Maths @ Trinity, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP); 1x interview

Interview content

Interview 1: problem questions

Best preparation

Past papers

Final thoughts

Get used to solving problems in front of people

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

Test taken: Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP)
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked content questions only, nothing along the lines of why I wanted to study Maths/study in Cambridge. I think I had 3 or 4 questions, ranging from algebra to graphs to physics, but that depends on how fast you answer them, I suppose. I was quite nervous at first and made quite a few silly mistakes, but my interviewer was patient and pointed them out before I could waste too much time on them. My interview questions were significantly harder than those in one of Cambridge’s online “sample interview” videos, so brace yourself for that.. A few days after, I had to take a post-interview test which had an immense amount of time pressure. It wasn’t easy. The topics for this were quite varied; expect everything.

How did you prepare?

Past year papers (there are decades’ worth on the the STEP website)

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

Just relax. I would tell my younger self to get used to the idea of solving problems in front of people, so that I wouldn’t rush and make lots of mistakes, but that’s just me. I think preparing for STEP (eg. doing the past year papers) can help.The sample interview and test questions I found on the Cambridge website were quite significantly easier than those I received, so bear that in mind.