Pre-CAS interview checklist: the night before and the hour before

Most pre-CAS interview preparation happens in the weeks before: learning your course, your money and your plans well enough to explain them in your own words. This post is for the last 24 hours. If you have not worked through the questions yet, read UK credibility interview questions first.

What should you do the night before a pre-CAS interview?

The night before is for checking facts and set-up, not for learning new answers. Put your papers in one place: passport, offer and CAS details, fee receipts, money evidence, accommodation details, transcripts and work letters. Say the key facts aloud once and check each one against its paper: course, level, length, start date, fee and amount paid, who pays, where you will live, why this university, and your plan after. Test the camera, microphone and internet in the room you will use. Reread your university's own instructions on format, deadline and notes; LJMU, for example, rules out notes, scripts and websites while you record. In the hour before, record one warm-up answer, not ten. In the interview, ask if a live question is unclear, pause briefly before you answer, and never guess a number. No checklist decides the outcome: your university decides whether to issue your CAS, and the Home Office decides your visa.

Which papers should you have to hand?

Check facts against these tonight. During the interview, only the passport stays within reach.

• Passport. LJMU asks you to show it to the camera at the start, and Aston's policy has assessors compare the photo page with the person on screen.
• Offer letter and CAS details: course title, level, start date, length and fee.
• Fee and deposit receipts. LJMU asks for part of the deposit before you record.
• Money evidence: bank statement, loan or sponsor letter, and whose name is on it.
• Accommodation: the booking or the options you compared, with the cost. Lincoln lists questions on distance from campus and travel to classes.
• Transcripts, English test result and work letters. Lincoln may ask about past study, work and the English test you took.
• The invitation email: link, deadline and the time zone of any booked slot.

Which facts should you say aloud once?

Say each fact once, aloud, in a full sentence, then look at the paper. If the two differ, fix it now. You are not learning anything new; you are catching the one figure that has drifted.

Say aloud	Check it against
Course title, level, qualification and length	Offer or CAS details; Kent lists duration, RQF level and qualification as things to know
Start date	Offer or CAS details
Two or three modules, and how they are assessed	Your course page
Tuition fee, amount paid, amount left	Offer or CAS details, and your receipt
Who pays, where the money is held, and the monthly living-cost figure for your campus	Bank or loan letter; gov.uk (London has its own figure)
Where you will live, the cost, how you get to campus	Your booking or research
Why this university and this course, with one reason only this course gives you	Your course page
Your plan after the course	Your own plan; if you mention working in the UK afterwards, the current Graduate visa rules

A made-up example. You hear yourself say the fee is "around fourteen thousand". Your offer says £14,900 and your receipt shows £4,000 paid. Tonight's fix is one sentence you can say without thinking: "The fee is £14,900. I have paid £4,000, so £10,900 is left."

More help: answering "Why this university?" and money rules and funding questions. Do not write new scripts tonight: Plymouth's guidance for UKVI interviews asks for your own words rather than scripts, and LJMU warns that pre-prepared answers stand out.

How do you set up for a recorded interview?

In a recorded interview, each question appears on screen and you record your answer within a time limit; nobody watches live. LJMU's takes about 20 to 25 minutes, needs a quiet, well-lit place and a working webcam and microphone, and can be done on a phone or tablet.

• Make a test recording tonight in the same room, at the same time of day, and play it back. Is your whole face visible and the sound clear?
• Light in front of you, camera at eye level.
• Charge the device, keep it plugged in, and turn off notifications.
• Sit near your router, and decide what you would do if the Wi-Fi drops.
• Know your deadline. BCU lets you book its recorded interview yourself and asks you to finish it within seven working days, and warns that its CAS Shield invitation can land in junk or spam. Aston's policy gives seven days, a reminder, then seven more. Do not plan for the last day.

The connection matters. Aston's policy expects one sitting: if the interview stops part-way, even through an internet failure, you start again, and repeated restarts lead to a face-to-face interview.

What are the room rules?

• Be alone. Aston's assessors check your passport against your face and may ask you to show the room, so they know nobody is helping. Tell your family when you start.
• Assume no notes. Clear the desk except for the passport, and close every other tab and window.
• Know what looks like reading. Aston's policy lists eyes moving across the screen, glancing down at your lap again and again, and looking past the camera, which can suggest someone else is present. It also says you are not expected to stare into the lens the whole time.

If your university's instructions differ, follow theirs.

What changes for a live interview?

Lincoln's is a booked video call of about 30 to 40 minutes on Zoom or a similar app, and it asks you to check the app works on your device beforehand. Aston's second stage is a Microsoft Teams interview; its policy treats not joining within 15 minutes of the start, without having contacted the team, as an automatic fail.

• Install and test the app tonight, with the camera and microphone it will use. Show your name as it is on your passport.
• Convert the time for the interview date, not for today. Write your local time next to the UK time. UK clocks go back one hour on 25 October 2026, so the gap can change: 10am UK time is 2:30pm in India before that date and 3:30pm after it. Kent gives a similar time-difference warning for UKVI interviews.
• Join early. If something stops you, write to the university before the start time.

What should you do in the hour before?

Record one answer on camera, not ten. Pick an easy one, such as "Tell me about your course", answer it once, and play it back to check sound, light and framing. One recording warms up your voice and confirms the set-up; ten tire you and pull you back towards reciting.

Then eat, keep water within reach, and use the bathroom. Silence your phone unless it is the recording device. Passport on the desk, papers out of sight. Reread the invitation once.

What should you do during the interview?

• If a live question is unclear, ask once. Coventry's guidance for UKVI interviews says you can politely ask the interviewer to repeat, rephrase or explain. A request to repeat it beats a good answer to the wrong question. Aston's policy accepts that students sometimes misread a question; its example is a question on how the course is assessed being answered as one on what it contains. In a recorded interview you cannot ask, so read the whole question before you speak.
• Pause briefly. Coventry also says a short pause to gather your thoughts is fine. Look at the camera or screen while you think, not down.
• Never guess a number. A fee, date or amount that differs from your papers is a contradiction the interviewer can check. If a figure has gone, give what you are sure of and say you would want to check the exact amount. Plymouth asks for answers that are "confident, concise, and consistent"; a guessed number breaks the third.
• Answer, then stop. Give one specific reason or example, then let the next question come.

What happens after the interview?

Each university sets its own timing and its own rules on a resit or a second interview. Our guide to when you will hear back, and whether you can try again lists what LJMU, Lincoln and Aston publish.

While you wait, check the portal and your spam folder before chasing. A CAS is not a visa: UKVI can still invite you to its own credibility interview, and Plymouth says passing its own interview does not guarantee UKVI will accept you; the same guide explains both interviews. If your result is a resit or a fail, read why students fail the pre-CAS interview before you try again.

A printable checklist

Print it or copy it to your phone; put it away before the interview starts.

The night before

• Papers in one place: passport, offer and CAS details, receipts, money evidence, accommodation, transcripts, work letters
• Each key fact said aloud once and checked against its paper
• Any wrong figure turned into one clear sentence
• University instructions reread: format, deadline, notes
• Test recording made in the same room, at the same time of day
• Device charged, notifications off, video app tested
• Interview time written in your local time
• Family told when you need the room

The hour before

• One warm-up answer recorded and played back
• Water, food, bathroom
• Passport on the desk, everything else away, other tabs closed

During and after

• Ask once if a live question is unclear
• Pause, then answer in your own words
• No guessed numbers
• Check the portal and spam folder, and note when a result is due

Practising before the night before

Hilingo's UK CAS Interview prep builds a profile from your own offer, CAS and money papers, then has you practise on camera. Each practice set starts with a camera, microphone and internet check, and gives up to 30 seconds to prepare and 30, 60 or 90 seconds to answer, one take per question. The mock interview opens with a short spoken statement that you are taking it alone and a passport-to-camera rehearsal, so the identity step is familiar. It is practice, not a prediction: your university decides your CAS.

See UK CAS Interview prep

Frequently asked questions

Should I practise new answers the night before a pre-CAS interview?

No. Use the night to check facts against your papers and test your set-up. LJMU and Plymouth both advise against pre-prepared answers and scripts, and an answer learned overnight is exactly that.

Can I keep notes beside me during a pre-CAS interview?

Follow your university's rules, and assume not. LJMU rules out notes, scripts and websites while you record, and Aston's policy treats looking elsewhere, as if reading, as a warning sign.

What if my internet drops during a recorded interview?

It depends on the university. Under Aston's policy, a recorded interview that stops part-way is done again from the start. Contact your university if it keeps happening.

Sources (accessed 6 October 2026)

• Liverpool John Moores University, Pre-CAS interviews
• University of Lincoln, Pre-CAS interview
• Aston University, Pre-CAS interview policy (PDF, May 2026)
• Birmingham City University, CAS Shield: a step-by-step guide for international offer holders
• University of Kent, Credibility interviews
• Coventry University, Credibility interviews
• University of Plymouth, UKVI credibility interviews
• GOV.UK, Student visa: money
• GOV.UK, Graduate visa
• GOV.UK, When do the clocks change?