Cambridge HSPS Interview Preparation Guide
Don’t know what to expect for your Cambridge HSPS Interviews?
Interviews can seem daunting and hard to prepare for as you never quite know what to expect. However, they are extremely important: some candidates are successful based on interview performance alone.
This is an essential guide, prepared by U2's HSPS tutors, all of whom graduated from the Cambridge course. We walk you through how to prepare to ensure you stand out and increase your chances of success, as well as a number of tips on how to present yourself and communicate during the interview itself.
Core components of U2 Tuition's HSPS guide:
The first section of our 27-page guide is dedicated to showing you how to build evidence of wider subject exploration to convey your passion and motivation for the subject. Our HSPS graduates lead you through what to read (primary and secondary material), and how to cite key texts, or online resources e.g. podcasts, to justify your reasoning in answer to interview questions. Each book / resource recommendation comes with a thinking task - an interview question that responds directly to the text’s content. Note: ideally, this process should start at least a few months before you interviews take place so you have time to explore enough resources / material!
How to prepare for personal-statement based interview questions
What to expect in your academic interviews, including accounts from numerous successful HSPS candidates. Each account will provide insight into the interview process, the precise questions they were asked, and preparation tips for tackling the different formats of interview (e.g. those which are based on open questions or unseen extract questions)
10 longer worked through interview questions. These include clues for answering the questions and further suggested readings on the topic at hand
60 additional past interview questions: 10 further interdisciplinary questions, 30 political questions (political theory & institutions), and 20 human/ social questions
Final tips for success at interview
Looking for Cambridge HSPS mentoring to further direct your independent preparation?
Having an HSPS tutor can present an invaluable learning opportunity - U2 has a wonderful network of HSPS undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates, who would be delighted to host tutorial sessions giving you exposure to some of the key topic areas within the discipline, support personal statement writing, admissions test and interview preparation. Book a free consultation on our Contact Us page for further details on our offerings and to discuss your university application. Also be sure to check out our university preparation Summer Schools on our co-curricular division website, Minds Underground.