Veterinary Medicine @ Emmanuel, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA); 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: academic discussion of science; Interview 2: interpreting graphs, personal statement

Best preparation

Annotated personal statement

Test preparation

Practice papers

Final thoughts

The interviewers want to see that you're willing to put the effort in to solve the problems

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
Time between interviews: 1.5 hrs
Length of interviews: 30 mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

First interview much more academic about specific areas of science but more of an academic discussion that straight up questions.

Second interview involved reading a graph and then a discussion about my personal statement including some more academic questions leading in from what my personal statement mentioned.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Practice interview at school, annotating my personal statement and reading general news around my subject.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practice papers on the Cambridge website.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

If you’re not sure, apply! Might as well give it a go, no one thinks they’ll get in! For interviews even if you have no idea discuss your thought process, talk it through, all they’re looking for is that you’re reachable and willing to put the effort in, not whether you already know everything!