Medicine @ Downing, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

Biomedical Admissions Test; 2x Interviews.

Interview content

Questions relating to anatomy, physiology, physics, and clinical medicine.

Best preparation

Do practice interviews, and focus on topics which you're least familiar with.

Test preparation

Do practice questions under timed conditions.

Final thoughts

Don't be scared to tell your interviewers if you haven't covered something at A-level!

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: 20 minutes
Length of interviews: 40 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked questions relating to anatomy, physiology, physics, and clinical medicine. Each topic I discussed in some way linked to some part of the course I'd learned in A-level. The hard bit was applying A-level knowledge to the specific question.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I had practice interviews in school, its best to practice talking about topics you don't know because interviewers will always press you to a topic you know little about to see how well you can learn and absorb new knowledge.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Mostly practice papers and revision books especially for the BMAT, practicing under timed conditions was the most useful.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

If they ask you something in your interview that is clearly not related to something you've studied or you haven't yet studied, tell your interviewers. They aren't there to catch you out - they are there to see how well you can learn and build on what you have previously learned at A-Level.