What should I read in preparation for a Classics Interview at Cambridge?

At your interview, you will most likely be questioned by someone who teaches the course; if you get an offer, they will be closely involved with your progress and might even supervise you personally. Unsurprisingly, your interviewer will be looking for students they will personally want to teach! It's therefore really helpful to both have a good knowledge of some basics, but to also have some interests in lesser-known parts of Classics too. I would reccommend reading the Iliad and the Aeneid in English (the Oxford World Classics and Penguin Classics series both have good translations) as a well-rounded knowledge of these texts is incredibly helpful for properly understanding other texts in the course. It can also be good to read bits of other texts from the first year of your course in translation, so that you can get a feel for it. Outside of this, its great to read articles on other interesting stuff that you like (philosophy, history, linguistics, art and archeology) which are related to Classics, and the 'A Very Short Introduction' series is great for learning about specific parts of history and philosophy that are of interest as well. However, whilst you can't be certain that any specific part of ancient history or literature will come up, it is very likely that you will be asked to attempt to translate a piece of Latin or Greek if you take either of those subjects to A level. In my interviews, I had to take a written test, and I was also given a piece of Latin to translate 'out loud', which was admittedly pretty daunting! The more experience you can get translating Latin and Greek, especially without too much external help from dictionaries and grammar tables, the better prepared you'll be to impress them with your language skills. 

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