English Literature Admissions Test (ELAT) is utilised by the University of Oxford at the time of admissions in their colleges for English courses at undergraduate level. The ELAT test helps to extract crème layer of students out of the pool of applicants with properly-qualified educational backgrounds. The University of Oxford approached Cambridge Assessment with this aim and discovered close reading as a key skill to study the following courses:

Q300 – English Language and Literature

QQ38 – Classics and English (3 years)

QQH8 – Classics and English (4 years)

QQ35 – English and Celtic

QR37 – English and Czech (with Slovak)

QR31 – English and French

QR32 – English and German

QR33 – English and Italian

QQ37 – English and Contemporary Greek

QR35 – English and Portuguese

QRH7 – English and Russian

QR34 – English and Spanish

Application Procedure

Candidates should be registered by an approved ELAT center and sit the exam properly-in advance to take admission in the following year or the next year. The ELAT is generally held in the begin of November each year and candidates sit the exam at their own college, school or an open center.

Structure of the Exam

The ELAT is a written test with 90 minutes’ duration in which candidates are expected to write 1 essay even though comparing two or 3 passages and focusing on distinctive features of structure, language, and style.

Candidates are not expected to prove their academic achievement in the ELAT and will not be given marks for any reference to other texts or authors, nor are supposed to apply any certain school of thought.

The ELAT assesses the key skill of close reading of applicants, which includes imagery, allusion, form, syntax, language, and structure, and with it, the ability to express and frame a thought to an unfamiliar literary material.

Conclusion

This ELAT test is only one of the elements for calling any applicant to the interview for admission in the University of Oxford. The other elements include GCSE, academic record, GCSE, UCAS form, references from school, and a submitted piece of written work.

Oxford College