Hi all, glad to see the STP threads are still going strong. I applied last year for Clinical Biochemistry but didn't get to interview. Was gutted for ages because it was what drove me to do a PhD and I didn't really have a backup if I got rejected!
The tests aren't really that hard but you have to be really quick, I think for the maths questions there will be 4 or 5 sets of 4 questions and you get a minute to answer the first question of the set and 30 seconds for every other of the set after that, so even if you can't answer, don't skip and try to take in as much info as possible. The maths questions usually have caveats if the question is in table format, like ticket prices being reduced by 25% on every second Monday or money off for over 10 tickets bought etc so once you think you have the final answer, it's normal for there to be another step.
The life sciences are by far the most competitive to get into - Biochem, Haem, Genetics, Cell Path, Microbiology, with biochem being the most oversubscribed at about 800 people applying for 20 positions. In the previous thread, someone has posted the absolute numbers for people who applied for the 2014 intake.
I was told by the consultant in my current job that if you are applying with a PhD, they would ideally want you to have had the viva and completed your degree because I still have my viva to go and he said that could have been a reason I didn't get an interview (I did a biomed degree, am HCPC-registered and was trained in a clinical biochemistry lab, my PhD is biochemistry-based). Of course there's always the chance my application was rubbish or I just scraped the tests so there's that as well!
Good luck to everyone who's taking the plunge this year, I'm quite enjoying my current job so I probably won't be applying this year but I might have another bash at it closer to the time.