Cambridge Interview Questions and Tips

出路小筆

The University of Cambridge is internationally renowned and top-ranked, attracting many students from around the globe every year. According to the official website, applicants for undergraduate programmes must have been interviewed if they receive an offer. How should applicants prepare for the Cambridge interview? What questions do interviewers ask? I have collated information from different sources for your convenience.   



The University of Cambridge uploaded interview-related videos onto YouTube. It has been mentioned that the interview aims at understanding your background knowledge, motivation, aptitude, as well as your ability to think analytically and critically. Most interviews take place from early to mid-December. Applicants should remind themselves why they are suitable for the subject they chose, and read the information they submitted. In terms of attire, a Cambridge student said that the most important thing is to dress in a way that makes you confident. You can also find the sentence "it's not necessary to wear a suit" on the Cambridge website.

Depending on the subject and college you choose, you may need to attend one to three interviews, each lasting 20 to 45 minutes with one to three interviewers. Interviewers may ask questions on the subjects you studied in Sixth Form and your learning experience such as the books or journals you have read, or the academic debates in which you participated. It is a good idea to remember the titles and authors of the written works. For some vocational subjects, applicants may be asked about their relevant work experience. Interviewers want to find out your passion for and ability in the subject to see if you are a suitable candidate.

Although you may face challenging questions in the interview, there is no need to panic as the process of thinking and applying your existing knowledge is more important than the answer per se. Applicants are advised to think out loud. You may write down your thoughts if pen and paper are provided, while answering the question and keeping the dialogue going at the same time. It is likely that you will be given a chance to ask questions at the end of the interview, but if you do not have any, there is no need to ask one.

You are reminded to listen carefully, ask for clarification if necessary, be yourself, back yourself, smile, and relax. It would be helpful to think of potential questions and arrange a mock interview to better prepare for the real one. However, do not memorize any answers beforehand as interviewers can easily tell and will ask some other questions which you have not thought about.

You can find numerous interview questions online. I have included some examples below.

1. General questions

- Why did you apply to Cambridge?
- Why did you choose this college?
- Why are you interested in Engineering (the subject you chose)?
- Which specific part of Geography interests you?
- What do you expect from a Cambridge life?
- What do you want to do after graduation?
- How do you think you can contribute to society after studying this subject?


2. Questions based on your application documents

- In one of your essays, you mentioned the theory of functionalism that things are designed for purpose. In your archaeological or anthropological reading, have you come across that idea as a school of thought?
- In your personal statement, you mentioned archaeology and you've been doing something in that field after your A-levels. Can you tell me more about what you've been doing and exploring in that area?
- Other than things mentioned in your personal statement, what else about archaeology have you done?

- In your personal statement, you mentioned at high level, you looked particularly at the methods of measuring electron mass and charge. Did you actually measure the mass and charge yourself?
- You also said you explored the exciting chemistry behind paint colours. What were you doing there?

- I've seen from your personal statement, you've been to a solicitor's firm and had some time in a major firm in London. Can you tell us what you saw?
- What makes you enjoy debating and public speaking?


3. Subject-specific questions

Archaeology
- Please look at these artefacts and describe what you think they are.

Computer Science
- I see from your maths modules that you've been doing trigonometry. Maybe you can start by drawing me a sketch of sin(x).
- Let's say, for example, you weren't sure if you were correct. What could you do to increase your confidence that it's sin(x) and not something else?
- Sketch me a triangle and show me how it relates to sine.
- What triangle would you get if you set this length and this length to be the same? Can you sketch that?
- I would like you to sketch a sin(x) over x.
- What about for x equals minus 2? What's the value of y then?

Engineering
- What is the impact of engineering on the area you live in?

- In an experiment measuring the electron charge, there's a significant error. How did you do the error analysis? What types of errors were there?
- How did you measure the electron mass?
- When you did the experiment, were you copying experiments that were done 100 years ago or were you making your own from scratch?
- How long did the experiment take?

- This was a Christmas present for my four-year-old son. It's the most irritating toy in the world. So, this toy hovers in front of you and races around in the room. The question is, how much power does it use?
- If you wanted to know how fast the blades were spinning, how could you do that? What equipment would you need?
- There's another way of doing it. You can turn it on and watch out.
- What's the force pulling it upwards? You can work it out.
- When it's hovering in front of you, what were the forces on there?

Geography
- This shows you total fertility rates in Europe. Could you describe the pattern you see there?
- Why do you think the pattern might look the way they do, particularly in Western Europe which you identified immediately?
- Could you speculate on what this map of total fertility rates will look like in 20 years' time?

History
- Based on the text we sent you, can you evaluate the historian's position?
- Do you find anything in the text unconvincing?
- Let's take a look at this cartoon. What can you infer from it?

Law
- (The interviewee was given a text.) What do you think the main arguments will be in this case?
- Let's say we can prove the stabbing did contribute to the baby being born early. Would it matter whether there was a 50% chance of the baby then dying of the lung condition, or even if it was only a 10% chance, would we not just say that is what happened so we say that did cause the death while other babies may have survived? Do you think that really matters?
- We need to consider if he caused the death of a "human being". Do you think there's an issue about if a baby is a "human being" before it's born and does that matter here?

Many Law interview questions are listed on the following webpages:
https://medium.com/think-cambridge-law/a-cambridge-university-law-interview-an-example-3a1716767bea (Sidney Sussex College, 2015–2016 admissions round)
https://medium.com/think-cambridge-law/cambridge-university-law-interviews-another-example-e4e236b07f66 (Sidney Sussex College, 2016–2017 admissions round)

Medicine
- What role do bases play in the hereditary nature of DNA?
- Why is a codon made up of three bases? Why not four bases?
- If you have two bases, how many combinations of amino acids can you code for?
- When you have a triplet, what can you get?

Music
- What do you think of the music we just played?
- Let's talk about the text we gave you. Do you agree or disagree with the writer?

Natural Sciences (Physical)
- Let's look at this function: y = sin (x) / x. Sketch the behaviour of this function between -2π and 2π.

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences
- For the book you just mentioned, how did it present different mental health phenomena?


I hope you can get a better sense of the Cambridge interview after reading this post. Please remember that these are just examples but not the exact questions that will appear in your coming interview. Prepare well and good luck!

(For the most up-to-date information on interviews, please always refer to the Cambridge website.)

References:
Times Higher Education. (2020). World University Rankings 2020. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2020/world-ranking
University of Cambridge. (2020). Interviews. https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/interviews
Cambridge University. (2014). Preparing for Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S4rTLibYQw
University of Cambridge. (2020). What do interviews involve? https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/interviews/what-do-interviews-involve
University of Cambridge. (2020). How should I prepare? https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/interviews/how-should-i-prepare
UniAdmissions. (2020). The Most Common Cambridge Interview Questions and How to Answer Them. https://www.uniadmissions.co.uk/most-common-cambridge-interview-questions/
Cambridge University. (2014). The Interview. https://youtu.be/dUwN6GI-0EQ
InsideUni. (2018). Archaeology | Newnham College | 2018. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/archaeology-newnhamcam-2018-840/
Jake Wright. (2014). A Cambridge Interview: Queens' Computer Science. https://youtu.be/a7XwKVCBPfM
InsideUni. (2018). Engineering | Emmanuel College | 2018. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/engineering-emmanuelcam-2018-911/
Trinity College, Cambridge. (2018). Example Cambridge Engineering Interview. https://youtu.be/f3lYdO0XYL4
InsideUni. (2017). History | Emmanuel College | 2017. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/history-emmanuelcam-2017-451/
InsideUni. (2018). History | Gonville & Caius College | 2018. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/history-gonvillecaiuscam-2018-536/
Cambridge Law Faculty. (2017). Example Cambridge Law Admissions Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npEcenV-Y08
InsideUni. (2017). Music | Jesus College | 2017. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/music-jesuscam-2017-566/
InsideUni. (2017). Psychological and Behavioural Sciences | Jesus College | 2017. https://insideuni.org/interviews/cambridge/pyschologicalbehaviouralsciences-jesuscam-2017-427/
Richard Adams. (2016). 'People are always too cold': How to survive a Cambridge interview. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/06/how-to-survive-a-cambridge-interview