Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA); 1x interviews
Interview: discussion of test answers, subject-related problems
Revise your syllabus content, but go beyond
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Show the interviewers how you work through their questions
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: 1
Skype interview: no
Time between interviews: N/A
Length of interview: about 40 minutes
Half my interview was about chemistry and half was about biology. These were the two A Level subjects that I said I was most comfortable with. My personal statement was only brought up as an ice breaker and wasn't asked about in much detail.
Beforehand, everyone applying for Natural Sciences had to take an extra test, supplementary to the NSAA. I discussed my answers to that test with the interviewers, who then asked follow up questions which went up to the boundary of content given by A Level teachers.
They then asked questions that I had to answer with knowledge that was beyond the A Level content. The interviewers
Did the practice papers, revised all the A Level content that was covered so far.
The best thing I did was just looking up extra information as I was studying biology throughout my A Level. For example, when studying microscopy, I would look up fluorescence in microscopy, or how electron microscopes produce electrons, etc.
I used the Student Room forum for a lot of my information. My teachers also helped me to organise the NSAA test, as it has to be taken at a registered center.
The interviews are mainly looking for how you think and how you work through questions. It is normal to get to a question which you just cannot answer, they also like to test your limits of your knowledge.