Psychological And Behavioural Sciences @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2017

Interview format

1 x 30 minute interview. Interviewed in Hong Kong not Cambridge.

Interview content

Interview like a conversation and dominated by biological topics.

Best preparation

2 practice interviews in school. School helped to fill out application paperwork. Specimen paper for pre-admissions exam.

Final thoughts

Think about the interview as a valuable experience rather than a test. It is unlikely you will know all the answers.

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

My interview was in early January in Hong Kong, I didn't fly over to Cambridge for the interview but instead I had mines back home. I only had 1 Interview, which lasted about 30 minutes, and there were 2 interviewers who were not psychology professors.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Very biological science based so we talked about hormones and conditional reflexes (Pavlov study etc.), it was more like a conversation. There was also a logic question which involves Simpson's paradox. Finally, the interview ended by one of the interviewers asking me about how did theatre arts helped me as a psychologist, since I was studying theatre arts as one of my higher level subjects in IBDP.

How did you prepare?

I talked with a current student in cambridge (3rd year), which was someone from my school about the workload, but it wasn't really interview related, but more just to know what Cambridge is about. I had 2 mock interviews back in school, conducted by my principals, one of which went to Oxford for his masters. I had quite a lot of support throughout the application process, in terms of CV writing and filling out all the forms. I also did the specimen paper for the pre-admission exam, but I felt that the actual test was much more difficult than the specimen paper.

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

It is really important to just think the interview as a valuable experience instead of thinking that you should know the answers to all the questions they've asked you. It is unlikely that you will know the answer, and they know that. I think it is also important to show that you are really passionate about your subject, and that really saved me since I didn't do very well on my admission test.