For my first interview at Worcester, I went straight to the interview room 15 minutes early, and waited outside for a while just playing a game on my phone while I waited. After about 5 minutes, I looked at the sign at the door and realised it said "please report to the reading room 20 minutes before your interview".
I immediately started panicking and ran down the stairs and out into the quad, looking for the reading room. I eventually found it with 5 minutes to spare and was given a poem to briefly glance over, before I had to run back to the interview room having barely read the unseen.
In my next interview I was determined not to make the same mistake: I got to the reading room with plenty of time to spare, and was told my interview room was just upstairs. Without thinking, I went up the whole staircase to the very top floor and waited outside a door which said "please do not knock, wait to be called in". I could hear an interview was going on in there and assumed this was the person before me, whose interview was running over.
I ended up waiting outside this room for about 15 minutes, getting more and more stressed. I finally decided to look around in case I'd got the wrong room - I went back downstairs and bumped into my interviewer, who had been looking for me! It was so embarrassing that I couldn't get to either of my interviews, my common sense really deteriorates when I'm nervous. Luckily they didn't hold it against me since I still got in!
Ruby has been offered a place to read English at St Anne's College.
Before my second interview at Queen's College I went to a talk by Dr. Schuck on memory mapping within the brain and was vigorously making notes throughout, in the jam-packed little lecture theatre. When I turned up to my interview, the secondary interviewer was the lady that had sat next to me! We found it very amusing and spent a short while talking about the talk in depth, which I think was the best luck I could have hoped for!
Lewis has an unconditional offer to read Experimental Psychology at Jesus College.
Top Tips
You need to be super on-it when checking the interview rooms and times, so as not to go through the stress of being late!
Read the notices on the interview room doors; they are there for a reason.
Even if everything seems to be going wrong during the time surrounding the interview, it's how you perform in the room that really matters.
The tutor in Lewis' interview was really impressed that he had been using his time productively; check to see if there are any lectures or talks on that might be of use during your interview week. If that's too much to think about though, don't stress, most applicants don't do this but it certainly made Lewis stand out!
Both Ruby and Lewis had interviews at more than one college; be prepared for that.