Quote From chantedsnicker:
While I can't answer your first two questions, I can help a bit with the others. When I applied for my PhD I had to provide two references with the application, so I think it's fairly standard to contact references ahead of the interview.

I try my best to prepare by running through potential questions and how I would answer them. I didn't have a proposal to discuss but did have to talk about much of what you have covered in your presentation. I did get asked general questions about PhDs, they asked what made a good phd student and also what training I thought I would need to complete the project.

In terms of Dos and Don'ts. I'd say, don't rush your answers. Take a few seconds before answering rather than rushing in and rambling. With a question such as what training would you need, don't be overly negative, I'd give them some positives too... So for mine I talked about how I probably wouldn't need much for the first part of the project where I had a strong background, but that the other part was new to me so I would potentially need more support on that part.

Do have a few questions to ask them at the end - You'll see people say many times that it should be a two-way interview and you need to make sure that it's also the right place for your to study.

My final tip is if at the "Any questions" stage there's anything you didn't mention and wanted to you can mention it here. So for me I asked about teaching opportunities as it was something that hadn't come up and talked about how I'd like to get more experience in that area and hoped I'd have the opportunity to supervise student projects.

I hope that helps a bit!