When I arrived at College the college porters directed me to a waiting room where I spoke to other prospective students. I had 2 interviews, with around a 30 minute gap in between.

The first was around 30 minutes and was more 'interviewer lead', there was a list of different questions that we spent a short amount of time on each. The second was slightly longer, around 40 minutes, and was directed more my own interests and the content of my personal statement, though there were a few set questions. The first was conducted by a PHD student and the second was with two fellows.

During the first interview, I was asked about a range of economics topics. These included why I wanted to do economics, an abstract question that involved some real life factors and a simple game theory issue (you would not have to have any idea about what game theory is as it was a logic question aimed at looking at your thought process).

The second interview again began with discussing my interest in economics. Since I mentioned development economics and spoke about that in my personal statement, most of the interview centered around that. One of the fellows interviewing me had read the book I had mentioned and asked me about one of the arguments. It wasn't a very tricky question but would catch you out if you hadn't actually read the book. After the discussion I was asked to talk the 2 fellows through a maths problem on a whiteboard. Content-wise, it did not go beyond A level but was phrased in a way I hadn't seen before. I felt most worried about this part, but found it far easier than I expected as the interviewers walked you through each part. I actually finished with completely the wrong answer but since I'd been talking through my method, the interviewer asked me if I was sure about the last step. I realised I'd made a silly error. After that, I was asked if I had any questions for the interviewers.

I'd recommend finding an area of economics that interests you, and read a couple of books within this area. I find development/behavioral economics to be particularly accessible as they require little technical knowledge which I feel makes them easier to talk about in an interview. Try to avoid mentioning the popular books like 'The Undercover Economist' and 'Freakonomics' to stand out, though don't necessarily avoid reading them as they're good, interesting introduction.

Prepare an answer for why economics as well as 1-2 questions you could ask at the end of the interview if you had chance. To stand out, try to ensure these aren't things you could easily find online.

After the above preparation the best thing you could do in my opinion would be to practice actually speaking about your thoughts. This could be on your own but ideally with a friend/relative/teacher, even if they know nothing about economics. I found I had very little experience of doing this. In terms of preparing every topic that could possibly come up, I really wouldn't worry too much. They'll assume you have no knowledge about anything that isn't in your personal statement, so loads of preparation isn't too important in my opinion.

I'd say the most important advice I could give would to come across as enthusiastic as you can and listen to where the interviewer is trying to take you. By getting to the interview stage you're clever enough to be at Cambridge and a lot of what they're looking for is how you respond to someone questioning your ideas/whether they'd enjoy supervising you.