My Cambridge Medicine Interview! ~ Plus some tips :)

[@malgorzatatabor1327]

Nice and informative video. Thank you and well done :) I am planning to apply this year :)

[@life_of_lou]

Thank you so much - I'm pleased you liked it! And all the best with your application!! :)

[@LMM-z3t]

This was invaluable, thank you so much for sharing!

[@cariwunwun]

thank you so much for the video!! i’m having my interview next week and i’m terrified big time 😖

[@life_of_lou]

OMG just seen your comment!! I hope it went okay! :) Sending you lots of luck and support with your journey through applications - and congratulations on getting an interview :) xx

[@takyc7883]

I didnt realise it was so sciencey!!

[@life_of_lou]

yeah mine was REALLY sciencey, almost 100% science-based apart from one question about my EPQ

[@akriti6773]

Thanks a lot for the video!! It's gonna help me a lot!!👍

[@life_of_lou]

That's great to hear! I hope your application goes well and all the best on your journey :) x

[@akriti6773]

@@life_of_lou Thanks a lot Louisa!! Hope to see more of your videos!👍

[@life_of_lou]

@@akriti6773 You're so welcome, and thank you for engaging with my channel! :) It's great to know you're enjoying the videos

[@akriti6773]

@@life_of_lou Up for the ‘Cambridge terminology’ video!!🙌🏻

[@takyc7883]

Also, why does CO2 in blood levels decrease and shift the graph to the left at high altitude?

[@life_of_lou]

so at high altitudes, the O2 in the air is lower, so in order to make sure we bind to as much of this limited oxygen as possible, the curve HAS to shift to the left, so that 100% (or high) binding to oxygen in the blood can be obtained at lower partial pressures in the high altitude environment. in terms of CO2, there is likely to be a drop in blood levels because at higher altitudes, people tend to breathe more rapidly in order to ventilate faster and bring as much oxygen into their lungs (and blood) as possible. The faster ventilation/breathing rate means that as well as more O2 being brought in, more CO2 is lost. The blood then becomes more alkaline, which opens the structure of the haemoglobin groups and allows more oxygen to bind, also increasing the affinity and leading to a leftward shift of the curve. Conversely, when there is more CO2 in the blood (like when a person is doing lots of exercise and respiration), this will make it acidic and suggests that they need to RELEASE more oxygen at the muscles to pay off any oxygen debt. Thus, at acidic pH levels, with higher blood CO2 levels, the curve shifts to the right so that the oxygen binds less easily and gets released at the muscles (where it is needed) more readily. Hope that makes sense! Again really REALLY sorry I didn't see this earlier - but hopefully if it doesn't help with interviews it helps with A level revision :)

[@takyc7883]

OMG I would hate that tissues question. I literally pictured paper tissues, I would have frozen bad.

[@vetoedimpersonator4478]

LOL

[@life_of_lou]

yep this was actually EXACTLY what I pictured when they asked me, and then I had to really quickly snap out of it and screw my biology A level head back on lol - but I just tried to remember that the questions are all meant to be about science :)

[@takyc7883]

got mine in 2 weeks!!!

[@life_of_lou]

good luck if you haven't had it yet! and I hope it went well if you have :) Wishing you lots of good fortune for an offer!

[@Ava-ee8pv]

Do you have to do four a levels for Cambridge? I told my school that I wanted to do Biology, chemistry, maths and an EPQ. But they are telling me to pick physics instead of the EPQ. I really want to do the EPQ, but I know that I could get an A* even if I pick physics. So should I pick physics even though I like it less?

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! So my advice would be ABSOLUTELY NOT! I only did three A levels, and an EPQ, largely because I felt this would give me a much broader skillset than just taking another A level with even more exams. You won't gain any more skills from taking another science if you're already doing bio and chem, and the maths elements of physics will largely overlap with the Stats & Mechs bit of Maths too. An EPQ on the other hand, lets you undergo self-directed learning and helps you gain time management, planning and writing/critical thinking/research skills - which none of your A level subjects will. Finally, not every college lets students take 4 A levels (largely due to funding pressures, and often if they do, it's only further maths (this was the case at my college)) so to give students offers for Oxbridge on the basis they have 4 A levels rather than 3 would be discriminatory, and definitely isn't something they do. Out of the 7 medics at my college in my year, only one of us has 4 A levels (the 4th being Spanish as they were fluent in that anyway) and the rest of us have 3. I'm also the only one with an EPQ as again, not every school/college offers that. Hope that helps! :)

[@Ava-ee8pv]

@@life_of_lou thank you so much replying. That just helped me so much to make my decision that I will enjoy the most.

[@ia8090]

Hi I am really scared about my interview in two weeks. I got a bad bmat score and I am scared that I will be rejected post-interview anyway. Any tips on how to shine in the interview so I have a slight chance of getting an offer?

[@kiranf_19]

in the same boat as you, mine is in like 5days and i didn't do great on the bmat...but i guess just be yourself that's what everyone has been saying to me, they definitely saw something in you which is why they called you for the interview...so good luck, you got this! :)

[@SimranSingh-wu8br]

I didn't get too great either but still got an offer, quite surprised about that. I have mine in 3 days, I would say read your personal statement before hand and if you mentioned any extra reading, read up on that too. I had a mock interview a couple of days ago at school with some teachers, they gave me some good feedback and said that I have to slow down when talking. They also said it is totally OKAY to pause and think for a moment before rushing into an answer.

[@ia8090]

Thank you so much for the advice guys! I wish you both the best with your interviews and hopefully, we all do amazing:)

[@kiranf_19]

@@ia8090 thanks...wish you the best too!

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya!! I've only just seen your comment so if you've already had your interview then I hope it went well!! I'm wishing you the best of luck with your application. The Cambridge offer making system is totally hollistic so all of your application is considered equally. So if you had a less good BMAT score (though to be honest anything above a 3.5, 3.5 and 2.5B is more than enough to get an offer without worrying too much, i know plenty of cambridge medics with 'low' scores!) as long as enough of the rest of your application is good (i.e. interview, or personal statement, or GCSE grades, or predicted grades, or references etc.) then you've got a shot! Good luck x

[@vaniverma2171]

I am from India can u tell when will Cambridge admission process start for 2022 session or is it over

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! Sadly deadlines for 2022 admissions actually closed in October 2021 - the cycle is always very early for Cambridge because they interview in early december. Offers came out just over a week ago for 2022 admissions. But for 2023 entry you've got until mid-October this year to apply :) Hope that helps! x

[@_ola_3680]

Hey! Do you think it's possible to get into Cambridge med with chem, bio and english lit at A-Level? Thinking about doing Maths as well in my gap year. I'm also doing an EPQ and got 6 9s out of 8 at GCSE with extenuating circumstances. Just checking in to see whether you think it's possible :)

[@lanabanana1232]

what do you recomend wearing to the interview?

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! Sorry for the delayed reply - i'm just getting around to replying to comments now... ...so for my interviews at Cambridge, I wore smart(ish) clothes (e.g. chequered skirt, black top, tights, nice boots) but that was mostly because I was applying to medicine and for all the universities I applied to I was required to attend interviews wearing similar 'smart' attire. For other subjects e.g. maths, english etc. students can wear whatever they feel comfortable in. At the end of the day, the interviewers will not care what you are wearing, as they are interested solely in what you are saying and how you are thinking. In more creative subjects/humanities, there is definitely no need to wear exceptionally 'smart' clothes. But for medicine/vet med/law, I would suggest if you want to feel more on the 'safe-side' then play it slightly smarter as these are often viewed as 'professional' subjects. Hope that helps!

[@takyc7883]

Did any trinity hall / cambridge specific questions come up?

[@life_of_lou]

Nope! They won't know if you're a direct applicant to the college, or if you put in an open application (and therefore would've just been assigned to tit hall) - so they don't tend to ask college specific. They might ask uni specific but tbh if you've applied to cambridge for medicine (or any STEM subject) it tends to be because you 'like science' but they'll figure out if that's true or not in the interview using science questions i guess!

[@its_mil_4816]

Why did you choose to apply to Cambridge over Oxford?

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! Another great idea for a video - I'll try and get one out over the summer holiday to explain before UCAS choices deadline but in short I'd actually been to Cambridge on a camping trip when I was about 7 and remember thinking it was such a beautiful place! When my grades started looking good enough and I began considering unis it seemed like a nice dream to think about studying there as I already knew I liked the area. I've never visited Oxford and as a typically rather indecisive person, I just wanted to save worrying about choices and picked Cambridge as my tendency is to always come back to the first thing I liked anyway. Plus course-wise there are some differences. Cambridge still does Cadaveric dissection, they offer more choices of modules in 3rd year, and the exams are a little different too. Oxford also doesn't take the August BMAT sitting and I was keen to do that one so I knew my result before applying. Hope that helps!! xx

[@its_mil_4816]

@@life_of_lou Thank you very much for that! I would really appreciate if you could elaborate on the differences between exams at the two unis

[@life_of_lou]

@@its_mil_4816 okay so it looks like oxford teaches the content slightly differently to cambridge in terms of the order of things. They examine students at the end of first year on the entire anatomy course, but then to check they retain the knowledge are re-examined on it after year 3 in the summer break. Also in Year 3 at Oxford, as the choices of module are less broad, all students are examined in the same way (on a research project and submitted short essay - linked to medical sciences only) whilst at Cambridge the Year 3 choices include humanities, management, law, engineering etc. as well as medical science modules which means that the examination style varies depending on the subject you choose to study. The medical science modules are examined the same way as at Oxford, but you don't *have* to take them at Cambridge given more choice. It's also worth noting that Cambridge are now slowly reducing the weighting of essays in their exams for certain pre-clinical subjects. I believe they may retain them for physiology and anatomy but at least for biochemistry they are hoping to remove/reduce them - which makes sense as writing biochemistry essays in our exams seemed a bit *extra* and unnecessary. The rest of the examination style at Cambridge is multiple choice, and I believe this is similar to Oxford (also have MCQs and essays). So generally, they are similar, except Oxford does an extra anatomy exam in the 3rd year summer hols, and the different exam styles in 3rd year only exist at Cambridge. Hope that helps - sorry it took me a while to get back to you!

[@its_mil_4816]

@@life_of_lou Thank you so so much! This will be really useful for me! I've been trying to find information regarding this for ages now, but was only able to see the dissection vs prosection, and the different choices of 3rd projects. If any more information does crop up, I would really appreciate it if you could share it, though i'm sure you're really really busy so don't worry if don't have the time. The decreased weighting of essays is an interesting point actually, but I'm not sure if it's significant enough to be a deciding factor.

[@MOT_KA_KHEL61]

What is GCSE and is it important to give GCSE to get into Cambridge?

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! GCSEs are the UK's national exams taken typically at 15/16 years of age, once finishing secondary level education. You have to pass GCSEs in English and Maths to progress to higher education, and the better grades you achieve the greater your chances of getting into universities. Hope that helps answer your question!

[@mariaaaa5613]

what bmat scores did u get :)

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! I scored 6.7, 6.4 and 3A

[@kushi3764]

What alevels did you do?

[@life_of_lou]

Hiya! I did A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Maths, with an EPQ (extended project qualification/dissertation) alongside my studies :)