3 x 30/45 min interviews over 2 days
Articulating thought process and working through the question together
Look over personal statement and A-level content, and talk with chemistry teacher
Say everything you're thinking that's relevant to the question
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.
Test taken: None
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: I had one in the morning, a second one in the afternoon and then my third interview was the next day at a different college
Length of interviews: 30-45mins
Online interview: No
My first interview was on biophysics/maths. I found this really intimidating at first as I hadn't done physics at A level. I was presented with a graph that I'd never seen before and together the interviewer and I discussed what the graph might show and how the result can be used in biochemsitry. It was just a chat. The interviewer (now my tutor) didn't expect me to know the answer straight away, what was important was seeing my thought process and working through the question together to demonstrate that I can solve problems. My second interview was similar, it focused more on the molecular biology stuff but also had some maths questions thrown in. For the third interview I was given a passage of text to read which we then discussed in the interview, and I was also asked about my personal statement a little bit- they wanted to know what I thought about a book I had written. All of my interviews just felt like a conversation, similar to the one I had with my teacher at sixth form. I would do my best to work through the problem, vocalising my thoughts as I went so that the tutor could help me if I went along the wrong lines. The atmosphere becomes a lot more friendly when you remember the interviewers are there to help you demonstrate your knowledge, ability and potential. They may well end up teaching you at uni, after all, they won't want to scare you away!
I made sure that I was fairly up to date with the things that I had covered in my A levels to that point, I knew my personal statement and tried to keep up a little bit with science news/advances (this can be hard to understand though!). I also then had a look through my A level syllabus so I had a rough idea of what I would cover over the A level course so that I was aware of the different things that I hadn't learnt yet so I didn't get too scared if it got brought up in the interview. The biggest help for me was just talking about my subject. My school didn't have any idea about Oxbridge interviews but the most useful thing I did was sit down with my chemistry teacher and just talk about Chemistry/Biochemistry and build that confidence in discussing things that I wasn't sure on, and working through different problems.
Vocalise all your thoughts in an interview and try and tease out information with the tutors help. There will come a point where you don't know the answer to a question but that's really where the interview starts- they want to see how you think and how you work through problems. Stay calm, take deep breaths and just have a chat. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable!