Maths @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

Sixth Term Examination Paper; 3x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement; Interview 2: subject questions; Interview 3: subject questions

Best preparation

Doing practice papers

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Try to stay relaxed and confident

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: Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP)

Number of interviews: 3

Skype interview: no

Time between interviews: about 2 hours

Length of first interview: 25 minutes; Length of second interview: 25 minutes; Length of third interview: 25 minutes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In the general interview, they asked me gentle questions which closely corresponded to paragraphs of my personal statement. I got the impression that they did not consider the interview very important and were just trying to relax me and check that I could interact normally.

Both the maths interviews were similar - they asked me questions. There were around 2-3 topics per interview with 2-3 sub-questions per topic. All answers involved me writing on paper that they could see and talking through my answer. They didn't ask me about background knowledge, interest, reading, etc.

How did you prepare?

To prepare for STEP I mainly did practice papers. For the interview, I practiced general problem-solving skills and had a practice interview

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I think it's really good to try to be confident on the day. Having a general interview first helps, so maybe apply to a college that does this.