This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Official 2005 interview reaction thread

Willa

well being at emma and having sat opposite the senior tutor for xmas dinner, i know what order they take things into account when it comes to applications - i was disgraced to discover your personal statement is at the bottom of the pile...and i spent ages doing that!

What's the order then?

Reply 81

RobbieC

OP

15

Let me guess the stupid interview, which shouldnt be at the top... IS IN FACT at the top of the pile...

Why they think they can take a 45 minute interview as more relevant than the rest of your academic career is beyond me...

Robbie - bitter and twisted.

Reply 82

amateurish

4

RobbieC

Let me guess the stupid interview, which shouldnt be at the top... IS IN FACT at the top of the pile...

Why they think they can take a 45 minute interview as more relevant than the rest of your academic career is beyond me...

Robbie - bitter and twisted.

it's more sensible than you think - how else would you distinguish between x number of applicants who all have identical fantastic academic careers? besides, interviews (at least for me) were very like supervisions; so basically your performance at interview relates to how well you'll cope with the cambridge course, which is often going to be very differently taught than courses in similar subjects at other unis. i think they realise you'll be nervous at interview and take that into account. not saying the interview system is perfect, by any means, but i think it's there for a reason. :smile:

Reply 83

Acaila

17

werlop

As for grades, I have a feeling they are quite important. In Scotland Highers and Advnaced Highers (ant Int1/2 for that matter) are divided up into bands so while you see A/B/C/D on your certificate you actually get awarded a band which you aren't told unless you speak to your examinations officer. Dr Barnes was very interested in what bands I got, he wanted as many band one As as possible. I got 6 As at higher: 4 Band 1 As and 2 Band 2 As.

Urgh bands :s-smilie:

They're not supposed to know so they weren't finding out from me! Actually I only know two of mine and I didn't want to know them (one of which the teacher had got the marks confused and thought I had got something like 57%, and the other the head of physics seemed determined to tell everybody :s-smilie:

)

Reply 84

hitchhiker_13

11

Ok, had my interviews for Physical NatSci at Emmanuel today. Here is the verdict:

Arrived yesterday afternoon to a pretty much deserted college with a very friendly porter, and while he was giving me my key and stuff the Master walked in - I think he's a Lord or something?
I went into the town for a while and when I came back got talking to a very nice girl who was there for bio natsci and was staying on my floor (top floor, staircase U).
Went for dinner and met some more nice people, and a group of us went back to my room for a friendly night-before-the-interview chat. All lovely.

After they left, feelings of dread started kicking in. Slept quite well, considering, but could not eat much at breakfast.

TSA at 9.00 - it was ok. Harder than the sample one I think, and everyone I talked to seemed to agree, but mostly ok, just a few dodgy questions.

First interview at 11.25 with Prof Peake and Dr Crawford - really lovely people. We talked a bit about my work experience, and we'd been given a list of topics to choose to talk about and I'd chosen the CMB. They asked me why I'd chosen it, to talk about what I knew about it then asked more specific questions like how was it discovered, describe what was meant by the time of last scattering, what is the magnitude of the temperature fluctuations, why is it studied today etc.
Then I was asked to calculate the velocity of the earth as it orbits the sun - manageable.
Then maths - it was just some logarithm and exponential graphs but I was being really dense so it took me a while.

Second interview with Dr Thomson and Dr Towler - also very nice. They asked why I wanted to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge before launching into the physics.
They asked me to derive the SHM equations, then asked me some questions involving a more complicated system with three springs and two masses - I couldn't remember the formula F=mx and had to be prompted! After that not too bad.
Then a question about Newton's Third Law pairs, which I've always hated. Then came "Towler's pendulums" which was a question about natural frequency of resonance really- three different lengths of pendulum and you had to say why one moved significantly more than the others, and just give them the equation for the frequency of oscillation of a pendulum.
Then I had to calculate an estimate for the mass of the Earth's atmosphere - I was completely thrown at first but worked it out (after having to be told the equation for the surface area of a sphere!) and a mechanics question with a ladder against the wall, just resolving forces and moments to find the equation of the coefficient of friction when no friction acts at the point of contact with the wall.

I think I made some silly mistakes - mind went completely blank at times but I was mostly ok. I found all the problems they gave me really interesting, but not sure I communicated this properly.

Well there you have it, an incredibly long, detailed and boring account of my time at Emmanuel.

Reply 85

db_cambridge

Willa

well being at emma and having sat opposite the senior tutor for xmas dinner, i know what order they take things into account when it comes to applications - i was disgraced to discover your personal statement is at the bottom of the pile...and i spent ages doing that!

Hey willa do you know Catriona Mactier i think she was sitting beside Dr Barnes at xmas dinner. She's a first year medic from Glasgow and went to the same school that I goto.

What is the order then?

Reply 86

Willa

11

errr i only know catriona on a name basis, not really friends with her....but that's just cos i havent gotten to know her (although she was involved in the big Maths debate....I dunno if she likes me, maybe she's just a bit confrontational).

Oh and the dreaded "order"....hmmm I dunno whether I should say :tongue:

...... (interview is NOT at the top)

Reply 87

Drederick Tatum

12

werlop

Hey willa do you know Catriona Mactier i think she was sitting beside Dr Barnes at xmas dinner. She's a first year medic from Glasgow and went to the same school that I goto.

What is the order then?

cant tell you anything about the order of importance of the application stuff, but i do know catriona. she was one of the student helpers along with me earlier last week. really nice.

tatum

Reply 88

amateurish

4

werlop

Hey willa do you know Catriona Mactier i think she was sitting beside Dr Barnes at xmas dinner. She's a first year medic from Glasgow and went to the same school that I goto.

weird - are there two catriona's in the 1st year at emma? i know one, but she's an irish linguist, not a medic.

Reply 89

Willa

11

yea there are two i believe!

Reply 90

db_cambridge

I had to take her suitcase home with me on Thursday, 26kgs!! and it didn't have any wheels.

Reply 91

db_cambridge

Willa

Oh and the dreaded "order"....hmmm I dunno whether I should say :tongue:

...... (interview is NOT at the top)

Oh go on

You've basically told us most of it anyway as there are only really a couple of things to go on..teacher reference, exam results, submitted work, interview, entrance exam(s), personal statement, predicted grades.

Reply 92

Willa

11

fine fine....but bare in mind this may well be a load of crap...so in order of importance (most important at top)

- Track Record (What your past grades have been like and what your predicted grades are)
- Any Exam/Test you do (although I think that TSA is ranked below the interview...not sure)
- Interview
- Submitted work
- Teacher reference
- Personal statement

I may have got something mixed up there (i was a little tipsy at the time)....but generally you will find that academic ability is very important! People are right in saying that you can screw up on one area and still get in, but it's far better to have a crap PS than a crap track record.

Reply 93

crazydaveuk

My interview was on the 9th, I've kind of mentally blocked it out now.
That is, I've streamlined it for the teachers etc who ask, so it might be hard for me to remember! :tongue:

(Philosophy @ Emma)

•

5pm Wednesday evening - arrive in college, dark already, go to my room. (S2, ground floor, rather dingy in fact)
Not knowing what to do, I lay on the bed and listen to random 'choons' on me iRiver for an hour.

•

Dinner - "waitress served"? Complete lie! We grabbed a tray and walked through the canteen.
Food wasn't bad at all though, and I got talking to 3 other philo applicants straight away.

•

After dinner - went to Witherspoons across the road for a drink! Good twenty people, but only 8 of us round this table.
After having a pint of cider and talking for a bit... went back to my room, read some notes, slept like a baby.

•

Test - 9am! I thought it was fine though, a few logic questions and a 45 min discursive thing. The Q takes too long to explain.

•

Then 4 of us went and had a hot chocolate at Costa. Nice.

•

Absolutely houuurs in this waiting room. Well, it was a JCR, but pretty packed.

•

Call for interview - apparently they said my name 4 times but I never noticed! I was listening to some blissful Soul music to calm down, and the student girl obviously had a quiet voice, grr.

...and getting down to business: :cool:

•

First interview - I didn't like it, to be honest. Firstly I was dropped in this big comfy sofa, I couldn't sit up straight at all. I thought the Dean was going to be the only person, but in fact he didn't say much at all! There was a young guy, postgrad maybe, asking most of the questions. They didn't seem that satisfied with my answers, I think I was a bit too enthusiastic to blurt out something. I've been reassured that the Dean is shy and says less because he's not an academic, but... oh well.
And when I think about it, where were the general questions? Why philo, why here, how was your journey.. none of that, dammit.

•

Second interview - I really enjoyed it! The philosophy fellow was a really friendly bloke, and the questions followed each other well... lots of nodding, no silences as if they expected more etc. Again, there was a young guy with him - not the female fellow listed on my letter, but he was good too. We talked about Wittgenstein (mentioned in PS), what he means by 'language games', then moved on to what religious language means, and all sorts of other things like political philosophy. Quite a few laughs, and I'm glad I gave all my answers more consideration. Sharp, but thoughtful, yaknow.

So all in all I'm pretty happy with the whole experience :rolleyes:

If I get in, cool, but I'll have a good time at Sussex too if I don't.
At least I was myself! I'd have more regrets if I'd put things on for show.

...It'll be annoying talking to the extended family over Xmas though, they'll say "good luck" etc when it's only a week away!
Normally they'd have time to forget about it before I revealed minor disappointment... ahem.

Reply 94

kidney thief

11

Willa

fine fine....but bare in mind this may well be a load of crap...so in order of importance (most important at top)

- Track Record (What your past grades have been like and what your predicted grades are)
- Any Exam/Test you do (although I think that TSA is ranked below the interview...not sure)
- Interview
- Submitted work
- Teacher reference
- Personal statement

i hope that doesn't include the LNAT :frown:

Reply 95

RobbieC

OP

15

I do believe the interview has a role to play, but only if two candidates are literally borderline and only one can have a place. Eg why did they ask that Jeffreys guy to interview, he was obv amazing and deserved a place. It was ridiculous, someone wiht 10As cant be compared to someone with 3. Not being funny, it just is senseless...

Reply 96

fishpaste

RobbieC

I do believe the interview has a role to play, but only if two candidates are literally borderline and only one can have a place. Eg why did they ask that Jeffreys guy to interview, he was obv amazing and deserved a place. It was ridiculous, someone wiht 10As cant be compared to someone with 3. Not being funny, it just is senseless...

You think it's ridiculous but it's really not. As it happens I suspect Paul Jeffries will come first in the tripos, but I think it's perfectly possible somebody could get 10 As and not do very well at Cambridge. Cambridge is about supervisions and good thinking, not Alevels.

Reply 97

Willa

11

kidney thief

i hope that doesn't include the LNAT :frown:

i'm pretty sure it does include the LNAt i'm afraid.....so if you honestly think you blew it, then hopefully your other aspects were good. But as I tried to point out before, it's not the be all and end all - if you screw up the LNAT they can still really like you to not give a damn, especially if your track record is brilliant and your itnerview was great! They are all taken into account, just some are weighted more heavily than others....don't worry yourself about it!

oh and best hot chocolate in town = pret's. Most people claim it's one of the smaller cafes but I've tried loads this term and I keep coming back for my of that delicious pret a manger hot chocolate, it's so darn tasty!

And you applicants sound so much more socialable than the load of us last year.....damn i wish i'd stuck around a bit longer! But then again, I did just end up teasing the applicants when I was drunk (once again, if that girl who i just stared at and sort of danced in front of is reading this, once again I apologise)

Reply 98

Wagamuffin

Hey Robbie, seriously don't fret over your interview, because mine was just as bad and I experienced the same reacyion from Khimyak :smile:

(like the pun?) At one point she sort of told me aggressively to calm down and stop rushing lol. I couldn't even do a simple disproportionation reaction balancing.

Out of curiosity, did you get asked about the colour of transition metal ions? I suppose for me the chemistry wasn't as horrible as the math (I answred 2 of the chem questions correctly and 1 math correctly, the others were sort of attempted but botched completely).

We should know by christmas how it all went :s-smilie:

Reply 99

MadNatSci

12

Willa

fine fine....but bare in mind this may well be a load of crap...so in order of importance (most important at top)

- Track Record (What your past grades have been like and what your predicted grades are)
- Any Exam/Test you do (although I think that TSA is ranked below the interview...not sure)
- Interview
- Submitted work
- Teacher reference
- Personal statement

I may have got something mixed up there (i was a little tipsy at the time)....but generally you will find that academic ability is very important! People are right in saying that you can screw up on one area and still get in, but it's far better to have a crap PS than a crap track record.

The impression I've always had is that the reference comes higher than that, but I agree other than that :smile:

The interview is not that important; and no one thing on that list will make the decision by itself. They take it all into account and look at the broad spectrum.

The PS is definitely bottom of the pile - they're not that interested in it at all to be honest, at least at Sidney! They view your PS as something to resort to chatting about if you're clearly really nervous, to calm you down. After all, why do they need a personal statement to find out about you when they have the opportunity to talk to you themselves? Your PS is probably fairly important for elsewhere but not for Cambridge, though they do read it and if you make some glaring grammatical/spelling mistakes, they'll come away with the impression that you don't really care about your application...

Official 2005 interview reaction thread

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you