Natural Sciences (Physical) @ Sidney Sussex, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

2x interviews

Interview content

Some personal statement & A level; physics & chemistry questions

Best preparation

Prep was quite natural - interested in science anyway!

Final thoughts

Good luck!

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

I was met by students and taken to the JCR. Waited there talking to other applicants until my interview time. Then I was taken to 2 interviews one after the other, 1 one on one and the other was me and two interviewers. Then I was free to go.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Some mention of my personal statement and then lots of academics questions drawn from that and A level subjects. They tried to make me do it all without any guidance but were there when I got stuck and pointed out errors I made along the way. Most of the questions were about circuits and chemical structures which seemed somewhat related to the exam set by Cambridge which I had sat earlier in the year.

How did you prepare?

Isaac physics website was very useful. Lots of reading about science that interested me. 2 practice interviews with friends' parents. Very little prep was specifically aimed towards Cambridge and more I just did things in my free time I liked in the subjects that interested me.

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

Good luck!