Test taken: College-specific pre-interview test
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 45 minutes
Online interview: No

I had a 1 hour pre-interview exam in a hall with 5 other students, and then I think I had a ten minute break before going to my interview. My exam was 10 questions long, and I was expected to try and complete around 3 of them.

There were two academics in the interview - during each question one would talk to me while the other took notes, alternating. To be honest, when I got in, the first thing they said (in a friendly manner) was - "So I see you've completed 3 questions. Well, 2 of them are wrong." (It was definitely a bit less brutal than that). So we went over the 2 that I'd got wrong, and it turned out I'd just made a couple of stupid mistakes at the end, so it was easy enough to fix. I'd also made quite a few attempts at some of the other questions which I would definitely suggest you do as well, it made the rest of the interview so much easier for me, so they then picked out 2 questions that they thought I'd been on the right track with, and helped me towards the right answer. This was really cool actually, because it ended up being very like the supervisions. Finally they let me pick a question that I would really like to know how to solve, and they gave me some gentle shoves in the right direction till we got to the end. They were both really lovely and supportive. They didn't mention my personal statement - I only got asked one personal question and it was literally just a question about my extra-curriculars to make me feel a bit more at ease at the end of the interview. Looking back on it, I'm pretty sure the reason I got an offer was because I was very engaged and enthusiastic when I was doing the questions with them. Even if you have an initial bump, like I did having only got one question right, it's important to not stress out, and have fun, because in the end these really high up academics are devoting 45 minutes of their lives to helping you with some cool maths problems, so really it's just going to be fun.

My college had some practice papers online, and I also did some UK Mathematics Trust challenge questions as practice. The best thing I did was find someone willing to give me a mock interview. I was so reluctant to go in direction that seemed difficult in my practice interview, and it ended up being the direction I should have gone in. So by my actual interview, I knew I had to just throw all caution to the wind, take risks, and dive headfirst into possible solutions.

The interviewers are looking for people who suit the Cambridge style of teaching, and the interview is very similar to a supervision - you've handed in work (the exam paper) and now you're going over it with them to see which bits you were unclear on. So you need to sell yourself as someone who is friendly, teachable, and eager to learn. For me, stream of consciousness worked really well - if that's not your preferred style, I would definitely spend some time talking through maths with someone, just so that you're used to explaining your thoughts to others. The main advice I would give is to just read a lot around the subject, go to maths talks if they host any free ones near you, etc. Have fun! At the time, it honestly felt like the most momentous experience of my life, and that can be a pretty wonderful feeling. I hope you also get to experience that.