Maths @ Trinity, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP); 1x interview

Interview content

Interview 1: discussion of pre-interview test

Best preparation

Sample interview tests from the Trinity website

Test preparation

Practising questions to time

Final thoughts

Don't worry if you can't solve every problem straight away, that is not expected

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: 1 hour
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I had two interviewers who both actively participated in the discussion with me. We discussed my answers to the questions in the pre-interview test. Correct answers were pretty much ignored, they just said that it was right and then moved on. We then focused on the questions where I got stuck, they gave me hints to allow me to keep going and get to an answer. For one question I did it a slow, difficult way and got stuck halfway through; they helped me finish my solution, then prompted me to think of a nicer way to solve the problem. Where I made outright mistakes they just challenged me on it and helped me realise where I'd gone wrong. Once we'd gone through all the questions that I'd attempted on the test, we looked at some of the ones I thought looked interesting but I hadn't tried. There was no mention of anything from my personal statement and no non-maths questions such as why did I apply to Maths/Trinity. The interviewers were basically trying to help me get to the answer and seeing how quickly I picked up on the hints they were giving, They are not trying to catch you out, quite the opposite.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Had brief preparation with a teacher where I just talked through my thought process on problems I hadn't seen before. The most important thing I found was just being able to talk about everything you are thinking/doing so practising this was very helpful. Also look at the sample interview tests the Trinity website and have a go at some of the problems to get the style of the questions they will ask. It may be helpful to go through one of these papers (or a couple of problems) with a teacher is this is possible and just practise talking through your thought process

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Advanced Problems in Mathematics book by Steven Siklos to start preparation. Then lots of practice papers from the STEP online database getting closer to the exams, first just trying questions with no time limit, then trying to do timed questions (not a limit, just seeing how long they took), then trying to do full papers in 3hrs.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Don't panic if you don't know how to do something or you get something wrong, just admit you're not sure what to do next and they'll help you form an idea of what might work. Just sitting there in silence is the worst thing you can do. I'd advise, just say everything you are thinking so that they understand your thought process. Don't be worried if you can't solve every problem straight away, this is what they want - they want to be able to teach you. Also don't try to cram formulas or anything before the interview, they don't expect you to have memorised a formula book, you can just say you can't remember the formula and they'll help you.