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Hello, I'm David Taylor. I'm the admissions coordinator for English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. You may have heard that the Oxford ELAT,
our admissions test, will be going online this year. That's nothing to worry about. The format of the test is completely unchanged. You'll still be asked to select two passages from a possible six and to compare those passages, focusing especially on structure, form, language, imagery, illusion and syntax. The best way to prepare for the ELAT is to practise. Look at and attempt some of the past papers that are available online. Get used to the specific exercise of close reading unseen passages. You'll be used to typing your essays, I'm sure, but the practice, the task of annotating them on a screen may well be new to you, so it's really important that you spend time with the practice website and that you familiarise yourself with the platform's annotation function.

So these are my top five tips for taking the Oxford ELAT. Tip number one: the test is 90 minutes long, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to read the passages, to select the two passages you want to go with and then to carefully plan your essay. You should give yourself about 30 minutes for that and that will leave you with an hour to write, which is more than enough time. Tip number two: it's not enough in your answer simply to point to or to identify particular techniques, or images, or tropes that you've spotted in your passages. What you really need to do is think about why those techniques and images and tropes are being used. If a writer is using short sentences, why are they using short sentences? What effect might that be having?

Tip number three: the Oxford ELAT will present you with a wide variety of forms and genres. Think carefully about form, think carefully about what form does.

What can a poem do that a short story can't?
What can a short story do but a poem can't? Tip number four: your answer must have an argument, a through line of interpretation that brings together all your points and all your ideas. Remember that you're writing an essay and an essay is ultimately an exercise in persuasion. My fifth, and final, tip: do be sure to check with your test centres whether you need extra requirements, such as additional time, for instance.

I wish you the very best of luck with your application and with taking the Oxford ELAT.