Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA), 2x interviews
Both interviews: questions, talking through problems
Practicing talking about science problems
Practice papers, Youtube videos
Don't be afraid to talk, to ask for clarification, or to say something is interesting
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.
Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: A day
Length of interviews: 30-40 minutes
Online interview: Yes
My interviews were almost entirely question-based. I thought the interviewers were friendly, the interview almost played out as a conservation (just with me talking a lot more than them) but they would have input on what I was doing and I could ask them questions and clarification. I felt quite comfortable talking through my thought process as I had practiced talking out loud while solving things before, I did definitely feel more comfortable 5 minutes into the interview when my
I read a lot of current science in the news so if something came up I could mention it as a link. I prepared some simple answers to: why do you want to study here? Why Natural Sciences? They didn’t all end up coming up but it helped me feel prepared.
Most importantly I think, I got more comfortable talking about science problems. For instance, thinking out loud - what do you think is important in the question? How do you plan on tackling it? Draw a diagram! And don’t worry if you change your mind halfway through an answer and go - actually after thinking about it maybe this …. is a better way to answer this question.
Lots and lots of practice papers! All from the Cambridge website. There are also videos on YouTube going through some of the papers. I decided which sections I wanted to answer pretty early in my preparation and then just practiced those.
The interviewers are trying to gauge how you think, so after taking a beat to think about the question, talk! Feel comfortable to ask them for clarification and if you think something is interesting - maybe tell them that! It can be daunting to meet and talk to new people who are university academics and are interviewing you but try to get into the question and get more comfortable as the interview goes on.