Biochemistry @ Wadham, Oxford in 2018

Interview format

2x 30 min interviews, over 2 days

Interview content

Interview 1: personal statement, problem sheets; Interview 2: biochemistry-related news, problems

Best preparation

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Advice in hindsight

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Final thoughts

Attended sessions at college; read personal statement to make sure I could talk about everything in it.

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

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Interview spread: 1 one morning, 1 the next morning

Length of interviews: 30 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

My first interview, at Wadham College, started with a question about something I mentioned on my personal statement and then moved on to questions/problems based on images and graphs on sheets. Some questions included having to do mental maths. The tutors would ask a few questions based on each sheet before moving on.

My second interview was in Brasenose College. Most of the questions were a similar sort of style, although to begin with we talked about news related to biochemistry, rather than anything from my personal statement. This interview had a more relaxed atmosphere; I was very nervous to begin with but I did relax into it.

How did you prepare?

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What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

There were a couple of sessions at my college about preparing for biology related Oxford/Cambridge interviews. I went through my personal statement to make sure I had things I could say about everything I mentioned, which I would recommend doing but not spending too long on.