Official Cambridge 2022 Applicants Thread

hi, very late to this thread, but i’m going to be applying to cambridge for veterinary medicine this october! i’m currently doing biology, chemistry and religious studies at a level (i’m aiming for A*A*A at least!). at this point in time, i’m focusing on my practise for the NSAA entrance exam, but the time limit makes it so hard!! if anyone here is applying for the same course or doing the same exam, hmu!

Hi, I’m applying for natsci so I’m also doing the NSAA! I totally agree, the time limit is the worst part!!

ahh! glad i’m not the only one who finds it a nightmare! i also dropped maths at the end of year 12 and i just feel like i’m forgetting everything i ever learnt lol. how are you preparing for the exam? and what a levels are you taking?

I do chem, bio, physics, maths and English lit a levels, and I’ve mostly been preparing doing qus from a textbook (I got it from Amazon) and then doing section 1 qus from previous papers (it’s rlly annoying that it’s changed tho bc there are hardly any practice qus especially for section 2!) What alevels do you do?

I've heard that Cambridge tends to increase the standards they want from Private school students as they are seen to have had help (I haven't had ANY help for UCAT or BMAT in my school, but oh well ) Considering this, what sort of BMAT score should I aim for to have a good chance at Cambridge. I'm applying to Trinity college if that changes things, although i don't think it does.

hello!

I am going to apply to Jesus college for music! I got A*AA in my alevels and 9888888777 in my GCSES.
I'll also apply to Manchester, Birmingham, Durham, and Kings

At Cambridge at least they look at your application, and school etc. Imagine it like them thinking oh this candidate has quite a few B's, but considering they were from x school where people generally achieve low passes they did very well. Or this person has quite a few B's, considering they went to an elite private school this might be an indicator of insufficient ability, let's look at their BMAT/A-levels to confirm this.
There is no point obsessing over what you cannot control, just make the bits you can as good as possible.

Sorry, probably a bit off topic but I remember being a very frequent poster (not under this username...) on the 2016 Applicants Thread, how time flies!

Just want to wish you all best of luck, feels like eons ago now

So they do contextualise admissions test scores too, ok, thank you. Seems like I'll be putting the extra effort into BMAT after all.

Can we please add a dash of realism to this level the playing field stuff,the majority of state educated Oxbridge places are awarded to selective sixth forms and grammars,both of which provide more support than most private schools,they, unlike the majority of private schools select on Academic ability..,not all private schools are Eton..

There is the unfortunate perception that every private school is like Eton, Oundle, Rugby or Harrow while every state school is like a struggling state comp. this is false and i think causes issues for students who genuinely work hard to achieve their grades but then get slapped with the “privilege” tag. We could be moving to a time when an applicant would possibly be disadvantaged solely by the name of their school.

I would think that the Admissions Officers have the experience to understand the various contextual backgrounds of applicants.

Is there a NatSci specific thread for Cambridge applicants?

Is there a NatSci specific thread for Cambridge applicants?

Can we please add a dash of realism to this level the playing field stuff,the majority of state educated Oxbridge places are awarded to selective sixth forms and grammars,both of which provide more support than most private schools,they, unlike the majority of private schools select on Academic ability..,not all private schools are Eton..

I’m doing biology, chemistry, religious studies and welshbacc (i did do maths, which i dropped). ooh, i haven’t got a textbook, i’m just doing past papers atm. the first time i practiced i did the whole past paper under timed conditions instead of getting used to the questions. i think that was a huge mistake bc it put on so much pressure that i was rushing, and towards the end i was just picking random answers bc i was running out of time. after going through it again without any time limit, i can’t believe how many questions i got wrong bc it’s not actually that hard🤣

It's very important to have a good BMAT score, anyway, so prep for this would be sensible.

Yes, I can get a score of 6-7 without too much headache. However, I was wondering whether it would be worth putting in even more effort, which would take away from A levels etc, for a score of 8+.