Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment; 2x Interviews.
Interview 1: evaluating photos; Interview 2: describing and evaluating graph.
Re-read your personal statement and reflect on any experience you mention in your personal statement.
Practise past papers, and make sure you familiarize yourself with the layout and phrasing of the NSAA.
Always think out loud, and jot down some points you could mention for commonly asked questions!
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.
Test taken:
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 4 hours
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: No
In each interview I had two interviewees, both of whom were very friendly! It felt more like a discussion rather than being interrogated, and definitely felt like they wanted me to get the questions right. In the first one I was presented with some photos and asked to identify what I thought the structures in them might be, and what made me think that. In the second I was asked to describe a graph of disease prevalence, and then asked to justify why the patterns I had seen were occurring. I was also given a dilution to work out, which I struggled with but was given hints as I went.
Re-read your personal statement - if you mention any key areas (like an EPQ, work experience placement) try to recap any material relating to those. Even if your personal statement just says "I attended x placement", its worth having a think about how you would respond if they asked you what you learned while you were there! When I completed the
Past papers! Definitely familiarize yourself with the format as the layout/phrasing of the NSAA is quite different to that of school exams. When I was applying there were three sets of past papers available, so I took one as open book (so I could take as long as I wanted and looked things up as I went), one set as closed book but no time limit, and then the final set as a practise test (i.e. closed book and under timed conditions). There are a lot of very pricey books/courses/services which advertise coaching for the test, but to be honest the most useful materials I found were all free. It's worth remembering that the companies offering these services are not the ones setting the tests, so sometimes they won't actually know any more about it than you do!
In the interview itself, take time to consider the question, but try not to stay silent. If you are really stuck, try speaking about why you're stuck i.e. "well I know it definitely isn't y because of x", or "it could be x, but y doesn't support that". It's much better to show your thinking, even if you're sure it is all wrong, than show nothing at all! Definitely don't prepare what you're going to say as such, but if there are some things from your application you think they may ask about then maybe have a think about a few points you could mention. Don't script what you're going to say, but having some ideas ready can help you feel a little less nervous!