Freezing in interview

Im worried i mite just freeze in an interview, coz my physics teacha has been giving me practise questions which ive been finding quite easy tbh, however i had a mock interview with my headmaster hu is a mathematician and he asked me a physics question but i just frooze on it despite the fact it was really simple, i just cudnt think logically on it, all the other questions he gave me i could, but i just dont know how to coutner the nerves. Ne1 else the same?

Reply 1

friendlyneutron

11

Deep breathing exercises are always good to reduce anxiety :smile:

Reply 2

minimo

15

Don't worry. In mine I asked my interviewer for a moment to 'gather my thoughts'. He told me to 'take my time.' Interviewers, by and large, are perfectly nice and normal people who want to bring out the best in you even if you need a minute OCCASIONALLY to think things through.

Reply 3

Aired

1

I've just watched a presentation about interviews on the Cambridge website (http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/interviews/presentation/index.html it's worth a look), and it said that interviewers will appreciate that you're nervous in the interview, and that the questions your asked will be difficult so they expect that you'll need time to think about what you've been asked. So I wouldn't worry if you can't answer questions straight off, they know that you'll need time to think.

Reply 4

Rik_Rock

3

Best hope the heating is working, or in these temperatures, you stand a good chance of actually freezing in the interview...

...seriously though, in most subjects you have a general interview that comes first, which is generally regarded as less important and will give you a chance to get used to it. Sure, it's still a Cambridge interview, so you have to hold it together, but just remember that they're really really really not against you. My general interviewer was lovely, even though I bumbled off the subject a bunch of times and she had to remind me what i was supposed to be answer, hehe.

Seriously, try to enjoy it, remember essentially that all they want to do is test your knowledge and see how you think, so it's your job to go in there and demonstrate it. Think aloud (although only relevant to the question) and be as confident as you can be.

Reply 5

bob_54321

yeh, im sure ill freeze in my interview. i had a mock one and i froze, and i sort of knew the person giving it to me. although, i might be better with a complete stranger, doesnt matter if i get it wrong because (unless i get an offer) ill never see them again. hmm. i really wish interview wasnt such an important factor, although obviously i see why it has to be.

Reply 6

Comp_Genius

4

Don't worry - just say you temporarily achieved reached absolute zero and that's why you froze. :rolleyes:

They'll love it.

Reply 7

KAISER_MOLE

7

I didn't freeze in my mock interview as such, instead I rushed too much, thinking 'Oh my god I have to answer now! (same thing happened to me in BMO1, just rushed without looking at question for a minute or two)' ...I will get myself in state of readiness for interview, and just not let the time and pressure get to me, I hope :p:

Reply 8

meathead

5

KAISER_MOLE

I didn't freeze in my mock interview as such, instead I rushed too much, thinking 'Oh my god I have to answer now! (same thing happened to me in BMO1, just rushed without looking at question for a minute or two)' ...I will get myself in state of readiness for interview, and just not let the time and pressure get to me, I hope :p:

I got set this in my mock interview:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoatProblem.html

As you can see from the solution, I didn't have much hope of solving it there and then. However, I just dived right in (just like you describe) and failed miserably :biggrin:

But the teacher said it's about how you tackle the problem... like eliminating variables to make it simpler (in this case, eliminate one of the radii variables, by scaling the construction so that one becomes equal to 1). A valuable lesson methinks :redface:

You also might get a 'trick' question like I = ∫sin³dx from

-\frac{\pi}{2}

to

\frac{\pi}{2}

. So thinking beforehand is definitely the way to go ! (PS: When are your interviews? Mine's tuesday the 6th!)

Reply 9

Robob

OP

17

meathead

You also might get a 'trick' question like I = ∫sin³dx from

-\frac{\pi}{2}

to

\frac{\pi}{2}

Jus checking, that isnt actually possible is it

Reply 10

homoterror

rpotter

Jus checking, that isnt actually possible is it

of course it is, but i think the hope is that you'd look at it, and notice that it's an odd function around zero, and so the integral should be zero, hence you wouldn't need to do any integration as such

Reply 11

AlphaNumeric

10

rpotter

Jus checking, that isnt actually possible is it

The long way around is to turn it into

(1-\cos^{2}x)\sin x = \sin x-\sin x \cos ^{2}x

which you can then integrate directly.

The short way, as homoterror points out, is to notice f(x)=-f(-x), so if you're limits are -T and T, the positive and negative parts of the function cancel out perfectly to give 0.

To the original poster, don't worry if you do get stuck in an interview. They know people get nervous or can't do every question (very few people can do every question without a moments thought) so if you do sit there in silence for a while they'll start dropping hints and leading you through things. Don't worry too much about it.

Reply 12

Willa

11

The way I approached my interview (although I only realise I did this with hindsight) was whenever they asked me a question, I felt like I was treating the interviewer like a person interested in my subject and I was going to explain to them something about my subject. I think this seemed to work well, when I think back I think I was quite relaxed, and basically just trying to explain as much of the physics behind what they had asked me as possible. So perhaps try thinking that....if they ask you a question, just start talking them through your thought processes.

Reply 13

xx_ambellina_xx

14

I froze in my mock interview lots, but when it came to the actual interview, it flowed really well.

Reply 14

Robob

OP

17

∫

AlphaNumeric

The long way around is to turn it into

(1-\cos^{2}x)\sin x = \sin x-\sin x \cos ^{2}x

which you can then integrate directly.

The short way, as homoterror points out, is to notice f(x)=-f(-x), so if you're limits are -T and T, the positive and negative parts of the function cancel out perfectly to give 0.

To the original poster, don't worry if you do get stuck in an interview. They know people get nervous or can't do every question (very few people can do every question without a moments thought) so if you do sit there in silence for a while they'll start dropping hints and leading you through things. Don't worry too much about it.

Oh rite, i thought he meant the trick was that there was no x coz he wrote ∫sin³dx not ∫sin³x dx, so was that a typo

Reply 15

Haze1412

Aired

I've just watched a presentation about interviews on the Cambridge website (http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/interviews/presentation/index.html it's worth a look), and it said that interviewers will appreciate that you're nervous in the interview, and that the questions your asked will be difficult so they expect that you'll need time to think about what you've been asked. So I wouldn't worry if you can't answer questions straight off, they know that you'll need time to think.