Admissions interview workshop

The workshop, held yesterday (November 16), gave students in the borough who have just applied to medical school, or to Oxford or Cambridge an idea of what to expect at an admissions interview. It also explained why UK medical schools, Oxford and Cambridge conduct admissions interviews and what the interviewers are looking for.

Newnham College and Barking & Dagenham LEA started running the workshop in 2002 to set nervous students' minds at rest about things like what to wear for their interviews and how to react if they don't know the answer to a question.

The practical tips students are given include:

• Just wear something you feel comfortable in. Don't worry about 'creating an impression'; the interviewers are interested in your academic ability, not your dress sense;
• Have a go at answering all the questions, including those you don't know the answers to. Don't be afraid to admit you don't know something, but do show you're prepared to try and figure it out. The interviewers don't expect you to know everything. In fact, they often ask about things you haven't studied (or to which there are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers) because they want to see how you think when faced with new problems and ideas;
• Do your thinking out loud so that the interviewers can help you along with your answers; and
• Don't be afraid to debate with the interviewers. They want to see how you think and whether you can form logical arguments; they don't expect (or want) you just to agree with everything they say.

Students who attended the previous interview workshops say they found them very helpful. Sharon McGaughey went to the first workshop in 2002 and is now studying Engineering at Newnham College, Cambridge.

"My chemistry teacher had been to Oxford," she says, "but apart from that there was hardly anyone to ask about interviews. The workshop was really useful because you're getting reliable advice from someone who actually does the interviewing."

Newnham College Admissions Tutor Dr Ute Stock, who runs the workshop, said:

"It is very important to me to provide reassurance about the interviewing process. It can be very frightening, particularly for applicants who get little help at home or in their schools. It is therefore crucial to get the message across that interviewers are looking for academic content, rather than style."

Rosalind Hall, Aimhigher Co-ordinator at Barking & Dagenham LEA, who co-runs the workshop, said:

"In the first year, only about three schools in the borough sent students to this workshop. Now we're almost up to full quota. It's a real success story."

Students don't have to attend a workshop in order to be well prepared for their admissions interview, though. There's lots of free advice about preparing for interviews in the Undergraduate Admissions section of the University of Cambridge website - just click on the link at the right-hand side of this page.