Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 20 minutes
Length of interviews: c.25 minutes
Online interview: Yes

My first interview was biology and chemistry. The first half was biology and she put a diagram on the digital whiteboard, got me to explain what was going on and then moved on to more questions linked to the initial diagram but covering another area of biology. I hated this part of the interview as my interviewer was very cold and rude and did not encourage me at all. However, this is the opposite of how all the other interviewers treated me. The second interviewer was lovely and it was a general discussion about the possible structures of the formula of a chemical. I was explaining what I was doing and drawing things and then we had follow-up questions to do with this. She was lovely and settled me in after the rocky first half and I thought I did quite well.

The second interview was much better, first half chemistry and second half scientific maths. The interviewers introduced themselves more thoroughly so I felt more settled in and they were so encouraging (to the point where I could joke with them when I was confused as I forgot to write down a formula and needed it for the question). The chemistry question was a graph question and the maths one was a formula-related one (but I don’t really remember) - it had quite a lot of problem-solving from what I remember.

Altogether, I found that the first interview was rocky but the second one was much better (and although the content was harder) I was guided through it so it felt way more doable.

I did some extra reading about fungi in case I got asked about any readings I'd been doing (spoiler alert: I didn’t get asked). Then I used my personal statement to make sure I could answer any questions on it and made summary sheets of the books I had mentioned etc. (although they also did not ask for this).

My school kindly set up a biology interview with a teacher from another college and that helped me get into the swing of things. This was the most useful as I asked for feedback on where I was doing well and where I could improve. I also then set up a mock interview with my chemistry teacher and this time it was way more daunting as he put me on the spot and I got quite overwhelmed, but he helped me with strategies on how to keep calm and work methodically through it. My Vice Principal gave everyone having interviews some general advice and I would say that all the contributions from my teachers were the most helpful as I could take it all with me into the interviews and not panic. since my interview was online, and on Whereby/miro (not zoom), i spent time familarising myself with the technology so I would not panic about that. I also googled my interviewers so I could foresee what content they may want to ask me about (although this was helpful, it was not at the same time).

Past papers, using the specification to revise content and using BMAT papers as practice.

Make sure your personal statement is amazing so that it can provide a baseline evidence of how fabulous you are. Prepare for admissions tests but don’t overprepare and make sure you’re confident on all of your GCSE and A-level equivalent science knowledge. Be yourself in interviews and try to remain calm. Ask for help when needed and even if you’re not certain say something like “I’m not sure but if I were to hazard a guess…” because sometimes it’s the most peculiar answers that are correct or it could be a step in the right direction. Also, don’t over analyse your interview performance afterwards, put it to one side and focus on what’s next.