Guides · Updated 1 November 2026

The Oxford and Cambridge Modern Languages interview

For 2027 entry, Oxford Modern Languages applicants don't sit a written test: language skills are now assessed in the interview. Interviews are online, last about 30 minutes, take place in early December, and there's usually a separate interview for each language, often with a short text, a grammar exercise and some conversation in the language.

Cambridge Modern and Medieval Languages works differently: every College sets a written assessment on 19 November 2026, and you send two pieces of written work. Below are both formats, what tutors say they assess, a worked example and how to prepare.

Oxford and Cambridge compared

What happens in an Oxford Modern Languages interview?

Oxford's Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages says interviews simulate a tutorial and normally have three parts:

• A text. You may be given a short piece of writing, in the language or in English, with time to read it before you're asked about it.
• A grammar exercise. If you're studying the language at A-level or equivalent, this tests your grammatical skills.
• Discussion and speaking. Questions related to your personal statement, and an oral component: a brief conversation in the target language.

For beginner languages, tutors assess aptitude instead, for example by asking you to identify and discuss grammar and syntax in a few sentences or a short text. You may be interviewed by more than one college.

What Oxford tutors are assessing

• reading comprehension and response
• linguistic ability (or aptitude, for beginner languages) and potential
• competence in the spoken language
• ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in English
• ability to listen and give considered responses
• breadth of reading and ability to discuss that reading
• aptitude for literary study
• curiosity and critical engagement

The Faculty also says you don't need to have read literature in the language already. Interviewers want to find out whether you read naturally, independently and intelligently, and that includes literature in English or in translation.

Questions Oxford languages tutors have published

Oxford's sample interview questions page lists these for Modern Languages (source: University of Oxford, sample interview questions): "What makes a novel or play 'political'?", "Should poetry be difficult to understand?", "What makes a short story different from a novel?", "In a world where English is a global language, why learn French?" and "What do we lose if we only read a foreign work of literature in translation?" The tutors say these usually grow out of something you've mentioned reading, that there's no single correct answer, and that changing your mind during the discussion is fine.

A worked example: the short text

A tutor shares a short poem in French and asks: "What's going on here, and how is it being said?"

• What a strong answer does: says plainly what happens first, then picks one or two details (a verb tense, a repeated word, a change of speaker) and says what they do.
• It handles unknown words honestly: "I don't know this word, but from the context it might mean..." Tutors care how you work with what you don't know.
• Weak answer: translating line by line without ever saying what you think.
• What usually comes next: a switch into the language, such as "Et vous, qu'est-ce que vous en pensez ?", to hear you speak naturally.

How to prepare

1. Speak the language every day. Ten minutes of conversation or talking to yourself about what you've read makes the oral part far easier.
2. Revise core grammar. Tenses, agreement, the subjunctive and word order are the usual targets of a grammar exercise.
3. Read short texts and talk about them. Poems, short stories and articles in the language, then a minute of comment out loud.
4. Know your personal statement. Be ready to discuss anything you mention, in English or the language.
5. For Cambridge, practise the written assessment. Cambridge publishes a specification and a past paper for the MML assessment.

AdmitMock is an AI mock interview app for Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and US college alumni interviews: an AI interviewer asks the questions out loud, follows up, and shows you what to fix.

AdmitMock is not affiliated with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge or any of their colleges. We use published formats and questions, not insider information.