Describe a person you know who is interested in history

The cue card

• You should say: who this person is
• You should say: how you know this person
• You should say: what kind of history this person is interested in
• You should say: and explain why this person likes history

How to answer it

The third bullet is the whole card. "History" answered as a subject is a dead answer; answered as a narrow obsession it is a good one. Nobody is interested in history — they are interested in the Ottoman navy, or the street they grew up on, or how their grandparents got out. Name the narrow thing in the first thirty seconds and the rest of the card writes itself, because you can then say what they read, what they drag people to see, and what they will not stop talking about at dinner.

What moves the band

• One concrete period or place beats five general nouns. "Interwar Vienna" earns more than "ancient civilisations, wars, kings and culture".
• For the fourth bullet, resist "because it is interesting". People like history for reasons that are really about the present — belonging, family, arguing with the official version.
• The follow-ups are an age-and-education set, so have a view on WHEN children should start, not just whether.

Part 3 questions reported with it

Part 3 follows the topic of the cue card, so these are the discussion questions the same candidates were asked next.

• Should children start learning history from a young age?
• At what age should children start learning history?
• Who can teach children about history before they go to school?
• Do you think it is important to learn how people lived in the past?
• Should people learn ancient history before learning modern history?