Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 2 hours
Length of interviews: 40 and 25 minutes
Online interview: No

The general style of the first interview was "relaxed" and conversational, although I have felt more relaxed in my life than at this point. This first interview was with a physics professor, and it began with questions about a certain topic in physics which progressed to addressing a topic that had been mentioned in my personal statement. Questions continued on this topic until I could no longer answer questions despite his prompts. I was then asked about other points in my personal statement, such as an extended essay I had written, and how I would manage the work set by the University.

The second interview began in a less light-hearted manner, in that a 25 minute timer was started on the interviewer's phone. I think this focused me into the interview more. There was also an observer present. The interview was exclusively on organic chemistry, likely due to the fact I had mentioned this as an area of interest to me. There were lots of specific questions. I felt more comfortable in this interview, as I felt that the interviewer's promptings were slightly more clear and I was often able to make the final connection to the answer.

I practiced by attempting NSAA specimen papers available from the course resources, and attending extension classes held by my school in which similar types of problems were attempted. Know your syllabus as you need to be confident enough on your syllabus material that an interviewer can use it as a foundation for further questions. Personally, I would write topics on small strips of paper, fold them and place them in a mug. Each morning and evening I would then pull out a strip and aim to speak for as long as I could on that topic. One of my questions from my first interview was to draw a quite complex graph - knowing how to approach a question like this is vital, as it is very daunting otherwise. I struggled with the final step of this, but as the interviewer could see my approach, he was able to give good prompts and help me answer the question.

If possible, arrange for a head of department or teacher to give you a mock interview. Also attending extension sessions is useful. I knew of people whose schools did not provide them, but they were able to visit another school to attend these sessions.

Know your own personal statement. From my own interview experience, many questions were themed along what I had spoken about in my personal statement. Had I not been confident in these topics, I would have struggled.