Test taken: Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Admissions Assessment (PBSAA)

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: no

Time between interviews: maybe an hour

Length of first interview: about 15 minutes; Length of second interview: about 15 minutes

My first interview involved a lot of discussion about my personal statement, and general topics in psychology.

In terms of personal statement questions, I'd revised all the topics I'd written about, but it was obvious that they were trying to ask me questions I wouldn't have thought about or been able to prepare for - for example, I'd mentioned a fictional book that inspired an interest in mental health, so they asked me about how the book presented certain mental health phenomenons that I hadn’t considered before the interview.

The general questions were very broad and involved the interviewers probing my answers to make them more discussion based. Honestly my first interview wasn't very relaxing at all, as they would second guess all my answers to try and put me on the spot, but that's just part of the process and it's important to prepare for it not to be an easy ride!

My second interview felt like more of a 'good cop' scenario as they were a lot more friendly! The questions here were quite different as they rarely seemed to relate directly to psychology - it began with discussing my motivation to apply to Cambridge, and then involved interpreting a graph and answering questions relating to philosophy and logic. This interview had a lot more of a friendly, optimistic atmosphere, so it can be hit or miss depending on your interviewer.

I timed myself doing all the available practice papers, for both the maths/science and the reading comprehension, even though I only had to do one in the actual exam. This helped me realise that my strength was definitely in reading comprehension, and I knew before I sat the exam to prepare more for that to improve my performance.

I also made some brief notes from some interesting psychology textbooks, and watched some introductory videos on other behavioural science topics like sociology and philosophy, so I had one or two interesting things to cram into the essay section of the exam.

The most useful thing I did when preparing for my interview was to get a journal and spend as much time as possible just filling it with relevant information. I wrote about the course, why it interested me, why I wanted to study at Cambridge, all the topics on my personal statement with more detail, and made notes from different textbooks and reading material on interesting topics and debates in psychology that could help with discussing and answering questions.

I was also massively fortunate in that my head of sixth form took me to another college to have a mock interview - this actually went terribly for me which was a huge reality check and helped me find areas where I needed to improve!

Unfortunately this isn't possible for everyone but I'd definitely recommend looking at it, as it wasn't something my own sixth form offered but I was still able to go elsewhere to have one. Maybe talk to a member of staff and see if they'd be willing to organise it, even if it's just led by a teacher - or otherwise just ask a friend to practice asking you challenging questions and putting you on the spot to think about different topics.

If I was to do anything differently, it'd be to pause and take a deep breath when I faced a question I didn't know the answer to, and always have a go at answering it!! Even if you miss the mark they're trying to assess how you think in the moment and if you don't answer they can't assess that at all.