Interviews

Undergraduate interviews at Magdalene for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 admissions cycles will take place online for all candidates in all subjects. 

For further information, see what to expect at your Cambridge interview.

Most interviews take place in early December. We know interviews can be stressful, but our interviewers work hard to create a comfortable environment to help you perform at your best.

This is your opportunity to showcase your abilities and interests It is no good to us, or to you, if you feel so nervous, intimidated or confused that you cannot reveal your true capabilities. So we try to make sure that arrangements run smoothly, that you know what will be expected of you and where to go for your interviews.

While interviews play a key role in our assessment, we also consider your academic history, personal statement, references, and any submitted work.

The University provides excellent guidance on the interview and admissions process. We highly recommend watching the interview videos for useful insights.

We recommend watching videos produced by the University of Cambridge for insights into the interview process. You can find these resources below:

• Preparing for interview
• Preparing for your online interview
• What to expect at your online interview
• Our interview experience

The Passage

In some subjects, you may receive a passage or article to review before your interview. This material will serve as a foundation for discussion. For English applicants, a brief written exercise may be part of your assessment. This exercise is not graded but facilitates discussion.

The Interviews

Our interviewers are very conscious that candidates come from a variety of backgrounds and while some will be used to talking at length about themselves, others will not have any experience of being interviewed and may be uneasy at the prospect of discussing their interest in their subject with an unfamiliar person. Interestingly, there seems to be no difference statistically between the marks received by those applicants who have had so-called 'interview training'; and those who have not!

Nearly all candidates will receive two interviews. At Magdalene, we try, so far as possible, to hold our interviews in pairs. We feel that a pair of interviewers is somewhat less intimidating than 'a panel', whilst the opportunity to have two interviewers present means that the second interviewer can sometimes rephrase a question to help you if it is apparent that you are having some difficulty with a particular line of questioning.

Subject Interview

At least one of your interviews will be a subject interview. Subject interviews normally involve the Director of Studies and another subject specialist.

They will be familiar with the knowledge, ideas and methods you might reasonably have been expected to gain from your school studies, whether it be A-levels, Scottish examinations, International Baccalaureate or other exams.

A key objective is to assess how you would respond to the small group teaching environment (supervisions) offered in Cambridge. In science subjects, the interview will often comprise a series of discussions or problems in order to investigate not only your current level of baseline knowledge but also to probe your mental flexibility; how you think and are able to develop arguments when offered new data, and whether you can apply these ideas to new problems. In arts subjects, the interview will often provide you with the opportunity to develop arguments through discussion of particular passages or texts and perhaps extend these to new areas.

Interviewers are likely to utilise material from your written exercises, set passages, submitted work, or information on your personal statement as a starting point for these discussions. It is substantially easier for interviewers to concentrate on and develop those areas you do know about, not the ones you don't. Our interviewers work hard to formulate questions which allow candidates to do their best.

General Interview

The second interview may be another interview with subject specialists or it may be a more general interview, perhaps with interviewers from other (but usually related) subjects.

General interviews are sometimes misunderstood and assumed to be non-academic interviews. This is not the case. Whilst the general interviewers may not necessarily be experts in your particular subject, they will be interested to hear about your motivation for your chosen course and how this perhaps fits into your future plans, if you have them.

They might discuss your interest in the course as well as other matters, such as extracurricular interests, which you may have mentioned in your UCAS personal statement. Often, the interviewer will introduce a general line of questioning, perhaps about current events or an area related to your academic interests.

In some subjects, where the Director of Studies feels that there is a wide range of skills to cover in order to assess your aptitude for the subject, you may find that part of the second interview will be of a general nature and part will be taken up with further discussion of a subject-specific nature.

There will normally be a chance for you to ask questions about the College or the course at the end of each interview and to mention briefly anything that you feel is important and which has not been covered. However, do not feel obliged to raise a question unless there is a particular issue which you feel requires clarification.

Tips for Success

Before the Interview: It is helpful to re-read your personal statement and any submitted work to familiarise yourself with the information that the interviewers have. If you had a test or assessment, you might like to consider the questions again and think how you could have answered them differently.

After interview: In order to make comparisons between different candidates, interviewers may often use similar lines of questioning in their interviews. Applicants should be aware that they are prohibited from discussing test or interview questions with other candidates.