Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

NSAA; 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: subject-related questions; Interview 2: subject-related questions

Best preparation

Practice papers, practice interviews

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

For the interview, explain your ideas even if you're not certain about 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

Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: no

Time between interviews: about an hour

Length of first interview: 20-30 minutes; Length of second interview: 20-30 minutes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Across my 2 interviews I covered 4 questions, on evolution, maths, chemistry and biology. Some of them were a single question which I discussed with the interviewer and then expanded on throughout the time, and some were broken down into several small questions.

I had 2 interviewers in each interview and addressed the person asking the questions when I gave my answers, but I tried not to ignore the other person in the room.

For biology I was given some graphs to describe. For evolution I was given an object and a question and I also asked questions about the object. For maths, I was given a situation and was progressively given small questions to work on. For chemistry I was asked to draw a certain isomer.

I had to have quite a lot of help with the biology questions, but I tried to carry on and show that I understood the explanation that was given by adding my own points, once I understood.

How did you prepare?

For the test, I used practice papers. I looked through the specification to check I had covered everything (we didn't do everything in order at A-level, so there was some work I hadn't covered, and I spoke to teachers about these topics). I went through A-level notes (although this wasn't necessarily very useful; the practice papers were much better, especially doing them under time constraints).

I did a few practice interviews: one was a general interview about personal statements, and another was organised by my school which was subject related. The interviewers for this made the interview as tough as they could so that I was prepared, which made the practice interview very difficult but definitely prepared me for the worst and the actual interview was a lot easier and more enjoyable.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

Practice talking about your subject, working through questions out loud, and laying out working clearly so the interviewers can see what you're trying to do. During the interview, explain all your ideas even if they don't seem particularly great, because by explaining them, you may think of something useful that is related to those ideas, or the interviewers might give you a small hint to work forward with. If you didn’t use all of the practice questions for the entrance test, then try working through some of the long questions out loud, maybe with a teacher to act as an interviewer.