Cambridge Interview Completed
Toby Waterworth
interview....<gulps>
I actually quite enjoyed it! I was of course nervous, though I don't
usually show any external signs...however it was absolutely freezing
and so I was shivering mucho! At one point my knees were knocking
together, literally - I didn't think that actually happened! I don't
think the interviewer noticed though...
Everyone was really friendly and talkative..though I did get bombarded
with the typical, 'what A Levels are you doing?' question. The
existing students were really helpful and took us to and from
interviews, so there were no problems at all on that front.
The general interview was fine; it was taken by a tutor of history,
and because one of my A Levels is History, that's what we talked about
for the majority of the session. For example, what history books have
you read, how was Lenin able to come back to Russia from Finland and
take power? etc. Another question: why study law at Robinson? Final
question, 'do _you_ have any questions?', and I left. She looked at
her watch and wound up the interview, I don't know if she was running
late or bored of me! She was really pleasant and encouraging, and
taught me a few things too!
The second interview was the subject interview, and this again
focussed on my A Levels, particularly English and History. I was asked
about what I'm doing in english by the DoS, and he then asked me how I
study language as well as literature. I said changes in language over
time etc. he asked for an example, I gave 'promiscuous'. The other,
very beautiful (female) fellow asked me some questions about the book
I'm studying.
Moved on to history: what interests you about history? I said looking
at different perceptions, gaining loads of sources etc to discover
truths and analyse events etc...he said that could describe any
subject, so I said ok I like the fact that I am studying something as
profound as the radical change of a regime etc..
Then the second fellow asked me about some legal scenarios; I was
asked to describe any wrongs and compare several scenarios...she asked
questions in order to send me in the direction of a certain
conclusion. I was then asked to argue for the opposite.
Have I any questions? Goodbye!
Then the test; apparently its the first time there has been a test for
law. It was basically summarising and legal reasoning. I think I did
ok, but I certainly didn't get 100%...I don't know if I was expected
to or not!
Anyway, if there is a Charlotte from Bristol on this newsgroup, hello
and good luck, I really hope you get an offer (who cares about common
sense anyway!?) :)
Overall whether I get an offer or not, I enjoyed the experience, I
really liked having to really think about things, and I think I
'performed ' quite well, though I have no idea really...I answered all
of their questions, but how well, I don't know.
I will be hapy to recommend Robinson College to anyone thinking of
Cambridge, they are really nice, helpful and they care.
ok that's it for now........letter goes out on the 27th apparently,
Happy Christmas eeeeeeek
Chris Share
says...
>ok...I have been to my <insert adjective of choice here> Cambridge
>interview....<gulps>
<snip snip>
>Overall whether I get an offer or not, I enjoyed the experience, I
>really liked having to really think about things, and I think I
>'performed ' quite well, though I have no idea really...I answered all
>of their questions, but how well, I don't know.
Well done, and now why not fill out a profile at www.oxbridge-
info.org.uk? </plug>
And that goes for the rest of you lot too... :)
>I will be hapy to recommend Robinson College to anyone thinking of
>Cambridge, they are really nice, helpful and they care.
And the chapel's apparently quite nice, and the bar isn't too bad :)
>ok that's it for now........letter goes out on the 27th apparently,
>Happy Christmas eeeeeeek
Good luck :)
chris
Martina
"Toby Waterworth" <kelgr...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:3df78a68....@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
> Everyone was really friendly and talkative..though I did get bombarded
> with the typical, 'what A Levels are you doing?' question. The
> existing students were really helpful and took us to and from
> interviews, so there were no problems at all on that front.
Bet they didn't wear a pink elephant sticker on their forehead like I did
though. :-P
Good luck. :)
M.
Toby Waterworth
wrote:
You are correct, they didn't....I thought the idea was to attract more
applicants, not scare them away?! :-)
Thanx, but unfortunately, luck isn't enough boo hoo :)
Guan Yang
> ok...I have been to my <insert adjective of choice here> Cambridge
> interview....<gulps>
Me too.
Everyone was quite friendly at King's.
I am not sure how the interview went. I was asked some general
questions about my school and my IB course; they then asked me to
sketch f(x)=x^2/(1-x), which I goofed up completely, mainly because I
was a bit nervous in the beginning. (After the interview I immediately
went to my room to check it on the calculator, and it turns out that I
got it *completely* wrong. And that I should have been able to see
it.)
Some questions about 3G auctions and sunk costs, and I was asked to
solve two games and describe how to find the maximum of some function
numerically. (I suggested adapting the increment according to whether
the function was upward or downward sloping.)
The test was an American-style general reasoning test - "Thinking
Skills Assessment" from Cambridge International Examinations (part of
UCLES), but I haven't been able to find anything on it on the
cie.org.uk. Maybe it's specially designed for King's. 90 minutes, 50
multiple-choice questions. Not something that I was used to: Many of
the questions had a short text, perhaps 6-7 lines, and I had to choose
"the MAIN conclusion" out of 5 options that IMHO could all be correct,
but apparently only one of them was the MAIN conclusion.
People were very friendly. No-one asked me about my A-levels,
presumably because I am not taking A-levels. :-) I did overhear that
King's is incredibly oversubscribed for Economics with more than 6+
applicants per place.
After the test I saw "Die Another Day", since it's not out in Denmark
until January.
Guan
P.S. Perhaps a bit hypocritical since I'm not a native
speaker/listener, but British people talk funny. Or maybe because I
originally learned English from American teachers. I met several
people whom I could simply not understand, one was from Scotland. ;-)
(I really feel sorry for the girl in my class who has more or less
decided to accept the offer from Edinburgh.)
Leon
> Everyone was quite friendly at King's.
>
> I am not sure how the interview went. I was asked some general
> questions about my school and my IB course; they then asked me to
> sketch f(x)=x^2/(1-x), which I goofed up completely, mainly because I
> was a bit nervous in the beginning. (After the interview I immediately
> went to my room to check it on the calculator, and it turns out that I
> got it *completely* wrong. And that I should have been able to see
> it.)
>
As long as you showed some reasoning when doing it, and showed that you were
listening (and learning!) then you might well have done better than your
answer to the question might indicate ;-) At my own interview I didn't get
every question right, but I did really try to pay attention and not give up
on the problem. Think aloud, show how you think, what's your reasoning
behind it...etc. Math's at a certain stage becomes as arguable as Economics
or English - (know someone is gonna argue with me there ;-) Although with
Math's there's always some know it all who has the 'right' proof.
> Some questions about 3G auctions and sunk costs, and I was asked to
> solve two games and describe how to find the maximum of some function
> numerically. (I suggested adapting the increment according to whether
> the function was upward or downward sloping.)
>
> The test was an American-style general reasoning test - "Thinking
> Skills Assessment" from Cambridge International Examinations (part of
> UCLES), but I haven't been able to find anything on it on the
> cie.org.uk. Maybe it's specially designed for King's. 90 minutes, 50
> multiple-choice questions. Not something that I was used to: Many of
> the questions had a short text, perhaps 6-7 lines, and I had to choose
> "the MAIN conclusion" out of 5 options that IMHO could all be correct,
> but apparently only one of them was the MAIN conclusion.
>
> People were very friendly. No-one asked me about my A-levels,
> presumably because I am not taking A-levels. :-) I did overhear that
> King's is incredibly oversubscribed for Economics with more than 6+
> applicants per place.
>
> After the test I saw "Die Another Day", since it's not out in Denmark
> until January.
>
> Guan
>
> P.S. Perhaps a bit hypocritical since I'm not a native
> speaker/listener, but British people talk funny. Or maybe because I
> originally learned English from American teachers. I met several
> people whom I could simply not understand, one was from Scotland. ;-)
Britain has a lot of accents and a fair few dialects, in fact a lot of
southerners can't understand what the hell the northerners go on about half
the time so you're certainly not the only one.
> (I really feel sorry for the girl in my class who has more or less
> decided to accept the offer from Edinburgh.)
Why? Edinburgh's certainly not a bad uni, can't see who someone should feel
sorry for those going there (apart from the cold weather and steep hilly
streets, phew!)
So glad my interview at Cam. is behind me, can think about other things now
(like AS modules in January, oh joy)
-Leon.
--
cut out spammed
Dr A. N. Walker
Leon <dog....@SPaMmEDvirgin.net> wrote:
><snip>
>> I am not sure how the interview went. I was asked some general
>> questions about my school and my IB course; they then asked me to
>As long as you showed some reasoning when doing it, and showed that you were
>listening (and learning!) then you might well have done better than your
>answer to the question might indicate ;-)
Right. We no longer "interview" [pointless, as well as
expensive in resources], but when we did, 'getting the right answer"
was the least interesting part. The important stuff was whether
you were prepared to look at new things, whether you could think
"on your feet", whether you could spot analogies, that sort of
thing. The [surprisingly many] applicants who glanced at the Q
and said "no, we haven't done that at school" got v short shrift;
those who glanced at the Q and wrote down a faultless solution
without saying a word simply got harder and harder questions.
>> [...] I did overhear that
>> King's is incredibly oversubscribed for Economics with more than 6+
>> applicants per place.
That's not "incredibly oversubscribed". Haven't seen the
figures for Econ here, but joint Maths/Econ already has 16+ apps
per place, with over a month still to go, and is very far from
being Nott'm's most popular course.
>> (I really feel sorry for the girl in my class who has more or less
>> decided to accept the offer from Edinburgh.)
The English spoken in Edinburgh is [almost universally]
perfectly understandable. For impenetrable English, you need to
try parts of Glasgow or Newcastle; or else the remoter parts of
the countryside. The *really* impenetrable "English" you hear in
Wales or the Hebrides is actually Welsh or Gaelic.
--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
a...@maths.nott.ac.uk
JHP
>
> The English spoken in Edinburgh is [almost universally]
> perfectly understandable. For impenetrable English, you need to
> try parts of Glasgow or Newcastle; or else the remoter parts of
> the countryside.
The *really* impenetrable "English" you hear in Wales or the Hebrides is
consonants.
:>)
John
Guan Yang
> > (I really feel sorry for the girl in my class who has more or less
> > decided to accept the offer from Edinburgh.)
>
> Why? Edinburgh's certainly not a bad uni, can't see who someone should feel
> sorry for those going there (apart from the cold weather and steep hilly
> streets, phew!)
Well, I meant the language. ;-)
I have now found the test I was given. It is CIE's A-level Thinking
Skills:
http://www.cie.org.uk/CIE/WebSite/qualificationsandawardshub/qualificationhubs/generalqualsubject/generalqualsubject.jsp?oid=2873&name=A+%26amp%3B+AS+Level+Thinking+Skills&typeoid=2208
Guan
Alex Warren
My flatmate pointed out to me in conversation that I said "ta'oo", when I meant
"tattoo". I'm not sure what surprised me more - that I missed out crucial
consonants, or that I'm apparently normally so well-spoken that this was in any
way unusual.
Alex
--
alt.uk.a-levels FAQ and photos: http://www.axeuk.com/aua/
One World, One Man, OneBollock.com: http://www.onebollock.com/
JHP
>
> My flatmate pointed out to me in conversation that I said "ta'oo",
> when I meant "tattoo". I'm not sure what surprised me more - that I
> missed out crucial consonants, or that I'm apparently normally so
> well-spoken that this was in any way unusual.
>
>
> Alex
Estuarine English (as it's known) is becoming a class marker, but what is
interesting is that within the Sarfeest torkin wivvart Ts is a high class
marker but every else in the county it's a low-class marker! When TB drops
into his 'Man of the people' style many more ppl in the Sarfeest appear to
be taken in, but in parts of the country where dropping Ts is not an
affiliative marker he sounds really false.
John
Brian Sloan
> interview....<gulps>
>
> I actually quite enjoyed it! I was of course nervous, though I don't
> usually show any external signs...however it was absolutely freezing
> and so I was shivering mucho! At one point my knees were knocking
> together, literally - I didn't think that actually happened! I don't
> think the interviewer noticed though...
Re-reading your post after going through the procedure for the same subject
and college depresses me...
---
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Martina
"Brian Sloan" <br...@sloan29.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d2FK9.1131$4k6.136544@wards...
> Re-reading your post after going through the procedure for the same
subject
> and college depresses me...
What happened?
M.
Brian Sloan
subject and college depresses me...
>
> What happened?
It probably went QUITE well but I can't say I enjoyed the interviews
themselves all that much, other than the challenge of being interviewed by
true legal experts. I just don't think I was able to sell myself as much as
I would have liked. I think the test went well though...
Brian
Martina
> >>Re-reading your post after going through the procedure for the same
> subject and college depresses me...
> >
> > What happened?
>
> It probably went QUITE well but I can't say I enjoyed the interviews
> themselves all that much, other than the challenge of being interviewed by
> true legal experts. I just don't think I was able to sell myself as much
as
> I would have liked. I think the test went well though...
Well done, and fingers crossed. How did you like Cambridge and the college?
M.
Brian Sloan
> Well done, and fingers crossed. How did you like Cambridge and the
college?
>
doodle
fingers crossed for you all!
peace and love,
doodle
xXx
p.s. had interview at downing. lovely college in every way.
Sarah
> p.s. had interview at downing. lovely college in every
way.
How did it go??
Kate
> >>Re-reading your post after going through the procedure for the same
> subject and college depresses me...
> >
> > What happened?
>
> It probably went QUITE well but I can't say I enjoyed the interviews
> themselves all that much, other than the challenge of being interviewed by
> true legal experts. I just don't think I was able to sell myself as much
as
> I would have liked. I think the test went well though...
>
I know what you mean about the interview- I was really frustrated by my
'legal interview' because it felt like she was pushing me to where she
wanted to go without giving me any option to put my own thoughts into it.
Surely being an individual is more important than just agreeing with the law
fellow? I know I definitely stuffed up when I complained about it in my
general interview. But ho-hum, I don't really think I'm suited to go there
anyway, I'm more of a big city person. But the rejection's still going to
hurt...