Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment; 1x interview.
Mathematics, physics, and chemistry questions. A question based on the personal statment.
Reading about topics mentioned in your personal statement.
Enjoy the interview experience; it's another outlet for your passion for your subject.
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:
Length of interviews: 35 mins
Online interview: No
There were a total of 4 questions, with some subquestions for each.
The first was on a topic I had mentioned in my personal statement. My interviewer asked me to outline the principles underpinning said topic. He was more than happy to let me sketch out a diagram and write out some bullet points to help explain the topic and to smoothen out my thought process.
The other 3 were general content questions, one on Mathematics, one on Physics and one on Chemistry. He was very friendly and gave me prompts when I got stuck or was going down the wrong direction.
I reread my personal statement and read up on the topics that I mentioned in it, such as NMR spectroscopy, reaction kinetics, to ensure my knowledge in each area was sufficient.
Other than that, I contacted
I looked through my A level content and did the practice papers found on Cambridge Natural Sciences website. For extra practice I tried out the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, Isaac Physics and IChO questions (though the last one was just for fun).
I think perhaps the best thing an applicant can do is to relish the experience of applying to Oxbridge as another outlet to express your passion for your chosen subject.