Cambridge Interviews

[Daogroupie]

I am helping a family friend out by holding a mock interview for her ds. Any nuggets that anyone would like to throw my way would be very gratefully received. Pm would be great if that is the preferred option. Thanks DG

[Warks mum]

What subject? I have access to some physic/engineering stuff if it's relevant!

[Guest55]

I'm surprised the school is not doing a practice interview.

You need a set of progressive questions to push the candidate out of their comfort zone. They want to see what you can do when you don't already know the answer.

[Daogroupie]

Geography, but I know there are generic questions that might come up. Thanks for responding. DG

[Guest55]

It is far more likely to be mainly subject-based questions. Look on TSR and google for past questions.

It is the follow-up questions that are more important that the initial question, as they will want to probe ...

[Daogroupie]

Thank you, that is really helpful. School are doing one. I am just doing more of a generic one as well. DG

[magwich2]

It's as well to look into the subject taught by the Admissions Tutor as well as the DoS. DD had the vet med DoS and an admissions tutor who had a fine arts background. A lot of questions about vet med but also a discussion about a painting!!
Good Luck!

[Kace]

Years ago, I had a subject-related interview (MML - the interview was partly in English, partly in German and partly in French!) and then a general interview with a wide range of quick-fire questions jumping around from topic to topic.
One I remember was "What makes you really angry?". I also had to give my opinion on the political system at the time (I grew up outside the UK so I also had to compare the political system of that country with that in the UK). I was asked about my hobbies and interests (the ones listed on my application form), my opinion on places I had visited, etc. It was a (very) long time ago, so I can't remember all the details.
I think the main thing to prepare for is being able to express an opinion clearly without much (any!) time to formulate a careful answer. And also being ready to back up what you have said. There was no getting away with a "standard" or brief answer - there were follow-up questions. I came out feeling quite exhausted from the speed of questions and the rapid switch from topic to topic!

[Daogroupie]

Thank you so much for all these helpful tips. I really appreciate the input from everyone who has taken the time to post. DG

[Catseye]

I don't know about Cambridge interviews but I suspect they are not that different to Oxford interviews they expect the candidate be able to make links between one discipline to another.

So, with geography they may expect the applicant to make connections between say physical geography to ecology to biology to chemistry or even economics .

The combinations are endless-they want to know your knowledge extends beyond the narrow confines of A levels.

They are not really concerned about your extra-curricula activities-they really don't care if you were head boy/girl or can run the 100m in less than 10sec(although being a top rower may be helpful )

They do not care about elocution or accents-Oxbridge is very fair despite the nonsense often spouted by some about it being overly elitist.(65+% of students come from bog-standard comps who use "yeh but" or " it's like" at least twice in every sentence )

The bar will be set higher for those from highly selective schools .