Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Gonville & Caius, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

NSAA; 1x interview

Interview content

Some maths and biology

Best preparation

NSAA past papers, review A level notes

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Try to relax, treat the interview like a supervision

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: NSAA

Number of interviews: 1

Skype interview: no

Time between interviews: N/A

Length of interviews: 30 minutes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

At the start of the interview I had to do some maths. I actually panicked at the maths questions because I didn't know how to find the equation of a simple sequence given, and took quite a long time to finally get the correct answer with some help from the interviewer. Then we moved on to biology questions, some related to what I wrote in my personal statement (because I mentioned I was interested in the study of disease). It was mainly a general discussion where the interviewer asked a question, and he helped me along the way as I spoke my thought process out loud. I did feel more confident with this as it was a more relaxed atmosphere of discussing the topic, with the interviewer either approving or providing suggestions on why my answer might not be right.

How did you prepare?

I did past papers to prepare for the NSAA. The best thing I did was sign up to do a mock interview with students already at Cambridge. I am an international student and students from my country have a society at Cambridge, so the seniors kindly helped us prepare for it. They told me that the interview was similar to what a supervision is like at Cambridge, so the interviewers just want to know if you are suited to that kind of learning. They told me to not keep quiet in the interview, and that I should let the interviewer know what I was thinking, so they could help me along the way to grasp a certain subject. I found this to be very sound advice and it helped me greatly at the interview. I also revised my A Level notes before the interview.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

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

I would suggest people applying for Biological Natural Sciences to not only revise your Biology, but if possible also Chemistry and Maths as it might be tested in interviews as well!