Test taken: Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: c.1 hour
Length of interviews: c.1 hour
Online interview: No

In my first interview, it opened with a mechanics question that the interviewer had developed based on something I mentioned in my personal statement. Following that, we moved on to more pre-set questions. It started with mechanics-based questions (I think 2 or 3), which I wasn't really expected to know the answer to straight away. I worked through the problems out loud, and the interviewer was happy to give me hints whenever I got stuck. Following that, the other interviewer set some electrical questions. It was mostly based on what I had already covered in A Level Physics by that point. One of the questions was based on a topic I hadn't covered yet, so the interviewer altered it to instead get me to think about how that topic would work.

In my second interview, it was more focused on pure maths. As far as I remember, the whole interview consisted of several questions where I was given a y=f(x) style formula and asked to sketch its graph.

I attended a paid interview preparation day run by a London company. They provided example interview questions and would give some feedback on your response. I imagine the course was useful for some people, but I personally did not find it particularly useful as it wasn't individualised enough to help you develop your answers. I also watched a lot of Youtube videos by current Cambridge students discussing their interview experiences. This was very helpful, as I felt more aware of the style of questions I was going to get and what responses they expected. The resource I found the most helpful was a video by Trinity College on Youtube of a mock engineering interview. This really helped me feel more prepared as the Engineering interviews are pretty similar across colleges, so I went into my interview knowing what to expect. And one of my interview questions ended up being very similar to a question in the mock interview video!

Some things I didn't do but would recommend would be to reread your personal statement carefully, as I had some questions based on things I had mentioned that I could have been more prepared for, and to practice your graph drawing skills.

I only prepared with ENGAA past papers and one or two NSAA papers, focusing on the physics questions

The interviewers don't really care about what you know already, they're far more interested in your thought process and mathematical reasoning. So don't worry about knowing facts or having more knowledge in physics and maths than what you've been taught. Instead, during your preparation focus on problem solving and graph drawing.

In the interview, the most important thing is to think out loud. Try and work things out verbally or through sketching or writing down, as this is what the interviewer is interested in. And, when you get stuck, don't be scared to admit that. Tell the interviewer why you're stuck and what you need to get unstuck, and they'll probably give you a clue or ask you a question to get you back on track. Engineering interviews are very much focused on your problem-solving. You're not going to be asked much, if anything, about your personal statement. I don't even remember being asked why I wanted to do Engineering. They don't really care about you and your interests, they just want to see how your brain works!