Economics @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

Economics Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.

Interview content

Interview 1: math problem sheet, microeconomics discussion; Interview 2: graph question, macroeconomics discussion.

Best preparation

Practicing graph drawing as it's a commonly-asked skill; A Level revision; re-reading your personal statement.

Final thoughts

Try to relax; don't be afraid of saying something wrong.

Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.

Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.

Interview Format

Test taken: Economics Admissions Assessment (ECAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: ~ 3 hours
Length of interviews: 20 minutes each
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

One of my interviews was a split between Maths and Microeconomics, while the other one was a split between Data Interpretation and Macroeconomics.

The first interview was very awkward and not very fun in the slightest, while I really enjoyed the second one (potentially because I thought I had messed up my chances of getting in with the first interview).

I was given a problem sheet for the Maths part and a graph for the Data Interpretation part, the Macro and Micro was discussion based.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I just went through my personal statement to make sure I was prepared for questions based on it and made sure I knew the A-Level content to a high standard.

Also, I practised graph drawing for complex functions because I had heard they were a common interview question for Economics.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practise Papers - Did all of them twice (two weeks apart to see how I’d improved)

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Try your best to relax for your interviews, they go a lot better if you do. Also, don’t be scared to speak your mind in the interview, the worse that will happen is they’ll correct you.