Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 2.5 hours
Length of interviews: 20-30 minutes
Online interview: No

The interviews were both in person. Both were conducted by two academics, both of whom were really friendly. They smiled a lot and were very reassuring when I was nervous. However, the time flies and one feels less nervous as time goes on.

The first interview was based on maths and organismal biology. I had a few graph-based questions and some long answer open-ended questions in the organismal biology section. The maths section consisted of graph sketching and a statistics question, which I could not solve. I personally found the maths harder than the biology.

The second interview had a genetics question, a discussion based question on nucleic acids and maths-based chemistry questions. I could not answer a lot of the questions about nucleic acids so found that writing things down helped a lot, as well as thinking about clues given in previous questions as I had no knowledge base for this topic at all. It is important to know how to get to the interview room and back to a social hub/ porter’s lodge/ other waiting area before the interview. At Girton, students took me to the interview room. However, I got lost coming back after my second interview. Luckily it did not happen after the first interview! The waiting room had many candidates for other subjects and current students as well. It was an ideal opportunity to talk to current students for reassurance or even general interview tips and to get a feel for what life is like at Cambridge if the interview goes well. Talking to other candidates is very reassuring as everyone is nervous. However, we were not allowed to discuss interview questions with other candidates.

As I had revised A Level content before the NSAA, I did not do so again. Instead, I did a lot of wider reading before interviews, mainly for biology. I also tried doing past Olympiad questions to prepare for chemistry. These can be found online. I also reviewed all of the texts and lectures I had included in my personal statement, as well as work experience notes. I did so in November and the first week of December. A few days before my interview, I had 2 mock interviews. One was on my personal statement and another was a subject specific biology interview. These were both very useful. The biology interview had questions with graphs and other problem-based questions. The other interview had broader questions. In the first week of December, I also collaborated with a friend to study for interviews. Both of us would make up questions and ask each other. We would later combine our thoughts. This was also especially useful. We tried to ask questions based on things that the other had not learned before. We based these questions on Oxford past interview questions that can be found online. I also spoke to a few current students I knew for extra tips on how to answer. One really useful thing I was told is that I should say anything I do know already that can be useful when answering a new problem even if I am not sure how this information relates to the problem. I personally found that writing things down and making a list of such things helped. With a written list, it is sometimes easier to relate information to a problem. Another tip was to answer simple questions as logically as possible rather than just saying the answer. I also tried to relate information learned through wider reading and co-curricular activities to the interview questions asked in the real interview where possible. However, I only did so if this was highly relevant and I could think of something easily. If not, I did not place great emphasis on this.

In late August, I revised the Year 12 A Level syllabus for biology and chemistry. I also read around A Level biology and chemistry topics not covered in school until after the NSAA very briefly. However, this was not my main focus. I also did some BMAT papers untimed to get used to the questions. I made my revision focussed by checking questions I was doing against the NSAA syllabus to ensure that I was only doing relevant questions. In September, I did no NSAA preparation. I only made corrections to my personal statement. I also revised GCSE material I would need to revisit. I ensured that I could compare my revision to the NSAA syllabus at all times. In October, I stopped revising content needed to answer exam questions. Instead, I did lots of papers. I finished BMAT papers I had not done previously. I also did some times IMAT papers, which are harder than NSAA papers. I also did some other past papers from other entrance exams that were similar in style to the NSAA. Finally, in the last few days of revision, I did timed NSAA papers. Past papers can be found on the Cambridge website.

My advice is to think ahead and plan interviews and NSAA revision early. Planning and starting early is so important to avoid a last minute rush. Also read around the subject a lot; it really helps. If you're doing an EPQ, perhaps start writing it earlier to allow for revision time in Year 13.