Test taken: Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

For my first interview, there were no general questions. When I joined the room, there was a brief introduction then I was given a 2 page question sheet. Throughout the interview, I thought out loud and walked them through my thought process. A strong background in mechanics helped a lot and I managed to go through most of it without much issue. However, I did make one small but critical mistake. They did not immediately point it out and let me continue on for a bit more and then they pointed it out to me and explained why it was wrong. After finishing the question sheet, I was given another question. The most notable thing from the second question would be that he asked me to approximate a few things throughout my calculations. Overall, the interviewers were professional and helpful.

For my second interview, I was first asked to sketch a graph (it was something unfamiliar) but with an occasional nudge in the right direction from the interviewer I was able to sketch it correctly. Covering similar types of graphs in further maths helped me a lot here and having a generally strong grasp on the maths syllabus helped a lot as well. Next, I was asked to solve a 1 page question sheet. I actually had to apply a technique I learnt from Iwanttostudyengineering in one of the questions on the sheet so that goes to show how practice outside of syllabus can help. I did make one mistake involving dimensions but I figured it out after she gave me a hint. For the last few minutes or so, I was asked to ‘talk about something or ask us something’. By this point, I was feeling quite comfortable in the interview so I chose to talk about why I wanted to study engineering (one of the questions I had prepared for) During both interviews, I did not feel very stressed or nervous which helped me to think properly. The hardest part of the interviews was the start because you haven’t adjusted yet so if you can get off to a strong start, that would be good. I have to admit though—I was a bit intimidated by my first interviewer which led to me not showing as much enthusiasm as I usually would.

Using the Iwanttostudyengineering website, I managed to expose myself to a wide variety of unusual and ‘out of the box’ questions which helped me train my critical thinking ability. I also typed up a bunch of potential questions based on my personal statement and rehearsed answers to those questions while taking extra care to convey my enthusiasm properly. Most importantly, I signed up to many programmes that offered mock interviews and requested for more from teachers in my school. Mock interviews conducted by people who had a background in engineering or a similar subject helpful immensely and the feedback was invaluable. Additionally, it helps you to train interview technique like eye contact, expressing yourself properly and thinking under pressure. Lastly, I attended online webinars on what interviewers are looking for and researched on dos and donts in an interview. In addition to that, I reached out to former Cambridge applicants for their interview experience to get an idea of what I had to prepare for.

Revising my maths and physics syllabus was really important to cope with the content of the paper but personally, the most important part was attempting ENGAA past years (timed). As a person who had never done a very time constrained yet content heavy paper like ENGAA before, coming up with dos and donts (by experimenting with the past years) helped a lot when it came to the actual thing. I also did a few “mental maths” exercises as a calculator is not allowed in the exam.

A strong grasp on the English language is very very important. Being able to communicate your thoughts and express yourself fluently is a much needed skill. I was raised in an English-speaking family so I didn’t have much trouble with this stuff. However for those who are not yet fluent, regular speaking practice is quite important. I know it’s overstated but try your very best to not be stressed or nervous.

Next, always try to be enthusiastic regardless of scenario, more so for an intimidating interviewer. This will show them how passionate you are about your subject, even in such a pressuring situation.