Test taken: Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between interviews: Around 1-2 hours

Length of first interview: 20 minutes; Length of second interview: 20 minutes

Interview 1: I was greeted by two people. We discussed some social aspects of medicine, and they gave me a practical task involving bones. We also looked at at electron micrographs.

Interview 2: This was with two people again. They tested my maths and genetics knowledge, and some physics, too. The maths involved drawing a graph from an equation they gave. Both interviews were enjoyable for me, and I was surprisingly not nervous. Because I was fairly relaxed I could properly answer each question and explain my reasoning (likely very important in my admission). The interviewers sat close to me which could have been intimidating to some people.

I used practice papers from online and revised maths, physics, chemistry and biology from both A Level and GCSE textbooks.

Mock interviews are helpful to learn to discuss and form answers under pressure and timed conditions. I made sure to read over my personal statement on the off chance that they would ask me about it.

Keeping calm in the interview even though I didn't know all the answers gave me the ability to talk through my reasoning and working behind each question which not only helped me to get the answers they wanted but also to show how I was looking at the problems. I didn't think I could have done anymore preparation than I did, so I felt I was prepared to handle any questions that came my way.

The scientific nature of the interview was helpful for me because it was ultimately about knowledge and thinking, and not coming up with clever prepared responses to generic interview questions. I think the interviewers were trying to get a sense of my thought processes and to see how I would cope in a setting similar to the supervisions that make up the Cambridge course.