“What do I do if I get given an unseen passage during my interview?

When you’re full of interview nerves this task can seem particularly daunting, but as long as you keep fully focused on the text in front of you, it’ll be fine. Firstly, breathe! The key to responding well is staying calm and engaging with the passage and that’s going to be very hard if you start panicking. You’ll probably be asked to read out the text, so take your time and mentally take note of anything that stands out (eg. some phrasing, an unusual image etc.). When asked about the passage, start with the very basics (form, style, tone) and then transition to more specific devices the writer has used (metaphors, puns, irony etc.). Go back to anything that stood out to you earlier and consider why you noticed it. Make sure you analyse rather than just describe: reflect on the effect these things have on the reader. Think out loud as though it may feel embarrassing at first, this helps the interviewer to understand your thought processes. Most importantly, remember that it is always better to ask if you don’t understand something. You will look a far better candidate to you interviewers for admitting that you don’t know something and want to learn the answer.Practising spontaneously responding to poems and snippets from plays/novels in advance will make you feel even more confident at tackling the task. Go to the poetry & drama section in the library and spent a couple of minutes picking a poem and formulating a response to it, either in your head or on paper. Another good way to get into the habit of regular analysis is subscribing (for free) to sites like Poets.org<http://poets.org/>, which send you a new poem every day to consider. We can easily practise looking at unseen texts together and working on different ways to break down dense passages, develop an argument on the spot and adjust responses when challenged.”