The TSR Community Awards 2025 are now live >>

How to prep for Cambridge interview w/o help from school?!

Hello! So I just sent in my application for Land Economy at St John's college, and i'm stuck on how to prepare for interviews, my GCSEs werent as strong as they could have been (988888777B)and without an admissions test, i'm sure that if I get an interview it will be much more important. However, my school is really bad at interview prep, and is basically doing nothing. They have told me only to let them know if i get an interview, and only then will they be willing to do any mock interviews with me (but I know that 2ish weeks of interview prep will not be enough for me).

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for interviews on my own, or with a subject teacher at school (who doesnt know much about oxbridge interviews) for land economy as I dont actually know anyone doing land economy at cambridge. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Reply 1

Dolce Vita

Original post

by nineortwelve

Hello! So I just sent in my application for Land Economy at St John's college, and i'm stuck on how to prepare for interviews, my GCSEs werent as strong as they could have been (988888777B)and without an admissions test, i'm sure that if I get an interview it will be much more important. However, my school is really bad at interview prep, and is basically doing nothing. They have told me only to let them know if i get an interview, and only then will they be willing to do any mock interviews with me (but I know that 2ish weeks of interview prep will not be enough for me).
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for interviews on my own, or with a subject teacher at school (who doesnt know much about oxbridge interviews) for land economy as I dont actually know anyone doing land economy at cambridge. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

There’s Cambridge interview webinars this week that you can register for here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applicant-webinars

There’s also plenty of mock interview material online such as these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhqKjKT7MA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XcwcFsJHBVw

Reply 2

Plumywumy

Original post

by nineortwelve

Hello! So I just sent in my application for Land Economy at St John's college, and i'm stuck on how to prepare for interviews, my GCSEs werent as strong as they could have been (988888777B)and without an admissions test, i'm sure that if I get an interview it will be much more important. However, my school is really bad at interview prep, and is basically doing nothing. They have told me only to let them know if i get an interview, and only then will they be willing to do any mock interviews with me (but I know that 2ish weeks of interview prep will not be enough for me).
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for interviews on my own, or with a subject teacher at school (who doesnt know much about oxbridge interviews) for land economy as I dont actually know anyone doing land economy at cambridge. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

My daughter ( who is at Cambridge) did a u tube video on interview tips in general for Cambridge university interview. Hope it helps.

https://youtu.be/34nZhiHQD1Q?si=j4S9JjCM2BnalDgs

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post

by nineortwelve

Hello! So I just sent in my application for Land Economy at St John's college, and i'm stuck on how to prepare for interviews, my GCSEs werent as strong as they could have been (988888777B)and without an admissions test, i'm sure that if I get an interview it will be much more important. However, my school is really bad at interview prep, and is basically doing nothing. They have told me only to let them know if i get an interview, and only then will they be willing to do any mock interviews with me (but I know that 2ish weeks of interview prep will not be enough for me).
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for interviews on my own, or with a subject teacher at school (who doesnt know much about oxbridge interviews) for land economy as I dont actually know anyone doing land economy at cambridge. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Hii I'm a second year at Queens studying Land Ec.
My school was also really unhelpful with interview prep, so what I did was just look at some of the course papers e.g. paper 1 and just briefly look at some of the content that was covered within the tripos just to familiarise with. Also I really suggest you read a few of the books that the Land Econ website mentions on its reading list.
And finally I made sure my super curriculars were solid (definitely listen to podcasts and try and do some essay comps I think the Royal Geographic Society has some good ones) as I didn't study economics at A level so I didn't really know what to expect from the interview but I figured they were going to talk about it.
My best advice would be to think of an interview less as a test and more like a friendly academic discussion.
Hope that helps!
Please feel free to ask me any other questions! :smile:

Reply 4

redonculod

Original post

by nineortwelve

Hello! So I just sent in my application for Land Economy at St John's college, and i'm stuck on how to prepare for interviews, my GCSEs werent as strong as they could have been (988888777B)and without an admissions test, i'm sure that if I get an interview it will be much more important. However, my school is really bad at interview prep, and is basically doing nothing. They have told me only to let them know if i get an interview, and only then will they be willing to do any mock interviews with me (but I know that 2ish weeks of interview prep will not be enough for me).
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for interviews on my own, or with a subject teacher at school (who doesnt know much about oxbridge interviews) for land economy as I dont actually know anyone doing land economy at cambridge. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Oxford tutors have a mock interview event bursary programme, which is basically a free place at their event and a mock interview with feedback. I think the deadline is the 5th of November.

https://oxfordtutors.com/university-admissions/bursary/#form

Reply 5

nineortwelve

Original post

by Plumywumy

My daughter ( who is at Cambridge) did a u tube video on interview tips in general for Cambridge university interview. Hope it helps.
https://youtu.be/34nZhiHQD1Q?si=j4S9JjCM2BnalDgs

Ah thank you so much! I just had a watch and it really was helpful, and definitely showed me how to think about things in the interview. It was a great video, very much appreciated!

Reply 6

nineortwelve

Original post

by Dolce Vita

There’s Cambridge interview webinars this week that you can register for here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applicant-webinars
There’s also plenty of mock interview material online such as these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhqKjKT7MA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XcwcFsJHBVw

Thank you very much! I have just signed up for St Catherines webinar this year, as well as watched the videos linked, they were very helpful. Thanks again!

Reply 7

nineortwelve

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi! Thank you so much! How are you finding it?
I will definitetly have a look at some of the course papers and such. I have read 2 of the books on the Land Ec reading list, so hopefully thats alright. Unfortunately I can't add any super curriculars in as both my UCAS and 'my cambridge application' have gone in, but I did an economics/finance competition as well as some online courses and read articles so hopefully that is enough.
I was wondering if they asked much about the law aspect of things (or just on a subject you havent studied) as I have never done any content relating to law - just a short online course explaining some basics. Would it be likley that they would ask questions on law that I would need prior knowledge for, or something that I could use reasoning to understand?
Additionally, I have seen some people say its best to keep up with current affairs, and things going on in the news. While I understand it will be somewhat beneficial to my knowledge, the chance of them asking about something I have actually read in the news is slim. Did they ask questions relating to recent/current events or would it just be something that I could bring up in an answer as I have read it.
Thanks again so much! Enjoy your second year!

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

Hi again! Thats really good to hear- it seems you’ve done a lot of preparation. They didn’t ask me anything about law but it wouldn’t hurt to prepare. Hope that helps.