Engineering @ Pembroke, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x interviews (20-30 mins, 2 interviewers each)

Interview content

Maths / physics questions; mix of long and short questions

Best preparation

Mock interviews and iwanttostudyengineering.org was useful

Final thoughts

Preparing my Cambridge application actuallyed helped with A-Levels

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

I got to the college and went to the JCR where there were some current students. I had two interviews, each half an hour long and each with one interviewer. Both were technical and we did maths/physics questions. After the first I had lunch then I had a short quiz before my second interview, where we quickly went through the quiz then started a new question.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

It was mostly maths, there was some stats, mechanics, graph sketching, some simple calculus. The main physics was about fields. Both interviews were mainly one long question which we sort of worked through in stages, then there were some shorter questions at the end. The quiz was lots of short questions that I think were sort of first year a level maths level.

How did you prepare?

I arranged 3 practice interviews at school for pure maths, mechanics and physics and my teachers gave me questions and asked me to talk through them. I also used the "I want to study engineering" website and tried every question of that. I also made sure I revised A level maths and physics.

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

If you like the uni and the course please apply, the application will really help in your a levels. I found it so much easier to revise because I had gone over a lot of content already.