My interview was in early December. When I arrived at Clare, I entered the porters lodge, told them the staircase/room number of my interview and they kindly pointed the way. Upon arrival at my first interview, there where no other students about so I waited. Then the door open and I was invited in. Consisted of 2 interviewers. Completed that interview. I had the opportunity to go into a common room for the other applicants but I decided I wanted to stay focused and walked around the college a bit first. Then I returned to the same place as my first interview for my second, this time there was other students waiting - so we had a chat. Then I was invited into my second interview with 2 interviewers, very similar to the first. Finally, I walked around the college a little more and went home.

1st interview: I was quizzed on my personal statement and books I had read. I was asked to defend opinons I had written (some which I defended throughly, some which I admitted were rather weak). We also discussed how to conduct research such as designing psychological experiments.

2nd interview: The interview consisted of looking at various graphs and interpreting them, looking at various animals’ brains and comparing them, discussing the development of children.

I read as many books as I could from the PBS pre-reading list on the Cambridge website. I also ensured that I reminded myself of any content I covered on my personal statement. I also used https://sites.google.com/site/oxbridgeinterviewquestions/ to cover some sample interview questions. I attended an access event at Clare a few months before, in which they told me what they where looking for. My state school was also invited by a local private school to attend a further session in which interviews were further discussed.

I also done a mock interview. Although, the person who gave me my mock interview told me I had no passion, and no chance of receiving an offer - but he was very wrong!

Enjoy your interview as a discussion with one of the worlds top thinkers in your field. Whether you are successful (or not) the interview is an opportunity to grow and be challenged as an academic.