Cambridge College assessments: Cambridge College admission assessments

What it is and who sets it

Written or interview-based assessments taken after an applicant has been shortlisted for interview, for certain arts, humanities and social science courses. There is no advance registration. They sit alongside the pre-registered tests Cambridge uses for other courses (ESAT, TMUA, LNAT, UCAT, and the CSAT for Computer Science at Peterhouse and Trinity).

Set by: University of Cambridge and its Colleges. The interviewing College arranges the assessment and tells the applicant when and how to take it; some are common to all Colleges, others are set by individual Colleges.

Which universities and courses use it

• University of Cambridge: all Colleges

  • Architecture (graphic and spatial ability)
  • Design (same assessment as Architecture)
  • Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, when combined with a European language (MML assessment)
  • Classics, 3-year (Latin or Greek skills assessment interview)
  • Classics, 4-year (language aptitude assessment interview; Pembroke also sets its own language aptitude test)
  • Modern and Medieval Languages
  • History and Modern Languages (language element)

• University of Cambridge: named Colleges only

  • Linguistics (the Colleges listed on the Cambridge page)
  • Linguistics and Modern Languages (varies by College; Christ's sets none)
  • English (Gonville & Caius)
  • Geography (Hughes Hall)
  • History (Hughes Hall, St Edmund's)
  • History and Politics (Hughes Hall, St Edmund's)
  • History and Modern Languages, history element (Hughes Hall, St Edmund's)
  • Human, Social and Political Sciences (Hughes Hall, King's, Newnham)
  • Philosophy (Jesus, Trinity)
  • Psychological and Behavioural Sciences (Selwyn, St Edmund's)
  • Music (tasks at interview, at the Colleges listed on the Cambridge page)

• University of Cambridge: no admission assessment

  • Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic
  • Archaeology
  • Education
  • Environment, Law, and Economics (previously Land Economy)
  • History of Art
  • Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion

Always confirm on the course page of each university you apply to.

Format, timing and scoring

• Taken after shortlisting for interview; no advance registration.
• Architecture / Design: graphic and spatial ability, 30 minutes.
• Modern and Medieval Languages: foreign-language discursive response (40 minutes) plus English discursive response (20 minutes). Applicants combining with a classical language also take a classical language assessment.
• History and Modern Languages, post-A level language: as MML. Language from scratch: discursive response in English (40 minutes) plus language aptitude test (20 minutes).
• Classics 3-year: Latin (or Greek) skills assessment interview, 20 minutes. Classics 4-year: language aptitude assessment interview, 20 minutes.
• Linguistics: three parts of about 20 minutes each (60 minutes in total), on data in graphs and tables and on linguistic structure. Cambridge notes the format 'may vary slightly from year to year'.
• Music: Colleges assess 'aptitude, knowledge base and potential through tasks at the time of interview'.

Scoring: No pass or fail mark. Results are considered alongside the rest of the application. The only published mark scheme detail is Linguistics: 90 marks (30 per part). Cambridge says 'almost no one gets full marks'. Past papers for Linguistics (2023, 2024) are provided without answer keys.

Practising for the Cambridge College assessments

• Formats differ by course and College, so start from your College's own instructions.
• Where Cambridge publishes past papers (for example Linguistics), use them under timed conditions.
• Practise reading and writing under time pressure for written assessments, and talking through your reasoning for interview-based ones.

Start with the official format and practice material: the test owner's page (opens in a new tab). Then work through timed sections, full mock papers, and a review of every mistake.