Lol- patience @ailele :-). preinterview assessment tests were just a few days ago. Also, you need to be specific, by college & subject. I know the waiting is hard, but don’t expect anything this side of Thanksgiving.
@collegemom3717 Thanks. Trinity Hall (CS). The US interview starts from 11/26 per their website. I doubt it will wait for that long. For CS it is on-site test not pre-test, I believe.
That’s an early interview! Invites seem to start 8-10 days before the first interview (based on the random sample of our experiences/friends & family), but I don’t know anybody who’s applied to Trinity Hall so don’t even have any anecdotal experience to share. Good luck 
@collegemom3717 very helpful. Thanks a lot
I think @ailele is talking about the New York video interviews (Nov 26-29) since those dates are before Michaelmas Term is finished and so college accommodation would not be available then.
Cambridge will invite all “realistic” candidates (75% of applicants) to interview so there’s probably no need to worry (although I guess maybe you want to book a flight to New York?). For the record I would always strongly advise applicants to interview in the U.K. if at all possible to demonstrate commitment, since one particular concern of Cambridge is that they hate to make an offer and have it turned down - that virtually never happens in the U.K., their domestic yield (amongst students who get the required A level results) is nearly 100% (my college said that only one domestic student turned them down this year).
Given the multiple subjects and colleges being scheduled those days it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t give anyone a time until they’ve got the pre-interview assessment results from the other subjects.
Thanks @Twoin18
Thanks, @Twoin18 - was not thinking about NY!
For Cambridge interview in NYC, any suggestion/advice? Thanks.
have you got an invite @ailele?! congrats!!
@collegemom3717 Yes. Thanks. 11/26, NYC. Your answer to my question before was very helpful.
Well done! Best advice I can give is
*don’t be afraid to take a moment and think about your answer;
*when you are working out an answer talk through your reasoning out loud (they are interested in how you think & how you approach an unknown; also if you get a place that is how tutorials will work);
*when they ask follow up questions think about why they might be asking the question/ asking it that way- there are often hints in the question that are meant to help you work your way to an answer.
And, of course: remember to breath! When people get anxious they often literally freeze, so breathing stops/slows & your brain doesn’t get as much of the oxygen it uses for fuel
Come back & tell us how it goes
@collegemom3717 THANK YOU.
@collegemom3717 Your advice is very helpful. I will be going to Cambridge for interview. Thank you!
@collegemom3717 really good advice!
@collegemom3717’s advice is great. I’d note that they don’t expect you to solve everything on your own - they will give hints if you get stuck. So explain what you are stuck on (e.g. ask for terminology to be rephrased which could be an issue as some things may be taught differently in the UK) or ask questions to clarify (but don’t do that simply to delay because they only have a fixed amount of time per question and will eventually just move on). And often, they will keep going and extending/generalizing the problem if you solve the first part of the question (what they want is to see that you have great insight, it’s probably fair to say that nowadays many colleges won’t admit anyone they think isn’t smart enough to be capable of getting a first).
So the best answers will show an ability to visualize/transform the problem or generalize the results (one reason that Math Olympiad students often do well). For example I still remember my NatSci (physics) interview question from 30+ years ago (I screwed up some of the other questions, but this ended up being a good answer): “Q: if you fire a ball around the earth so it orbits under gravity and drop a ball through the middle of earth, which gets to the other side first.” I had no idea. They then said “if I said they get there at the same time, why would that be?” And (…flash of inspiration…) I explained that this was simple harmonic motion (SHM) because the force of gravity is proportional to the distance from the center of the earth, and that SHM could be characterized as the projection of a point on the edge of a rotating circle onto a line (and that was also a cosine function) - at that point it wasn’t necessary to even do any calculations or write anything on paper.
@Twoin18 Thanks.
Hey everyone, I just got offered an interview for Economics at Christ’s college. Which is strange because I said I preferred to be interviewed in NYC.
But anyway I will be making the trip to Cambridge on my own, and was wondering what some general advice would be for Economics interviews? Is the interview going to be very math-based, and if yes, how much math do I need to know (I am currently taking Calculus BC, and we are finishing indefinite integrals).
Also, are they going to ask questions about our motivation to go to Cambridge (“Why Economics at Cambridge?” for example)?
Congrats on the interview invite, @kiwi351!! Take a look at this video, made by Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUwN6GI-0EQ
What they really care about is the academic stuff, and b/c the time is so short, they stay pretty focused on that. Don’t expect much (if any) chit-chat. Know anything that you have submitted (in your PS, written work, etc). really well. Econ at Cambridge is super-mathy, and you will almost certainly have some math problems during the interview, and/or some problems to do just before the interview for discussion in the interview.
How much economics have you done? If you haven’t done much/any then make sure you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, especially the appropriate terminology (e.g. read an introductory textbook).
Just as with the physics example I gave above, questions in the interview will potentially take a “real world” example (e.g. describing a set of demand or price curves) and ask you to express and solve it mathematically. But it’s not about working out the answer to some differentiation or integration problem on paper (that might perhaps be on a written pre-test). Instead it’s about understanding how to devise a representative mathematical model and then figuring out how things might change (e.g. if they impose additional constraints).
If you get the chance, do try and give the impression you’ll definitely take up a place if it’s offered, since that’s a big concern with Americans (they expect all UK students will attend if they achieve their conditional offer). So don’t mention that you’ve applied to HYPSM etc or ask them about the advantages/a conparison of a UK course vs the US if they ask if you have any questions. You have to be convinced (and therefore be convincing) that this is where you want to go more than anywhere else.
Hardy’s “A Mathematician’s Apology” (https://www.math.ualberta.ca/mss/misc/A%20Mathematician%27s%20Apology.pdf) was written many years ago but is still a good insight into the way Cambridge dons think (especially the last few pages about his schooldays).
@Twoin18 and @collegemom3717 really great advice. Very kind of you. Good luck @kiwi351