Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Jesus, Cambridge in 2021

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA), 2x interviews

Interview content

Discussion of book mentioned in personal statement, then biology and chemistry questions

Best preparation

Webinars, practice talking about personal statement, trying to stay calm

Test preparation

Timed practice papers

Final thoughts

Stay calm and don't expect to know everything

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: c.3 hours 
Length of interviews: 40-45 minutes
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

I was asked about a book I wrote about in my statement and I said what I found interesting about it. I was asked about some biology ideas and helped through the answers.

My first interview was alright I'd say. My second interview had more chemistry which I hadn't done in school yet. Plus there was a Year 7 French class shouting in the room next to me so I found it really hard to concentrate. I thought it must have gone terribly but I got in so don't worry too much.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I went to a bunch of webinar-type things though I'm not sure they were that helpful. I spoke to some teachers who helped even though their mock interview was completely different from the real thing. I made sure I actually knew the stuff I talked about in the personal statement (practiced little speeches in case they asked me about a particular part).

Went on lots of walks with friends to stay calm. Look up the people interviewing you, one of them asked me about his research topic and I had just looked into it!

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Lots of practice papers, figuring out how to time-manage in the exam, learning I didn't need to get full marks (for the NSAA most people who get into Cambridge get something like 50% so don't expect to be getting 90+%!)

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Stay calm. Try to keep interacting in the interview. Even if you don't know the right answer try to tell them what it reminds you of, etc so they can help you towards understanding. Don't expect to get 100% on the exam or to know everything in the interview: that's not how uni works and it's not how the interviews are.