Medicine @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2020

Interview format

Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT), UCAT; 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: problem-solving questions; Interview 2: using a diagram

Best preparation

Practised answering questions out loud

Test preparation

Past papers

Final thoughts

Try to contribute something to the discussion, rather than sitting in silence!

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), UCAT
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview was quite long-winded; I was given a question from each interviewer which could be attacked from multiple angles and was much more of a discussion. The second interview was much more fast-paced and consisted of a lot of short questions discussing a diagram.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I looked up previous questions that had been asked and considered what I’d say to them and how long I would be able to talk for. I think the most important thing would be practising speaking, alone or with someone else, to build confidence and avoid awkwardness.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practice papers, practice questions online, looking at YouTube videos for strategies.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Never be silent. Always try to venture something in the conversation, even if you’re not sure, they’re not expecting you to know the answer, but to be able to think critically and creatively. If you have no idea at all, back the conversation up to something you do know which is relevant, then try and build hypotheses off of that.