Engineering Admissions Assessment; Sixth Term Examination Paper; 1x interview.
Discussion of the interviewee's area of interest in engineering, math and physics problems with prompts.
Reading around your areas of interest, preparing for math/physics problems via schoolwork and online resources.
Stay calm in the face of unfamiliar questions; voice out or write down your problem solving process.
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: 1
Length of interviews: About 30mins
Online interview: No
It actually went more or less the way I prepared for :) Note: mine was an international interview, so I think it was more condensed than UK interviews.
1st part: the interviewer asked me about one area of engineering that I liked. I said solar panels, and the interview went on to me talking about how it works (this took about 5-10mins).
2nd part: Math and physics questions. Basically the interviewer asked me questions on a piece of paper, and I had to work them out on the spot. Basically like an exam, but like the examiner is right beside you doing "live" marking. The questions will start out easy (like asking you to calculate resistance from voltage and current), then progressively become harder; but if you get stuck don't worry too much. The interviewer will prompt you when you are stuck/when you make mistakes.
I think they are looking out for how you think, and how you approach unfamiliar questions and not so much about the end goal (i.e whether you got the questions right without any prompts).
Expect graph drawings from the physics and math questions they ask too, but don't worry, the graphs aren't as difficult as those in Math interviews.
I mostly did 2 things:
1) Read up around my engineering areas of interest (I quite like solar panels, car engines, etc., so I googled more about them, found out how they work, the science behind them, and developments in these areas).
2) Prepared for math and physics questions, by first revising my school work, then searching "oxbridge engineering qns" online then trying them out on my own, and also watching Youtube videos on them. This part overlaps with my preparation for the engineering tests and
Past year papers, my own school notes, https://i-want-to-study-engineering.org/, issac physics
Dont panic and don't give up when you meet an unfamiliar question in the interview; stay calm and think of how you want to approach the questions.
It's important to just voice out what you are thinking (even if you dont know if that line of thinking will get you to the answer). You will probably have some observations/intuition regarding the problem (e.g "I think it may have to do with..."/"Let me just calculate ... first as it might be useful").
Just voice all of this out, and pen it down (if they give you paper). By doing so, you 1) Give yourself something to work with, such that you might see something that gives you the right approach 2) Buy time to think of the approach (lol) and 3) Allow the examiner to know how to guide you on the questions.