Maths @ Pembroke, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x interviews (30 mins each + 30 mins pre-interview questions for 1st interview)

Interview content

Measures of creativity; working with new concepts

Best preparation

Going through secondary school maths materials

Final thoughts

Don't worry if English isn't your first language

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

My interview was in December. I arrived in the late afternoon the day before my interview. First, a student greeted me at the porter’s lodge and took me to my room, and then I went to have dinner with the other interviewees. My first activity was a 30 mins interview-prep the next morning after breakfast. I was given 5 questions to solve alone in a office, and after the 30 mins, I had a 30 min interview with one of the college fellows when I had to explain my solution to the previous 5 question and she also helped me with the questions I couldn't finish. After we went through the questions we had some time left (she said it was unusual to finish so quickly) so she asked me a few questions about my interests I had written about in my application. There was another person in room during this second interview but I was told he wasn't allowed to ask me questions (I was told why he was there but didn't understand some words of the reason (I was nervous) so I don't remember) [Editor's Note: Often colleges use two interviewers to provide a more balanced assesment of an interview].

The notes I wrote during the interview prep were taken away, and I was warned that I should have written more legibly so others can later read my solutions more easily. A bit later I had a second interview with two fellows this time and no preparation. They just asked me short question until they found the topic that was my weakness and from then on they only asked me to solve problems on that topic.This interview took 30 mins as well. After that I had lunch and then went home.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In the first part, the questions were from various topics and they didn't need much initial knowledge of definitions, theorems, lemmas, etc, but measured creativity more. In the second part, the questions were shorter in the beginning, and as they found out I wasn't as quick to answer analysis questions as I was with other topics, they only asked me analysis questions. They roughly introduced me to a new concept (stability of solutions of differential equations) I didn't encounter in school before, and then I had to quickly understand it and also answer questions about that after solving differential equations.

How did you prepare?

I went through my secondary school mathematics material.

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

Don't worry about your English! I know this doesn't apply to everyone but I was really nervous about having to talk in English with native speakers but it was completely fine.