Test taken: Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: 3 hours
Length of interviews: 25 minutes
Online interview: No

My first interview was entirely organic based and included rationalising acidities of different compounds and drawing curly arrow mechanisms.

My second interview was the inorganic interview and was based on the periodic table and included rationalising trends across the period so it was an extension of A-Level.

My third interview was a physical and maths interview and included rates of reactions and sketching a graph. I wasn't asked about my personal statement at all. When I first entered the interview room, I naturally felt very anxious but the tutors were really nice and good at settling my nerves.

I found it really useful reading through my notes from year 12 and making notes on the key points so I knew if these were covered in the interview, I would feel confident answering the questions. My sixth form also offered mock interviews which I found very useful to learn the structure of an academic interview. I also made sure I was up to date with scientific topics in the news such as who had won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

To prepare for the TSA, I used practice papers that are easily found online and a TSA book I purchased online which had model answers in the back.

My advice would be not to worry, go into the interview feeling relaxed and try to enjoy the process.