Natural Sciences (Biological) @ St Catharine's, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement, biology questions; Interview 2: biology questions, graph equations.

Best preparation

A Level revision; be familiar with your personal statement

Final thoughts

Think out loud and communicate with your interviewer.

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: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 5 minutes
Length of interviews: 30
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Both were biology-based, the latter involved some maths (graph equations). In one, I was asked about a journal I had mentioned in my personal statement. Rest were open-ended biology questions, questions where they do NOT expect any applicant to know the 'correct' answers.

Interviewers are looking for the thought process behind whatever answer you give, regardless of how incorrect they may be, scientifically.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Read notes from school (e.g. A level notes). Recall what you wrote in your personal statement.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Past papers, Reading ahead into A level course

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Converse with your interviewer and ask questions if you find yourself stuck. If you think in silence, the interviewers can't tell whether you've given up or not.