Computer Science @ Queens', Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

Computer Science Admissions Test; 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement, one long question; Interview 2: maths questions

Best preparation

Practise papers

Final thoughts

Lots of preparation isn't necessary

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: CSAT (Computer Science admissions test)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 30 mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview discussed my personal statement and then one long Computer Science-related question on a topic I had never seen before. My second interview was around 5 maths questions that weren’t as hard as the CSAT questions.

How did you prepare?

I used the two CSAT past papers and MAT longer questions. I went over my personal statement multiple times to make sure that I wouldn’t be tripped up on anything, and went over some of the themes of the books that I had read.

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

In all honesty, I’m not sure my methods were the best way to prepare, but I didn’t know how else to prepare. I think the interviewers are good at recognising differing levels of preparedness and adapting to this.