Medicine @ Gonville & Caius, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

3x interviews (25 mins each)

Interview content

Science content isn't beyond A Level; analysis of diagrams; discussions

Best preparation

Think about the concepts in your personal statement on a deeper level

Final thoughts

Take the interviews as they come and don't dwell on them

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

Three interviews, each around 25 minutes. Two were in the morning and the third was a couple of hours later to give me time to eat a packed lunch on Christ's Pieces [a park in Cambridge]. I decided not to eat in the dining hall with other applicants as I was worried that this might make me nervous, but the option is available and may help to make some people feel more confident.

I didn't have to do any tests on the day as I had already completed the BMAT.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The first interview was fairly philosophical in nature and we discussed subjects such as the abortion and euthanasia debates.

The second interview was very much academic and I was presented with several diagrams and some information about medical conditions and asked about the conclusions I could draw. I was also asked to talk through a question to assess how I thought about it - the actual science content wasn't anything beyond A-Level.

The final interview also had some science questions and then finished with a discussion about my sporting and musical interests.

How did you prepare?

Although I had read plenty of recent medical news articles and books, I wasn't actually asked any questions relating to these. My personal statement did lead some of the questions (especially the more philosophical ones) so having sat down and thought about the content of my personal statement proved very useful.

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

I thought my interviews went pretty badly, but I was still offered a place: don't dwell on how the interviews went, especially if you have another one to do. Just take each interview as it comes and give an honest impression of yourself to the interviewer.