Engineering @ Clare, Cambridge in 2014

Interview format

2 interviews, one technical, one general.

Interview content

A-Level electronics, graph drawing, momentum

Best preparation

Physics Olympiad for more difficult questions

Final thoughts

No.

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

Overall, I had two interviews; a technical one then a more general one. Before the technical one I had an hour in the library to go through a few physics questions, which, while not simple, were much the same as an a level question. This formed the basis of the first interview. The idea wasn't to do every question perfectly at first, and then to go over them in the interview.

The second interview started with a brief talk through of the interesting things in my personal statement (probably to check I hadn't made any of it up!). It then went onto a few more logic based physics/engineering questions, which were posed so the interviewer could see you think through a problem.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

For the technical interview, there was a bit of A level physics electronics and some graph drawing, from what I remember.

For the general interview, we discussed past engineering experience from the personal statement. We then went onto questions that delved into the basics of momentum and impulse, and then one requiring a bit of 3D visualisation.

How did you prepare?

Physics Olympiad was great practice to get me thinking about questions I wasn't be able to answer straight away, but give you a go at thinking of the vast way to start thinking about them.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

No.