My interviews were in early November (before BMAT results were even published). We were taken by students to a waiting room which had a kind and friendly atmosphere (although of course lots of nerves!) From the room we were taken in turn to 3 interviews, 2 academic with two interviewers and 1 personal interview with the admissions tutor.

The personal interview addressed the personal statement in detail, expanding on points mentioned and the two academic focused largely on data interpretation from graphs and figures, as well as a few ethical questions.

The first academic interview was quite intense with fast paced questions that required a lot of thought but with accessible answers from ethical scenarios that medical applicants should be familiar with. Occasionally a reference to the more scientific aspects of the personal statement were made. This felt like the Cambridge interview I expected from the intense and quite scary horror stories that you read online and I came out feeling quite intimidated but glad I’d attempted to answer most of the questions.

The personal interview was a very different feel with the admissions tutor being so lovely and welcoming and giving the impression that she was truly interested in learning about your life. We went through aspects of my personal statement and it felt like a very comfortable chat.

The final academic interview was very centred around taking familiar A-level knowledge and applying it to medical conditions. Was important to think aloud and talk the interviewer through your logic. A good way to test your knowledge and quite satisfying to come to some sort of conclusion. There was a nice feel to the interview.

I spoke to a current student in the year above me which provided mostly reassurance that it’s doable and read traditional medical school questions online, particularly ethical scenarios. Was the same preparation as for other medical school interviews except made sure was up to date with the stuff we had covered from AS and the start of A2 at school. Had a few practise interviews at school which ended up being far more cryptic and scarier than the actual interviews so were good preparation.

The academic things were definitely based on A-level topics so don’t worry they’ll throw something at you that you’ve never heard of from the start (they might build to there but from my experience they lead you in nicely then build in difficulty).

Don’t ignore your personal statement as I was told Oxbridge would never mention it but it’s a submitted form so it’s fair game for them to discuss and my interviewers picked it apart quite ruthlessly (don’t lie on it!!)/

Try to relax and it was quite a good opportunity to talk to other candidates as a lot of my friends first met friends at interview, remember everyone is in the same boat!

Fake it till you make it with confidence, key things are to sit leaning slightly forward and MAKE EYE CONTACT, especially for Medicine this is good practice as they’re analysing your people skills as well as academic [Editor's Note: The interviewers are used to interviewing people who are quite nervous so don't worry if you are. They don't asses you on nerves or confidence.].