Engineering @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

2x interviews (20/30 mins each)

Interview content

2x interviews

Best preparation

Work on graph drawing; "i-want-to-study-engineering.org"; read the books you say you've read.

Final thoughts

Think out loud so they can see your logic.

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

Two interviews, hour apart. 20/30 minutes each. 2 interviewers each. Both mixed technical. Second one was a mix of technical and tiny bit on personal statement.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

At christs, everyone waited in JCR for all subjects. Everyone was chatting, nice vibes. You would go through without a student and find the interview room 10 mins before and wait outside.

Only one hour between interviews. Went back to JCR - people reading over stuff but pretty chilled, mostly chatting, some talking about where they came from and one lived near me - bizarre because you don't meet Northerners.

In the first interview, we discussed sustainable Engineering. I remember being asked to draw some maths graphs / room temperature variation with certain things. On my way home I realised I had messed up. The interviewer was quite good at pointing me in right direction. I also had to rearrage some equations once I had worked out what the questions were.

The second interview was cool. A female interviewer which relaxed me. Discssed friction with physical demonstrations. None of the content was stuff I didn't know from A Levels but was worded differently so you had to think about it more. There was a little non-technical question about Hockey. No rogue questions about my "greatest achievement".

How did you prepare?

A guy from the year above told me to work on graph drawing. The website -"want-to-study-engineering.org" SOO GOOD - questions came up in my interview. Read the books you say you've read. I didn't do much other prep.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

The biggest advice is "think outloud" - that's what got me through. At least they can see your logic, or correct you if you're going wrong.