Geography @ Jesus, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

Geography Admissions Assessment (GAA); 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: physical geography; Interview 2: human geography, personal statement

Best preparation

Kept up with relevant news stories

Test preparation

Practised similar test papers

Final thoughts

Talk through what you're thinking even when you don't know the answer

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: Geography Admissions Assessment (GAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: A day
Length of interviews: 25 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The interview felt like a 'good cop, bad cop' vibe, but they didn't try to catch me out. The physical geography interview was just general non-specific questions, whereas the human geography interview was more tailored to my personal statement, the pre-reading and a map that was given to me in the interview.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I read lots of geography books, reviewed the stuff on my personal statement and kept an eye on the news.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Did Thinking Skills Assessment practice papers and practised describing the patterns shown on maps and graphs.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Talk through what you're thinking even when you have no idea what the answer is, keep trying til the end and don't give up!