2x interviews.
Interview 1: discussion of personal statement; Interview 2: science-based.
Revise subjects mentioned on SAQ and review personal statement.
If you don't know the answer to an interview question, say what you know so the interviews can guide you to the right answer.
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: None
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 20-30 minutes
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: No
The first interview was based on my personal statement. Neither of my interviewers' work was in veterinary medicine, but they had some interests which I could relate to my personal statement. First we talked about some of the vet-related work experience I had. There were a few questions I gave the wrong answer to, but we briefly discussed the correct answer, and I tried to add some relevant information to show that I had knowledge on the subject. They then picked areas of my personal statement that they were personally interested in which ranged from evolutionary biology to the running of laboratories. (Note: these were topics I described in my personal statement, which shows the importance of knowing what you wrote about).
My second interview was science-based. I was asked questions to begin with and was asked why certain organs might have certain structures (with leading questions all the way through). I was then given data, the topic of which was explained to me and had some questions related to it until the end of the interview. The questions in the second interview were pretty easy to begin with and steadily got more complex. This was actually quite fun and not as scary as it sounds. You get leading questions throughout, and even if you can't answer a question, you can show your thought process (e.g. if you don't understand why a graph looks a certain way, you can point out how it looks and describe the factors that could affect it).
Overall it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It was more of a chat (especially the first interview) as both you and the interviewers contribute to the conversation. It really felt that they cared more about how I was thinking than what information I remembered.
Disclaimer: I already had my A-level result by the time I interviewed. This may have affected the style of interview as I had the necessary grades. I checked what subjects the university knew I had studied from the
I would recommend going over your personal statement as that was where I was given the most knowledge-based questions. If you're not sure what the answer is, just say what you know so far that's relevant. For example, if you're asked why data looks a certain way, go through it step by step and the interviewer will lead you in the right direction. (eg. people given medication X are more likely to get problem Y, this could be a direct or indirect effect, give general ideas of what these effects could be). You are not expected to have vast medical knowledge, but you can still show that you have a step-by-step approach to problem-solving. Try to relax - they're not looking to catch you out, if anything they will be leading you through. If a subject you know about, or know related information to, comes up, use it to your advantage to steer the conversation to more comfortable grounds. If that doesn't happen, don't worry as it will be the same for most.