Maths @ Peterhouse, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP); 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: Olympiad-style questions; Interview 2: computational maths

Best preparation

Practice interviews

Test preparation

Past papers

Final thoughts

Use the 'art of problem solving' website

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: 2
Time between interviews: 15 minutes
Length of interviews: 30-45 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Before the first interview we had a test, then the first interview was about questions on the test. The test was a very much problem solving based, so Olympiad style maths.

Second interview was more like hard A Level Maths questions. Personal statement didn't come up at all, but one of the questions in my second interview was chosen becuase I said I was interested in computational maths. Both interviews were very relaxed and I found myself even laughing through the second one.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

A couple practice interviews with a teacher at school.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

A lot of past papers.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Try out some Olympiad maths, I did it for fun before my interview test then realised that the stuff I'd learnt in that month of doing it for fun was the only reason I could even attempt half the questions I did. I highly recommend the artofprobolemsolving website for getting questions and papers from around the world, but also recommend the "An olympiad primer/companion" book series by UKMT, they were extremely useful for learning techniques but also have lots of old questions and in depth solutions. Interviews are fun if you go in with the right mindset, and not getting in isn't the end of the world. If you're applying to Cambridge you should enjoy your subject, and the interviews are a good chance for you to showcase that enjoyment to your future supervisors.