Saleem's Anonymous Interview

This is one person’s recollection of his/her interview at Downing College for Medical Sciences.

This is not intended to tell you the answers for your interview, just merely to give you some guidance on what the objectives of the interview are, and prepare you a little.

I decided to apply to Downing as soon as I walked into the main courtyard, and decided that this was definitely the place where I could spend three years of my life. I applied in October and heard back from the college fairly late in comparison to all my friends from school who also applied to Cambridge. In fact I think I was the last to hear from my Cambridge college.

The letter told me the date and times of my two interviews, as well as the people who would interview me. One of the interviews would be with two people, a man and a woman, while the other interview would be with one man.

I turned up on the day and went the Wilkins room where I sat with my parents in a room filled with other candidates and other students of the college who were helping calm applicants' nerves.

My first interview was with the man and the woman. I was prepared for this to be a science interview, and indeed it was. I was asked about genes, and how genetics could help in medicine. I was also asked about experimental procedures involving genes. I was then asked about HIV, a virus which I had read a lot about and had talked about in my personal statement. I told the interviewers what I knew, and they then asked me some questions, testing some of the principles behind how the virus worked. I found this very tough, and gave wrong answers a couple of times, but with a bit of help I was able to answer the majority of their questions. The first interview ended with some general questions about why I had picked Downing.

My second interview was a short while later. I was expecting this to be a general interview about my hobbies and interests outside of medicine. I was very shocked when it was nothing like this. The interview started with my interviewer asking me about my A-level Biology project on Ecology, what a nightmare that was. I had not written up my project and was unsure on a lot of areas, but was pushed to answer his questions and did so to the best of my ability. The interview then moved onto DNA. As in the last interview the questions started off at a very basic A-level standard, and having answered these questions correctly, the questions then became harder, testing my thinking. Again I faltered, and answered questions wrongly, some of them because I was under pressure and made a stupid mistake, some because they were educated guesses, which were not correct. I could see he was pushing me to think for myself, and use the information I had gathered during my A level Biology and Chemistry courses, and put them together. With a little help again, I managed to answer his questions.
The interview ended much the same as the first interview with questions outside of science. This time I was asked about my sporting activities, and whether I would play for the college at the sports which I said I was interested in.

When I came out of the interview I was relieved, but felt I had given a good account of myself. Yes, I did make some stupid mistakes, but that is bound to happen when you are under pressure. I knew what to expect thanks to my teachers at my school who had told me a little about the Cambridge interview process, as well as speaking to pupils from my school at Cambridge.

My advice would be to expect to be pushed, and expect to get things wrong. They are testing you to see if you can think for yourself, use the information you have learnt at A-level and take it to a slightly higher level. They are not expecting you to get everything right, so do not worry when you don’t. Just try your best and show them you can think for yourself.

Best of luck with the application and interview.