Natural Sciences (Physical) @ St John's, Cambridge in 2019

Interview format

NSAA; 3x interviews.

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement; Interview 2: problem solving; Interview 3: problem solving.

Test preparation

Used YouTube videos.

Final thoughts

Watch videos from the 'Science with Soph' YouTube channel

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: 3
Time between interviews: 1 hour
Length of interviews: 20 mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The first interview was more general; about me and my personal statement.

The second was about chemistry problems followed by physics.

The third was about physics problems followed by materials. 

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I watched this YouTube video about the NSAA: https://youtu.be/d0bU0M31Rl0

What advice would you give to future applicants?

I would recommend watching the following videos about Cambridge applications from the 'Science with Soph' YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/Dlm3ajtMQSk https://youtu.be/341IhFEC5vI https://youtu.be/CyOYXkQnlr8 https://youtu.be/OmA4najpKeA