2x interviews
Interview 1: problem sheet as pre-reading, discussion; Interview 2: personal statement topic discussion, questions got progressively harder
Personal statement, A-level revision
Don't be afraid to ask questions in the interview
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: 2
Time between interviews: Just under 24 hours
Length of interviews: 20-30 minutes
Online interview: No
For my first interview at St. Hildas I was initially given a problem sheet to work on for 10 minutes which was in a similar format to a typical A-Level paper. Once the 10 minutes were up I was called into the interview room where we discussed the questions and the answers I had put in. My second interview was at Magdalen which was much more open as there was no problem sheet or preparation for the specific interview for me to do. It began with me discussing a topic I had mentioned on my personal statement before one of the tutors described a biochemical process and asked me a fairly simple question. The questions then got progressively harder until they were beyond my knowledge and I had to use the information given to me initially to devise an answer.
I prepared primarily by going over my personal statement and revising the topics I mentioned that could be brought up in the interview (in my case it was respiration). I also watched a few YouTube videos so get some kind of understanding of the format the interview could be in. Finally, I skimmed over some A-Level textbooks to look at any topics that may have a chance to be discussed in the interview.
For future applicants I would say be confident in your knowledge of the subject, do not be afraid to ask questions in the interview and if the tutor asks you to elaborate on an idea it is often because you are headed in the right direction. The interview is not necessarily about finding out what you know, but more about using what you do know to tackle unfamiliar questions or scenarios.