Engineering @ Emmanuel, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

Emmanuel: 2x interviews, 1x test (TSA); Pooled: 2x interviews.

Interview content

First interview - two technical questions plus personal statement. Second interview - questions about a prepared topic.

Best preparation

"iwtse.org"; learn how to answer questions on personal statement; good mock interviews

Final thoughts

Find a quiet place to sit rather than with others in the waiting room

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

Travelled down the night before. Provided accommodation and breakfast. Met other candidates and shown around college.

Groups were split into two. Some did TSA in the morning, some in the afternoon. One interview at 11am one at 1pm. We found somewhere else to go with two others - a little room by library where we sat and chatted. Much more chilled than main waiting room. Went into Town between interviews and got doughnuts.

It helped getting pooled: 2 interviews (both technical, one had two interviewers and one had three but silent)

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

First interview - two technical questions (effects of gravity and acceleration on real-life objects). I was also asked about manufacturing techniques, as I had written about a clamp design in my personal statement.

Second interview - questions about a prepared topic. They asked two difficult Electrical questions (ref two voltage sources, resistor and ground) which I couldn't get right. I was upset that Nuclear didn't come up. Questions about Angular Speed and Angular Velocity in relation to two attached masses in Space including drawing a graph with asymptote.

How did you prepare?

"iwtse.org" SOO good, quite a few of interview questions were on there: learn how to answer questions on personal statement; mock interviews but they were run by another school who invited back two guys (only a year older) to do the interviews. I couldn't take them seriously. I had one interview with a careers advisor who was like 'if I gave you a million pounds what would you spend it on?'

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

Do NOT spend too much time in "toxic" prep room