Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA); 2x interviews
Interview 1: maths and physics questions; Interview 2: personal statement, general interests
Watch documentaries and videos to develop interests
Used IsaacPhysics website
Consolidate your understanding of topics you have studied in preparation for interview questions on them
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: 2
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of interviews: 40 mins
Online interview: No
I was asked some maths and physics questions, more interesting than the typical A Level question but nothing that you cannot recognize from the syllabus. The interviewers know that you are stressed and they will give you some time to think before giving you hints or helping you. A good tip would be to think out loud as this helps the interviewer know what part wasn’t clear, and what was. All the questions I was asked were to check my understanding of topics such as equilibrium or electricity, rather then to see if I can remember definitions by heart.
There were also a few questions on my personal statement and general questions (like why this subject, why this university or what do you plan to do in the future). Its important to know what the course is about and why it is suited for you. You can find information on the course on the university website.
For Engineering we were asked to prepare a topic from a list that was sent to us, to discuss during one of the interviews. It was difficult to know to what level to prepare, but remember that this is outside of your curriculum and they don't expect you to be an expert. Pick a topic that interests you and watch documentaries and videos about it. Then as you get a broad understanding, you can go on Google Scholar and read articles and research papers on it. This might be more than was necessary but for me, it gave me the confidence I needed during the interview and created a very strong foundation on the topic. Also make sure to revise the related subjects, for me that was maths and physics (focusing on electricity and mechanics, but revising everything).
Past papers for the exam are available online and they are the most useful resourse. I bought a book full of practice questions on Amazon but I wouldnt recomend that as it was quite pricy and not as helpful as I hoped. You definately don’t need to spend money on external resources, especially as they are often not affiliated with the test. Isacc Physics is a great website where you can find physics and math questions. The ENGAA exam questions are similar to IGCSE and A Level exam questions for Maths and Physics so make sure you do some practice papers. For these papers, time management and fast calculation are key, so make sure to practice under a bit of pressure.
When you revise, never skip over something you don’t understand, even if its one sentence. Sometimes this can change your understanding of the whole concept or how it can be applied. You don’t have to learn anything by heart as the interviewers are trying to see how much you understand rather than how much you can memorize. More likely than not, they will try to make you think outside of the box, and the only way to follow is to think about how the questions are similar/different to the ones you did before, and how this can affect the answer.