Emmanuel interview questions

[Ukayzfinest]

Is there anyone here who had an interview at emmanuel last year? If so would you mind sharing your experience and the interviews questions asked (if u can remeber that far back). I know that questions are unlikely to be repeated but it would be interesting to see what was asked (ie if they asked science problem solving questions or medical ethics ones for instance).

[The Messiah]

Firstly... don't mean to sound rude or anything, but have you considered that Cambridge may not give you an interview?

Concentrate on your BMAT... from what I was told by an Emmanuel student addmisions tutors have an order of importance.

Predicted Grades
Past Exam Results
BMAT
Interview
UCAS Reference
Personal Statement

You can do not so well in one of these factors and get an offer bt two and you are pushing it....

Concnetrate on revision for the BMAT, rahter than worrying about interview as question change from year to year and some tutors ask questions they are in the mood to ask. A week is more than enough to prepare provided you read the newspapers often enough.

[worshipdubya]

Concnetrate on revision for the BMAT.

Is this the current advice from admissions tutors? I'm quite interested by this: when I went through the process, we were told that it was impossible to prepare for the BMAT - as it was a test of general aptitude, rather than knowledge (this was touted as one of the positives of the BMAT). Are people now being advised to revise for the BMAT? If so - what revision are you being advised to do?

[markjay]

Hiya, well I'm not sure about everyone elses school. But my school is slightly obsessed about these types of things and for prep for the BMAT I have a few extra science (physics lol) classes, mental arithmetic classes (thankfuly, cause it really slows me down) and about 5 practice essays that will be marked and commented on by my head of English (who is the cheif examiner for english lit)

On top of which I'm gonna order the BMAT book whenever they finally publish it, twas supposed to be friday lol put the put it back to the 18th

[karansaraf]

I've been told to revise GCSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths, since Section 2 of the BMAT doesn't check your aptitude (that's Section 1), it checks your KNOWLEDGE of these subjects, and if you haven't don't any of them for AS, then it's definately worth going through the GCSE of them (IE. for me, I didn't do Physics AS, so I'm going to revise my GCSE work, since Physics is over 25% of section 2).

[worshipdubya]

Ah thats pretty interesting, and I guess its a sign of the increasing significance placed on the BMAT. When we sat it, we were told that the knowledge required for section 2 would be expected of us from GCSE (i didn't do physics to AS either) and that work we'd done to prepare for interviews (debating / scientific discussions etc.) would be enough for the essays.

I don't want to discourage anyone from working for the BMAT - it will almost certainly be useful; I just find the change in attitudes really interesting.

[The Messiah]

Ah thats pretty interesting, and I guess its a sign of the increasing significance placed on the BMAT. When we sat it, we were told that the knowledge required for section 2 would be expected of us from GCSE (i didn't do physics to AS either) and that work we'd done to prepare for interviews (debating / scientific discussions etc.) would be enough for the essays.

I don't want to discourage anyone from working for the BMAT - it will almost certainly be useful; I just find the change in attitudes really interesting.

Well, to be honest. I myslef did very little for the BMAT and hence got very very average scores. Those who had done some sort of revision/work (revising over your GCSE science should be a standard for everyone) did a lot better than I did.

I only have the interests of you guys at heart, but I did nothing and did average and everyone elese did a lot better from be doing some sort of "revision". So my advice this year to everyone would be to go over your GCSE Science, do the past paper on the website and the online version on one of UCL's sister sites. And if you want to you can buy some critical thinking books and work from those.

[The Caretaker]

As I'm quite interested in getting into Emmanuel myself I've done a bit of listening around the old grapevine . Apparently, besides a love for ducks (which is mandatory) Emmanuel also has an extra preparatory study at interview. I think this is something involving reading an article and then getting grilled on it in the interview itself.

Vive les canards!

[Agent-K]

Right guys, interview procedures have obviously changed at Emma, but this is what I had 3 years ago (don't ask me where the last 3 years have gone):

I had two interviews, one a 'personal' one, and the other a more academic one. In the personal interview I had the admissions tutor and a GP. The questions they asked me were pretty straightforward, more to do with what I put in my PS than anything else.

They also handed me a photocopy of the essay I wrote for Sec C of the MVAT (BMAT predecessor, almost identical), on 'why plants don't have brains'... I was told in advance that they will want to discuss my essay, so luckily I had a chance to think of stuff to say that I hadn't originally written (and boy was there a lot of stuff I missed out... reading the garble I'd written was a cringing experience)... They also asked me to talk about diabetes, which wasn't anything difficult, but I did put my foot in it by talking about salt excretion instead of glucose excretion!

The academic interview was next, but beforehand they gave me a sheet of paper that had some questions they wanted me to answer, and they also asked me to choose a further question to prepare in advance. I chose to do a question on the respiration equation (working out mols) which I knew I could do without cocking up!

When I walked in and handed in the work I'd done, both interviewers looked at the question and said 'Ooh so you did the easy one then?'... I didn't know what to say to that so I just sat there looking like a lemon.

They then got started with the interview and they did ask me a lot of physics-related questions (but they probably knew from UCAS that I was doing physics for A2) so I did half expect it.

They did ask me some challenging questions though, like 'calculate the surface tension of an alveolus in the lungs'... having said that, they didn't just say that and leave me to work it out - they guided me through a lot of it, and even though I'm sure I got the end equation wrong, they seemed OK with what I'd done!

The thing to stress is that they weren't at any point trying to trick me out (even though I thought they were!) which is important to bear in mind if you want to do well at interview. Although they ask you challenging questions, they do help you through them, and it's more to see how you think than what answer you get.

I can't think of anything else (this was a really long time ago!) but I was pretty tired by the end of both interviews (both were around 6pm in the evening) and think I slept all the way home! In the end I got an offer from Robinson through the pool, and have no regrets whatsoever about coming here because in a way the atmosphere is definitely more relaxed than Emma, and suits me better I think!

Hope that helps, sorry for the rambling post!
K

[werlop]

I was interviewed at Emmanuel last year, got an offer and will be starting there this October.

I wrote a huge post about my interviews somewhere on this forum, so instead of me regurgitating it all a bit of judicial searching on the Cambridge forum should help you...