Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

Two 30 minute interviews - a friendly experience

Interview content

Your personal statement might be brought up.

Best preparation

Take advantage of resources on YouTube by Cambridge University

Final thoughts

Wear what you feel comfortable in.

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

I had 2 interviews: each 30 minutes with 2 interviewers. They were in the morning with about 2 hours between them. Before my first interview and between the interviews I waited in the JCR and there were lots of first year students helping who were really friendly. They took us to all our interviews and waited with us until the interviewers called us in. One of the first years even came up to me elsewhere in Cambridge that afternoon and asked me how my second interview went - it was such a welcoming environment, and there were biscuits.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The first interview was very chemistry based. It was very difficult and I didn’t understand some of the questions. The second interview was friendlier. I was asked to talk about something that was on my personal statement, followed by some (fairly easy) maths questions.

How did you prepare?

At my school we did some practice interviews with teachers which were useful because they made being interviewed feel a lot more normal.I also watched the example interview videos that Cambridge have put on YouTube. These were helpful because a very similar question came up in the real thing!

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

You really don’t need to wear a suit, even though your parents will probably tell you to. I went in jeans and my favourite jumper and things went quite well for me, so just wear what you feel comfortable in.