Test taken: PAT

Number of interviews: 2

Skype interview: No

Time between each interview: a couple of hours

Length of interviews: about 45 minutes each

My first interview was at Mansfield. It began with a short introduction, asking about something in my personal statement (make sure you know about what you've written) and seeing if I had any basic knowledge on a certain topic - this start was quite informal, and helped me ease in. Next, I think there were a couple of problems we went through in mathematics that went well (perhaps my performance wasn't as good on the maths side of the PAT as the physics). The maths questions involved graphs I had learnt about before but hadn't considered the mathematics behind. Finally, I was asked to identify a material based on what it was used for, in which I struggled since I lacked knowledge of what I was being asked to identify (the definition of 'mechanical properties' was unknown to me, try to get an understanding of basic materials terms). At the end I was asked if I had any questions - I didn't but made one up anyway, but I would say that this doesn't really affect whether or not you get an offer.

My second interview was at Trinity. There was something in my personal statement I wrote about and had no idea how it worked, so I was roasted on this at the start of my interview, but managed to give a good answer, which boosted my confidence - make sure you understand what you've written in your PS before submitting it, since I couldn't find any information on this topic once I had done. The rest of the interview was going through a mechanics problem. Some of the concepts in this question I had not yet reached at school and I was very tired after my first interview (perhaps I should have had a coffee a short while before this one) so made a lot of silly mistakes and let the interviewer guide me through the problem, and by the time I had finished the answer was slightly wrong and my interview time was up.

I did all the PAT past papers (of the current and old format). I also looked at UKMT for the maths section, looked at the British Physics Olympiad for the physics section, and looked at PAT model answers I found on the internet.

I wasn't too surprised with the interview formats, since I had learnt about them beforehand. I had a few preparation interviews with teachers etc. and at organisations like IntoUniversity and OA. Make sure your practice interviews are with people who have Oxbridge specific experience and try to seem engaged in your interview- make sure to be vocal about your thought process, even if you find things easy, since the interviewers want to know how you think.

Also, make sure you are focussed during each interview, so make sure you get a good night's sleep (even if it means asking to turn up a day earlier to stay over, I was allowed to do that at Mansfield) and give yourself a coffee boost before your interview if you need to.

Finally, stay hopeful- you may think your first interview didn't go your way, but if you allow this worry to take to the forefront it may weigh you down in your next interview. Good luck!