appreciate your reply.

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi, I’ve applied for English and had my 2 interviews today.

My first went okay/ well, the second one was genuinely dreadful (I forgot some really basic aspects of my school texts, made some dumb claims and I could tell that the professor really disagreed with most of what I said).

In my GCSEs I got 9999999999, I’ve got predicted A*A*A* in Art, English RS and also A* predicted in EPQ.
I think the CELAT went pretty well, and my written works were alright too.
My teacher reference and personal statement were strong in my opinion (for example I won Commended in the Woolf essay prize).

Have I most likely missed it because of my poor performance in interview? Does anyone know how strongly Cambridge weight interview performance in their holistic assessment?

The interview is certainly important, however doones some years back looked at TSR posters who commented on their interview performance over about a 5 year period and there was no correlation whatsoever between how the person thought they did and the actual outcome. So it turns out (TSR) students are just bad at judging how they did in interviews.

Also whether or not they agreed with your interpretation is kind of secondary to whether your interpretation was well argued and justified. Literary criticism is not a black and white, right and wrong area - however equally you can't just say anything willy-nilly and have it be accepted (contrary to what it seems most STEM students believe).

If you made a reasoned argument to justify your position and it was logically consistent then that's what they are wanting to see I imagine - not whether your particular interpretation or approach to a text matches theirs. Although also, it's important that you were actually able to actually communicate said argument and position in your interview.

Reply 4

04MR17

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

22

Volunteer Note: 9 off topic posts have been removed. Advice to all is that if you aren't here to help the Original Poster please find a different thread to argue in.

Have I missed Cambridge?

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