Engineering @ Selwyn, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA); 3x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: general interview, personal statement; Interview 2: graph sketching; Interview 3: problem questions

Best preparation

Tried to get into the 'supervision' mindset

Test preparation

Practised timed questions

Final thoughts

Ask questions if you need to

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: Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA)
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 25 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

General interview: personal statement, my interests in the subject, time management and other questions.

Subject interviews: sketching graph, interviewer guiding through unfamiliar problem from A Level. The interviewers were really nice and I started off nervous but was actually looking forward to my last interview.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I made sure I knew everything in my personal statement and was prepared to expand on it. I read some recent articles in science, specifically relating to my EPQ. I practised sketching unknown functions with clear methods. I made sure I knew all the topics on the A Level syllabus, and also practise questions from STEP and other interview questions. I tried to get comfortable with the 'supervision' way of teaching (asking things, thinking out loud, making comments on method and answers, seeming genuinely interested in the subject). The teaching is more of a slightly informal explanation/conversation compared to a classroom.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I went over all the maths/physics content of my A Levels. I practised papers (timed and then went over questions).

What advice would you give to future applicants?

If you are applying for a subject then you must be interested in it; show this as much as possible (in a natural way of course) If you have any questions about what they say to understand it better, ask. You will very likely make mistakes, the interviewers know you are nervous. If you realise you've made a mistake, just say sorry, correct it, and move on.