For sure! Everyone’s interview is different, so for anyone reading this, please take it with a grain of salt. I might write a more detailed “report” at a later point.
I thought they would ask me in detail about arguments made in my personal statement or submitted work, or about my books, or current affairs, or the course; no, they used literal words out of my PS to jumpstart a conversation. It was really interesting and surprising, I had fun but might have fumbled part of the second interview. A lot of the prep I did was a total waste of time as many of the questions I got were conceptual rather than specific.
Basically, it’s very logic-based and if you think you have a solid answer, they’ll say “yes, but do you think that might be instead explained by xyz as opposed to abc?” and you’ll say “no, here’s why” and they’ll say "but isn’t that still … "
One of the on-the-fly questions was super out of left field and made me laugh!
I worry I danced around the answer too much and wasn’t direct enough. I know you’re meant to struggle, but I can’t tell if it was “good struggling” like thinking hard or “bad struggling” like “I have no idea what’s happening”!
The interviewers were nice to talk with, I really enjoyed it. The students helping out were also super nice and joked around with me. I also got a little panicked when one of the students said “half five”. I knew it meant 5:30 but I had never heard it “in real life” before!
I’m still mulling it over even though I know I shouldn’t; sometimes I’ll think I did well, but half an hour later I’ll think I did terribly.