Number of interviews: 2
Length of interviews: 30 mins
Online interview: yes

First interview (with Somerville): I was really jittery when I answered the video call, expecting to be thrown straight in and grilled. I was met with some current students who kindly talked to me for 15 minutes before the interview about how it worked and they helped me calm down. The interviewers then joined the call. First I was asked about my interests in biology, and for the most part, they allowed me to lead the conversation, asking follow-up questions to what I had said. Then we talked about growth and populations. I thought I had completely failed this interview because I got some basic facts wrong, but both the interviewers were forgiving and allowed me to correct myself.

Second interview (with St John’s): There was no warm-up this time and we began by discussing a topic I mentioned in my personal statement. Afterwards, I was shown some diagrams and graphs and asked to describe what was happening in them. I then had to try and draw a hypothesis from these and what my next steps would be in creating an experiment. I was then given an unrelated diagram and once again asked to describe and explain it. Once again they were very forgiving when I made mistakes and were patient despite some technical difficulties!

I went through every part of my personal statement to make sure I could back up and expand upon what I had said. For example, I mentioned a book in my personal statement so I spent some time re-reading that book and making notes on the main points as well as a final critical opinion of that book. I also made sure that if I mentioned a topic in my personal statement I memorised some facts around that topic. My college gave me a mock interview which was helpful because it made me realise how relaxed the interviews are (they were more like conversations than interviews!). The bulk of my time before the interviews was spent reading books relating to my subject - these were popular books that interested me, rather than textbooks. That allowed me to get to grips with the core ideas behind my subject.

First of all, do not worry about how far you have gotten in the syllabus and definitely do not try and learn the rest of the year’s content. They are not testing you on your knowledge and they are aware you haven’t gotten through the whole course. For preparation, I recommend reading books that are related to your subject but also interest you. Reading these books should be something you enjoy because you love the subject, not something you have to do as a chore. If you are not a big reader, podcasts and audiobooks can also be a fun way to immerse yourself in the subject. Finally, you do not need to fill the empty silence with umms and ahhs. Once you are asked a question, it is okay to stay quiet for a second to compose your thoughts. If you are flustered (which is totally okay and normal) start with the most obvious things you can see or think of. The interviewers care about how you respond and your method of working out as much as, if not more, than your final response.