Land Economy @ Robinson, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

2x interviews.

Interview content

Discussed regional inequality; sustainability in cities

Best preparation

An interest in, and reading about, sustainability; on-line course; practice interviews

Final thoughts

It's worth trying again if you're unsuccessful the first time

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

I had 1 interview at 9 in the morning. As I travelled from France I spent the night before in College accommodation and got free food for the duration of my stay. I came the week before usual interviews because of a gap year training programme I had to attend conflicted with the first set interview date. Met my interviewer at the porters lodge, we had a coffee and chatted about her area of study and a bit about things in my personal statement while we waited for the second interviewer to turn up. The chat made me less nervous about the real interview. Straight after I had a 1 hour TSA test.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Discussed regional inequality/looked at graphs/started a conversation about sustainability in cities from a newspaper article - felt relaxed and interviewer was encouraging even when I came across content I had never seen.

How did you prepare?

I was interested even before applying by sustainability issues in cities which I read up on in newspapers and just paid attention to whenever the subject showed up in documentaries or on the news. When I decided to apply I took it a bit further by doing a free online course. My knowledge only covered a specific area but as it was quite varied within that area I found it easy to discuss in interview which was really helpful.

A practice interview - by anyone even a non-professional - forcing me to talk about myself and asking prodding questions was really useful in giving me confidence before the real thing.

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

It's worth trying again if you're unsuccessful the first time. If you have the grades and the passion to learn, you belong here. I'm so glad I tried again as it showed a completely different side to the interview process and allowed me to relax and be myself. The first time I think that was what frustrated me most, I hadn't shown the interview enough of myself and how I was ready to study - I was too focussed on worrying how hard the questions were.