One interview with two fellows. Non-calculator maths/ physics test.
Discussed structures and circuits questions. Easy maths but needed help from interviewers. The test was more important than the interview. The test has some pretty simple A-Level questions (just use a standard formula) alongside some approximations questions.
I-want-to-study-engineering.org . Mock interview with physics teacher and A-Level maths / physics revision over Christmas.
It’s difficult to know how your interview went. There are two types of engineering questions: the ‘right answer’ maths ones and the open ended approximations.
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.
My interview was in early January (winter pool). A student greeted me at the porter’s lodge and took me to wait in the
Later in the day, a student rep took me to take the
In the interview, we discussed some pretty tricky questions about structures and circuits. Although the maths wasn’t too complicated, conceptually it was challenging. At the time half of what I said was just guesses.
The test had a wide variety of physics and maths questions. Some took a few minutes to answer and others I ran out of time for (I forgot the equation E=Mc2 !). There were also some mechanics and statistics questions. The questions were a mix of A-Level style questions and more open ended approximations – for example estimating how many of a certain type of object exist on Earth.
Probably the first interview (before being pooled) but that wouldn’t apply to most people…. In terms of resources, for the first interview I used a website called i-want-to-study-engineering.org. My school organised a
It’s really hard to tell how your interview went so don’t overthink it during the interview or afterwards. Plenty of people I know thought they had a bad interview because they didn’t know the questions. In reality it was because their interviewers thought they promising so wanted to stretch them with hard questions. My impression is there are two types of questions in engineering interview: the fixed answer maths questions and the open-ended approximations. A-levels are good prep for the first type. I think to get good at the second type you just need to be comfortable making approximations about random things you see in real life (e.g. what is the volume of that building?).