Veterinary Medicine @ Downing, Cambridge in 2022

Interview format

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA), 2x interviews

Interview content

Interview 1: general questions about motivation for study and career aspirations Interview 2: specific academic questions, including diagrams and graphs

Best preparation

Staying up to date on science news, going over personal statement, reflecting on work experience

Test preparation

Practice questions

Final thoughts

Think out loud, use your A-level knowledge, and don't be afraid to ask for clarification

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

Test taken: Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 3 days
Length of interviews: 20-30 mins 
Online interview: Yes

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

For my first interview, the questions were very general - I wasn't asked any specific scientific questions, they were more about why I wanted to study certain things and how well I understood the career that I wanted to go into.

The second interview had very specific questions. I was shown diagrams and graphs and had to talk through them.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

Before interviews, I spoke to a current student for advice as well as students at other unis studying the same course. I found reading the news in my subject helpful as this kept me up to date with the current advancements in my subject - this proved to be very helpful so I would recommend doing that.

I also made sure I knew my personal statement very well just in case they drew upon this in the interviews (which in my case, they didn't). I would also say that reflecting on any work experience was helpful as although I wasn't explicitly asked about work experience, some of the questions that came up I had learnt about on my work experience placements.

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

I used practice books with practice questions in as well as the past papers on the university website. My school also ran a few help sessions to get me started on the preparation for the NSAA.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

I would say that thinking out loud is very important. The interviewers may pick up on small things you say that take you down a different avenue where you can talk about more things that you are interested. Pause after a question you may not understand or ask them to rephrase it as there is no point trying to answer a question you have only half heard or not understood. Use your A-level knowledge as the questions will never be too far away from something which you have learnt at school.