Sixth Term Examination Paper; 2x interviews
Interview 1: pure math questions, some mechanics; Interview 2: pure math questions, some statistics.
Talk through UKMT Kangaroo and BMO questions out loud; remember basic formulae.
Listen to your interviewers and pick up on their ideas; don't panic about mistakes.
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.
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No
I got asked a few maths questions which we then briefly discussed and I solved, talking my way through, explaining my thought process as I wrote everything down. There weren't any huge tricks, just some nice results I derived. It differs by college, but I had one interview that was pure and some mechanics, and another which was pure with some more stats-y themes. Neither had any hugely tricky content in, so make sure you're absolutely solid on the basics of things, like mechanics and probability.
Get used to talking through maths problems out loud: go through old UKMT (United Kingdom Mathematics Trust) Kangaroo papers or maybe some easier BMO (British Mathematical Olympiad) questions and try to do them on the spot, explaining to a teacher or friend as you go.
Don't worry too much about your personal statement unless you say anything especially outlandish in it. You're applying for maths, they'll give you some maths questions. Just make sure you're absolutely solid with any formulae you would usually get given - I forgot a physics formula in my interview and it didn't feel good!
Start early- there's a STEP support program to work through from the start of Year 12, and most past STEP 1 questions use only the normal A-Level Maths syllabus. If you don't do stats or mechanic in Further Maths, consider teaching yourself- there isn't much content to these sections on the STEP specification and the questions can be the easiest on the paper. STEP is hard but by no means impossible. The longer you have to get used to the format, the easier it gets
The interviewers want you to do well. If you make a mistake or forget something it's ok, they want someone they can teach. Listen to everything they say while you're doing a question, try and pick up on any ideas they mention. And don't panic. It'll be over sooner than you think.