The Official Cambridge Applicants' 2011 Entry Thread MKII (Please read FAQs)

We never had christmas exams. Not proper ones anyway . I guess we were lucky. It doesn't sound fun for you at all!

I think I'll be alright, I'll have to see how I am tomorrow morning before I travel, I reckon I just won't be on top form which is what you want to be for cambridge interviews don't you!? Luckily my parents don't think I'm faking, I've only just recovered from glandular fever so my immune system is pretty low and I catch things really quickly.

Aw bless you! I hate not being able to cough when you really need to. I remember having an awful cough in a driving lesson once and I was coughing so much I ended up crying and having to pull over. My instructor thought she had been mean to me! .

Fingers crossed. I feel like I'm really medicated right now but if it works why not haha!

Okay, okay I'm really crapping myself about my interview next week so I just would like to make an open query to people who have had theirs.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to answer this considering the policy Cambridge have on not actually divulging the exact nature of inteviews (questions and so on) but I'd really like to get a feel for how many people got asked the why here? question. Obviously if you don't think you can be that explicit about it let me know.

Best of luck to everyone going up today, and well done to everyone coming out the other side! (I'm not sure that was the most elegant turn of phrase there)

We have five formal exams a year... Which REALLY are a waste of time!!! My biology teacher gives us a test EVERY WEEK and we haven't finished the course! So she wastes valuable learning time!!!

What time are you leaving home? Did you get your train passes yet??? How far away from Cambridge are you? Yeah, for a Cambridge interview you would want to be better than normal, not under the weather Glandular fever? Were you sick for a while? A girl in my class had that and missed six months of school! She wanted to be a vet, and not that has gone out the window

Haha, was it one of your first driving lessons? I was driving with my mother once (after driving myself to work for 2 months without as much as a scratch on the car when she was in foetal positions, covering her eyes and screaming at me to "put my hands on the wheel, look at the road, slow down, change gears, indicate and turn off the full lights", at the same time! I pulled over and told her to get out... She hasn't done it since! :P

that you feel better! I'm sure that they will understand if you're not feeling well! x

Why Cambridge you mean? I would imagine they'll have more pressing things to ask. But even so you might as well prepare an short answer? I don't know if History of Art have a syllabus up like History does, but if it does have a look and just try and find a paper you like the look of to drop in, or thing about why the course is what you'd want to do. I know this isn't an exact answer, as I'd rather err on the side of caution if you see what I mean; but anyway best be prepared even if no one else seems to have had it come up - you might be the only one . Good luck, if you go in calmly you'll do much better and maybe even enjoy it, that's what I found.

Aw bless you. I hope it gets better! When is your interview?

Thanks for this sound advice. I really want to enjoy it.

That does sound a bit of a waste of time. We used to have end of unit tests but we didn't have anything too formal. Everything was just done in classrooms at a-level.

I'm leaving about half 3 tomorrow afternoon. I'm around 4 hours away by train and it would take about 5 or more hours by car depending on weather. I havn't got the tickets yet, so starting to panic! Waiting to see if we get any post today. How far away are you? I was really ill for just under two months and i'm still recovering but luckily as I'm not at school I was able to literally just stay in bed which was probably useful. I have to be careful not to do too much at the moment otherwise I can relapse and get sick again and ruin my recovery .

Haha no, it was a while into my lessons. It was quite funny after as she was so apologetic I was like I only had a coughing fit! Your mum sounds like mine! She is so annoying to drive with!

Thank you, I hope you're better too!

I've just had my interview at Newnham for English, and suprisingly- I found it to be really quite fun! They were talking/asking me about things I'm really interested in, I didn't expect to get so into it but it really wasn't the terribly daunting experience i expected! So stay calm and enjoy it

Monday 13th! I have time to get better... I hope.

No, my school are COMPLETE psychopaths! They enforce some rules that are so stupid (you have to wear your blazer at all times!!!).It would be different if we did continuous assessment, but these tests mean that you concentrate on one subject more than others!

Can you get them to print off your tickets at the station? I'm sure that loads of people aren't getting any of there post! I live in Ireland, so I have to fly open... Thank GOD Shannon is a quiet airport and there aren't many cancellations! Plus I'm flying Ryanair, who will do anything to have their flights on time to save money! Is Stansted a busy airport? I've never been there! (And I hear that there is a 24 hour Starbucks? I'm getting really excited about that!!!)

The girl who had it in my class went surfing while she was recovering. Then she ended up with her spleen growing to 10 times its normal size and she had to get it removed! She was in hospital for months, but is better now. But like you, she has to be careful!

Yeah, and at the start of October she took the car keys off of me and said no driving until it heats up again (March) and you finish the leaving cert (July)... She regrets that now!

I was wondering if Cambridge offered you a place in 2012, would you go then and pay extra, or go to one of your other choices? And what is the story with them tripling university fees? When is that coming in?

I've just had my interview at Newnham for English, and suprisingly- I found it to be really quite fun! They were talking/asking me about things I'm really interested in, I didn't expect to get so into it but it really wasn't the terribly daunting experience i expected! So stay calm and enjoy it

Good luck

I saw this. There was a Guardian reader sitting next to me on the train - I'd never go near it.

cum hoc ergo propter hoc

edit: I'm actually making a guardian account just to comment on this. I am blown away by how many retards are posting things like 'OMG RACISM'.

Well done on your interviews! Are you relieved that they're over? I think that after mine are done and dusted I'm going to try and forget the whole process and fill my days with distractions

To be fair, last year there were only 35 applications from black students.

Yo History applicants!! Just had my interview at Emmanuel College today, anyone wanna share any experiences?

(My source was on Kissinger, they didn't push me much but I felt I could have projected a much better image of myself :/)

Overall it wasn't actually very hard but that's kinda bad 'cos I don't feel I really differentiated myself and as the odds for History at Emmanuel are like 1 in 5, differentiation is crucial!! (Right?)

Thankfully there were no off-the-wall questions like, "Why are you sitting in this chair?" There wasn't even a "Why History/Cambridge/Emmanuel?" question.

Any feedback would be super

The interviews didn't actually push me in the way I thought they would now I think about it.

My first one was an interview which was completely unrelated to my subject but not a general interview at all. There were academic questions but not something which should actually in any situation be asked of a medical applicant, let's leave it at that.

Whereas my second one was surprisingly simple and the last one was just pushing me way too hard on something I knew nothing about and wasn't particularly linked with my subject either. It wasn't something which a flexible, logical mind could try and figure out. It was just something which if you didn't have knowledge of there's no way you could answer such a question properly especially with absolutely no help. Very strange. I had a try but kept getting shot down and the interviewer looked fairly frustrated at times.

I wouldn't be put off by my experience though really. It's probably quite rare that interviews like that actually happen. I am annoyed that they didn't try and test my logic or present me with something slightly unfamiliar and supply me with information to help me work out the answer. I thought that's what Cambridge was about and I think I would have enjoyed that. Rather than having one simple interview and two other incredibly irrelevant interviews.