Maths @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

STEP; 1x interviews

Interview content

Interview: Discussion of answers to a previously-taken test

Best preparation

Practice papers; practice working through math problems out loud

Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Focus on applying mathematical knowledge, not just the solutions!

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

Skype interview: no

Time between interviews: N/A

Length of interview: 45 minutes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I had an hour-long test before the interview, and carried my answers through to the interview. The interviewers were really welcoming and had a brief look through my test to see which questions I had answered. We then picked a question to start looking at, and I talked them through my method and what I had written.

For the very first question, I was uncertain about what was going on and what exactly would be asked, so I described the question in detail as they had missed the rest of my solution and thought I hadn't reached it. Once they realised, they made it clear that they were happy with my working and moved on.

We continued to cover the questions I had answered, making my solutions more rigorous and inspecting areas of a graph I had sketched in more detail.

Then we moved onto questions I hadn't managed to solve and reached solutions for them. The interviewers were very helpful in giving hints on how to continue, and allowed me time to think it through and reach the answer without simply being told the answer. We didn't discuss anything outside those questions.

How did you prepare?

For the STEP, I used STEP support modules online to build a basic understanding of the content. Then I did lots and lots of practice questions from the papers from the last ten years. I asked other students and teachers to help me whenever I got stuck.

For the interview, although I had practice interviews with my maths teacher, I found they weren't the most helpful as the style was rather different, and describing solutions to him was a different experience to talking to strangers.

What I found was the best preparation was finding practice questions and working through them out loud, as this best matched what the interview was like. I talked my mother through the questions, although I think even a teddy would work(!).

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I think I understand now that the interviewers want to see you be able to apply your mathematical knowledge to the questions and your thinking, rather than you being able to answer every question. The method you use is a lot more important than simply having a solution, as that was what we focused on.