Natural Sciences (Physical) @ Magdalene, Cambridge in 2018

Interview format

2x interviews; 1x test

Interview content

Problem based

Best preparation

Make sure you're really comfortable with A level

Final thoughts

Try your best

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

First I had a test, which was actually really fun - you had the choice of lots of very stereotypically ‘Cambridgey’ questions, which were testing the way you thought and how you approached problems. I then had 2 interviews spread through the day, each with two interviewers, which were both mainly Maths based. In between I sat in the JCRwatching daytime TV!

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview had one graph sketching question, where the interviewer lead me through sketching the graph of a certain function, and then I had to derive a Physics formula, which I would later learn in A- Level. The second had one question based on series, and another on geometry, with the first then relating to Chemistry. It was hard to tell how they had gone at the time - they don’t really give anything away - but I felt like I did my best!

How did you prepare?

It was quite hard to prepare for them well, as they test you on new concepts to see how you respond to them instead of things you already know. Making sure you’re really comfortable with Maths you’ve done at A-Level is probably the best thing you can do!

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

Just try your best, and don’t worry about it! (Easier said than done...)