Test taken: MAT

Number of interviews: 3

Skype interview: No

Interview spread: 2 on Monday, 1 on Tuesday

Length of interviews: 30 minutes each

In all three of my interviews there was very little small talk or non-maths questions. I think they started by introducing themselves and explaining that I could ask questions whenever, and then we just talked about maths problems for the rest of the time. In my two interviews at LMH I had one interview which felt more 'pure' and one which felt more applied.

In my first one, which was the more applied one, they'd drawn a graph on the board. They started asking me some quicker, easier questions, and then there was an involved bit about calculus where they gave me lots of hints and it felt like we were working through it together. It was a combination of making suggestions or answering questions out loud and writing down working out. Then we did some more short problems at the end. I was so nervous but the tutors were very helpful.

In my second interview there was about half an hour's reading to do beforehand, which I got to do in a separate room with paper to make notes on. It was pretty interesting and I enjoyed this interview more. There were questions about the reading, which I found okay. Then they gave me something much harder and abstract which I felt quite at sea with. I gave it a stab but I don't think I really got anywhere with it and we went back to the earlier questions.

My third interview was at St Hugh's, which was similar to the first two- I was very nervous and didn't really relax that much, but the tutors are helpful and even though they're setting the questions, it feels somewhat collaborative as they help you if you're stuck and ask you about how you worked things out.

I did lots of MAT past papers, as well as other things to improve my confidence and problem solving like STEP and UKMT maths challenge problems (although these last two are quite a different style to the actual MAT, so are definitely not essential or as relevant). I did a mixture of timed and untimed papers. I think some/most of the time it's worth trying to see long problems through to the end, giving yourself as much time as you need, but I also found it helpful to do some timed, so I had a plan of what order I was going to do things in, how it feels to do things timed, and how long you can spend reading a question and getting the overall picture before starting to write. I tried to mark mine and worried about the scores I got, which was definitely not helpful! On the day I thought the MAT went quite badly but I got in, so it's not the be all and end all and you don't really know how you've done.

For MAT preparation I also went on the Problem Solving MATters course (for state school students). I think Oxford and Imperial both ran it that year, and it was definitely the most helpful thing I did, so it's worth looking into if that's relevant to you. I'd advise people to try doing lots of MAT questions, and maybe try and get a friend or teacher to look over them with you. If you can get your maths teacher to do practice interviews with you, that's also really helpful--if they're not sure what to do, I think Oxford suggests getting them to go through one of the longer MAT questions with you. It's helpful to do this to practise thinking out loud and responding to hints and new info in that kind of 1 to 1 setting.

I used the free resources at https://oxbridgeapplications.com/student-resources/, especially the example personal statements, to help write my personal statement. This helped as it gave me an idea of what it should look like. I got advice from my family and teachers on my personal statement as well.

Don't worry if you haven't had a practice interview. The tutors will try and help you and at the end of the day they'll try and give you something new, so no one can reallly prepare.

I think one of the things I found at interview was that everyone thought it had gone badly (except some people, who seemed to be putting it on), and I think it's because if you can do it they keep pushing you til you get to something you're stuck on. So don't fret if it seems like it's going terribly!