3x 20 min interviews & 2x 30 min interviews, over 2 days
Interview 1: cellular biology; Interview 2: physiology; Interview 3: range of topics; Interview 4: physics and chemistry; Interview 5: more clinically focussed
Timed past papers
-
Know very basics of some common conditions (e.g. diabetes).
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.
Test taken: BMAT
Number of interviews: 5
Skype interview: No
Interview spread: 3 in afternoon of first day, 2 in morning of second day
i3x 20 minute interviews; 2x 30 minute interviews
The first four interviews were very scientifically focused. There was only a brief mention of my personal statement and no discussion on the reasons for choosing the subject.
The first interview focused highly on cellular biology (ion channels), and the second was more physiologically focused (hormones and feedback). While the third interview covered a range of topics and tested some basic "clinical" skills (i.e. reading an x-ray, sketching a blood glucose curve), the fourth interview was very focused on the fundamental physics and chemistry underpinning medicine - revising A-level/IB sciences is probably the best advice. I did not know the answer to most questions and had to work out the answers from first principles: the more solid your scientific "foundations", the higher the chances of understanding the problems the interviewers will challenge you with. The fifth interview was the only exception: more clinically focused, it also involved discussion of the evolution of medicine and health care systems. I would advise getting a grasp of the workings of the NHS, especially for international students.
I did loads of practice papers. The BMAT website has past papers from the last ten years, and I would encourage any applicant to do as many as possible, timing themselves.
I did not prepare for my interviews in any specific way. Going in, I knew I was not going to know the answer to most questions - the best advice is to practise describing one's thought process once the question is posed. If the interviewer appreciates that you understand the basic principles the question covers (and, in medicine, why this is important in a clinical setting), actually getting to the solution becomes less important.
Although I was expecting more questions on my personal statement and on my motivations, I still highly recommend re-reading one's personal statement and thinking about answers to more fundamental questions ("Why do you want to be a doctor?"). The majority of answers will be clichés and that is completely normal - not having an answer at all can be a problem.
Something that can be useful for medicine is knowing the very basics of some very common conditions (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease) - they tend to be a subject both in scientifically focused interviews and those covering clinical/sociological angles.