Engineering @ Pembroke, Cambridge in 2021

Interview content

Questions based on personal statement; Maths and physics questions

Best preparation

Reviewed personal statement; Completed practice questions; Practiced problem-solving and communication

Test preparation

Practiced with past papers

Final thoughts

See the interviewer as someone there to help, not an adversary!

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: 1
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was a bit nervous at first, but the interviewer was very nice and I quickly relaxed. I heard that sometimes the interviewer will start with relaxing questions like "Is your school a mixed school" just to get you chatting and relaxed if they notice you are too nervous. Because I relaxed relatively quickly, we started on the content.

My interviewer first asked me a question about a project I did that I wrote on my PS [personal statement], and then gave me maths and physics questions to do. These questions are typically of the difficulty that you could do it on your own but it would take some time and effort. However, the interviewers are very nice, and they are there to GUIDE you and HELP you rather than trip you up. With his help, I got through the questions relatively quickly.

There were some times when I got stuck, but with his guidance I quickly got back on track and solved the problems.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I reviewed my PS and made sure I remembered details about everything I mentioned in there. Then I did more practice questions and also tried to explain how to do questions to my friends.

Engineering interviews are about problem-solving and communication (about your thought process and your ideas) techniques, so make sure to practice those.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practiced using past papers from the ENGAA and also IB (A-level equivalent course that I took) past papers

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Don't see the interviewer as an adversary, but rather as someone to help you succeed! And try to relax (even though I know it's not easy)!