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

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment; 2x interviews.

Interview content

Interview 1: maths, graph work, calculus, personal statement; Interview 2: physics and chemistry questions.

Best preparation

Go over your personal statement and practice graph work.

Test preparation

Isaac physics and practice papers.

Final thoughts

Don't worry about getting things wrong but come in prepared!

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: 3 hours
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

In my first interview we did a physics practice question that wasn’t too hard, but they asked increasingly difficult questions about it. I had to do some maths including sketching a graph, differentiating, and integrating. It wasn’t too hard. I was also asked about my personal statement. Overall the interviewers were very friendly and it wasn’t too bad.

In my second interview I had to do a practice physics question which was really quite difficult, but the professor gave me a lot of help. He pointed me in the right direction; I’m not sure how much this helped though. I also had to do a hard chemistry question, but I think I did much better in this one (although I did need some help again). This interview was harder and the interviewers were more intimidating, but it still wasn’t a disaster.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I had mock interviews with teachers at school, though I don’t think these helped much. I went over my personal statement. I made sure I was confident in my subjects. I also practiced drawing graphs of unusual, but not too crazy, functions.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Using practice papers and Isaac physics questions

What advice would you give to future applicants?

My advice would be to do lots of practice NSAA papers and Isaac physics questions whenever you have spare time. Make sure you are confident with the content you’ve already done at college/sixth form. Practise speaking about your personal statement and interests so you don’t trip up during the interview. The important thing is to be engaged and make an intelligent attempt at solving the problems they ask, even if you get it wrong.