Biomedical Admissions Test; 3x Interviews.
Interview 1: "general" medicine interview; Interview 2: science-based interview; Interview 3: questions about an unseen text.
Stay up-to-date with medical research that interests you and practice Cambridge-style mock interviews.
Do practise papers and attend BMAT courses in your area.
Think out loud and ask questions! The interviewers want to see how you work through new information.
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.
Test taken:
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: 10-15 minutes
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: No
My first interview was a "general" medicine interview, where I was asked questions such as why I wanted to study medicine and why I wanted to attend Cambridge. I was also asked some questions about ethics and statistics, but this was very minimal.
My second interview was science-based, and I was asked to work through a couple of questions on a particular theme. Even if you are unsure about your answers, make sure to think out loud.
In my third interview I was given 10 minutes to read about a protein and an unseen experiment, and 10 further minutes to answer questions. Make sure that you understand any graphs you are given, but don’t neglect the accompanying text. A-level biology/maths knowledge about interpreting data will probably be useful (e.g. Chi test).
At St John's they give room numbers for interviews so I would highly recommend finding your interview rooms beforehand. Don’t be afraid to ask people walking around where things are, they will probably know the general direction at the least. There will probably be two interviewers in the interview, some of which may be teaching you next year in the same rooms you are interviewed in! The first two interviews were done on sofas and the final was over a table.
I stayed up-to-date with recent medical research that I was interested in and could confidently talk about. I also read books on doctor experience to gain a realistic view on the stresses of the job. I would recommend to practise Cambridge-style interviews, as this was something that I think helped me a lot. There are sites where you can get interviewed by current/past Oxbridge students. A-level knowledge is useful to be comfortable with, but interviewers may try to ask you questions about content that you haven’t learned about before so you can work through the solution, ask questions, and think out loud!
I did practise papers and also attended a
Think out loud and ask questions, the interviewers want to see how you work through new information. Even if you think you did really badly, it doesn’t mean you did. I was convinced after my interview I wasn’t getting in. There’s lots of coffee shops near-by that you can have a nice cake/coffee after the interview to de-stress.