Natural Sciences (Physical) @ Emmanuel, Cambridge in 2015

Interview format

Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA); 1x interview.

Interview content

Interview 1: academic discussion of a topic from the personal statement, subject specific questions

Best preparation

Use relevant A Level past papers

Final thoughts

Prepare for the interviews to be academically focused!

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: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) - both sections
Number of interviews: 1
Time between interviews: N/A
Length of interviews: 25-30 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

We started off discussing a small point of my personal statement (academically), building onto my first question (physics based), followed by a second question (chemistry based). Since we had spare time we did a quick math question to wrap up. I kind of relaxed into it once it started, and it very much felt quite friendly as opposed to most interviews I've had.

How did you prepare?

For the TSA, I read a book called "Think you can think" and did some A Level Thinking skills past papers.

My preparation was mainly via mock interviews organised by an external organisation in my country (MABECS). Failing that, the Malaysian society (CUMaS) holds mock interviews by current students. These really helped consolidate my thinking and vocalising my thoughts.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

Bear in mind that the Cambridge interview was exactly as I expected, no time is wasted on questions such as 'Why Cambridge?', 'Why should we pick you?' etc. It's a very academic interview!