Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Jesus, Cambridge in 2022

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA), 2x interviews

Interview content

Questions on a graph, personal statement, reaction mechanisms, and endosymbiosis

Best preparation

Ilya Cambridge videos and speaking through thinking for A-level exam questions

Test preparation

Practice papers

Final thoughts

Talk through exam questions to yourself

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: About 2 hours
Length of interviews: 30 mins
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

There were questions on a graph and ways to linearise it. I was also asked about my personal statement, reaction mechanism and questions about endosymbiosis. 

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Watched Ilya Cambridge on YouTube, and spoke through my thinking for A-level exam questions to myself. 

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Practice papers

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Talk through exam questions to yourself, practice for the NSAA with 2-3 months to go and do a lot of super-curriculars in Year 12.