Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.
Interview 1: personal statement and science questions; Interview 2: vet-specific and biology questions.
Practice sample interview questions and revise your A-level content.
Use NSAA practice papers generally, as well as maths olympiad questions for the maths section.
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: 1.5 hours.
Length of interviews: 20 minutes.
Online interview: No
In the first interview I was asked some questions about my personal statement, but the majority of the interview was science-based. One interviewer asked me questions on organic chemistry while the other asked me questions related to his specialty which increased in difficulty as he went along. All the questions I was asked incorporated my A-level biology knowledge; I just had to adapt it to fit the situation.
In the second interview I was asked questions about different animals as well as some general biology questions related to laboratory work, which I again could try to apply my A-level knowledge to. The interviews were more like chats, and I feel that asking questions and showing curiousity throughout made me stand out as an applicant. Even if you walk out of the intervieew thinking it went badly, it’s probably the opposite as that means they pushed you more (which was the case for me). Go for it, what do you have to lose!
I printed off all the veterinary medicine and Cambridge interview questions I could find online and practiced with my parents. The interviews tend to be very biology-heavy, though there’s some chemistry too, so I looked over all of the A-level Biology and Chemistry notes which I had. I recommend asking teachers for any students they know at Cambridge you could contact for advice. I also kept up to date in current veterinary news and made sure I could talk about topical issues like bovine tuberculosis etc. Make sure you can talk about anything in your personal statement too!
I used NSAA practice papers which are free online, albeit limited, as well as senior maths olympiad questions to practice for the maths section! I found that timing myself doing these was very useful and sometimes questions tend to repeat so make sure to look at the mark scheme. Don’t stress about this test too much as it’s only one part of your application!