Medicine @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

Biomedical Admissions Test, 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: Question about chemical reactions in the body; Interview 2: Question about a particular drug, Question about a common experiment

Best preparation

Revised A-level biology and chemistry content and looked ahead at future topics

Test preparation

Completed practice papers and past papers; revised physics content

Final thoughts

They don't want to see you get to the right answer, they want to see how you think- so speak out loud as much as possible

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: Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Interview 1: I was asked to draw a chemical equation that commonly happens within the body. I was then asked what might affect it in terms of various chemical processes that occur in the body.

Interview 2: I was asked questions about how a certain type of drug interacted with the body. I was then asked for various ways in which this would be affected. We then spoke about a common experiment and I was asked some questions to test my understanding about that. We then spoke about more personal stuff- sports etc etc.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Most important thing for me was learning in as much detail as possible all human biology from A level (even stuff that my school hadn't covered yet) and also feeling as confident as possible on all chemistry stuff. Make sure that you understand the basic science as much as possible.

Apart from that, I had a couple of extra things that I prepared. The one I remember now was how a PET CT works, with the chemicals used (have no idea about how this works now I've forgotten it all).

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I used practice papers from one of the big books. Additionally used an online set of notes which were found using google in order to reteach myself physics. Started reasonably early relearning physics and doing the general knowledge stuff. the essays I didn't prepare for that well, but I would just recommend practising from the past papers online- pick an essay that you're going to find more challenging in order to make it harder for yourself when practising.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Make sure you know all human biology even if you haven't covered it yet. Be really confident of this, and also chemistry. They don't want to see you get to the right answer, they want to see how you think- so speak out loud as much as possible, explaining your thought processes. Draw diagrams if possible- it shows them that you're thinking.