BMAT; 4x interviews.
Felt like they were designed to test how you reacted in different situations; focused on personal statement and ethics, and on scientific knowledge, data and graph reading. Interviewers were friendly.
Revised A-level content to feel secure and confident. Felt that EPQ formed a nice talking point.
Be yourself and relax. Be flexible and willing to change your answer but also know when to stand your ground.
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: Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)
Number of interviews: 4
Time between interviews: Well between the sets of 2 about 1.5 hours. But there was a night between them.
Length of interviews: 20 minutes
Online interview: No
The atmosphere was actually a lot better than expected, every single interviewer was lovely and although they may have done strange things like lie down or get up and walk around this was a distraction tactic. Just stay focussed; remember other medical school interviews are also designed to test how you respond in unfamiliar settings. We discussed my personal statement in 2 aspects; ethical and scientific and I was also asked about ethics in 2/4 interviews. Science formed the backbone of the other 2 as did a bit of maths and graph work. Generally speaking I’d say to talk aloud through every stage of thinking; ask questions and keep going. The more you say the better an indication you could get of whether you are going about something the right way, so if not you can start again and approach a problem differently. Try and be enthusiastic and don’t feel at all intimidated. They’re each only 20 minutes and they absolutely fly by.
Going over basic science so far on the A level course to make sure my understanding was robust and flicking ahead to be somewhat familiar with second year A level content. Reading was important to learn about the history of science and to see school work put into practice. My EPQ also formed a nice talking point; it’s totally not necessary but the premise of having looked beyond a syllabus to show genuine scientific curiosity is the point. Lastly just trying to be inquisitive; asking others to ask me interview questions so I could practice using my head in a logical way.
Past paper questions and a model answers book. Using the online Cambridge Testing website information for all sections as well; this had specifications, old papers and full Section 2 notes.
Try and be calm and be yourself. Authenticity is very important because to my knowledge tutors want to assess whether they can teach you well and whether you will be receptive. Make sure to ask if you don’t understand something but if you have strong feelings or a point to defend then defend it! Regardless of what the interviewer may say to get you to change your mind, if you think your point of view still stands then stick by it. Having said that if you think you may have made an error, say so. It is okay to apologise and ask to revisit your logic to work through something again.