Mathematics @ Somerville, Oxford in 2019

Interview format

MAT; 3x interviews.

Interview content

Introductory small talk; maths-based questions which were focused on exploring new concepts; felt supported and tutors guided them in the right direction.

Best preparation

Mock interviews; practiced talking through method of answering questions out loud.

Final thoughts

Be social and get to know people, it will make you feel more relaxed.

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

Test taken: Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT)
Number of interviews: 3
Time between interviews: Was done over 2 days so a few hours between each.
Length of interviews: 20-25 ish mins
Online interview: No

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

The interviews were all of the same form: quick 2 minute question to just start off, either personal statement or just a random non-mathsy question. Then it followed into the actual interview questions, which were very hard, but the tutors were actively trying to help, adding in advice when I tried a wrong approach or hinting at potential things that could help find a solution. The later interviews I definitely found my rhythm much faster than the first (first one went horribly) but definitely got stuck in a lot of places over the 3 interviews. The questions were (obviously) maths but we’re more heavily focussed on exploring new ideas and not necessarily about things I’d seen before.

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I did a few mock interviews through school, which were probably the most useful since it showed how the pace was and helped me get used to the rhythm of them. Another thing I did was worked through some old AS papers but spoke aloud what I immediately thought after reading the question (e.g. “This looks like the denominator can be factorised, so I am going to try partial fractions.”) which helped me build fluency between creating ideas and then communicating them, which I think was quite useful (even if I sounded like I was going mad in my room). Also just making sure you know roughly the spec (similar to MAT) so I could focus on the problem solving side!

If you took a test, how did you prepare?

Made sure I was confident with everything on the spec they provided. Worked through the older past papers (2016 and before) at about 2/3 a week until about a week before the real thing, where I did the two most recent papers over that week, making sure I left the day before to relax and stay calm.

What advice would you give to future applicants?

Make sure you go visit the social areas and don’t just hide in your room revising the whole time, since revising will do very little to help and you just being relaxed is far more beneficial to you than trying to cram information that they will probably not ask you about anyway. Most of the things they ask require some basic knowledge but you probably know it well already so there’s no point stressing about it. Plus by chatting to other people you realise that your fellow rivals aren’t all evil and get the chance to meet some awesome people.