PI: How to Cambridge

Today we have a post by Lim Yi Heng, an incoming Cambie freshie.
A timely article for the Cambridge application season.

Tips on getting into Cambridge

by Lim Yi Heng

I have always wanted to study at a good university when I was little and the notion was strengthened when I came across the photos of Cambridge University, arguably one of the best universities in the world. The medieval buildings, singular traditions and the supervision system unique to only a few universities in the U.K. are the factors that make me so fixated on the prospect of studying at Cambridge. Along the journey of my application, I had received help and advice from seniors studying there for which I am very grateful, and I hope with this essay, I may be able to help the future applicants a little. I applied to read Engineering at Christ’s College, and the conditions that I was offered were A* in Further Maths, A*/A in Chemistry and Physics in either order, and grade 1 in STEP 1. I will expound on 3 key points here, namely the entrance test, the interview, and STEP. 

1) The entrance test for whoever applies to Engineering AND chooses to be interviewed in Malaysia consists of 2 parts, first of which is a 1.5 hour Thinking Skill Assessment (TSA) and second of which is a 0.5 hour essay. The TSA is essentially similar to what you may have learnt in A-Levels Thinking Skill, but perhaps the questions are designed in a more convoluted way. You may find the past papers here (only Section 1). (Disclaimer: I do not know what’s the difference between Cambridge and Oxford TSA section one, but I personally think they're the same and I did them as practice). You may also find the A-Levels past papers useful. While for the essay, it is related to your field of study, and you will be given 5 different topics (all related to your field of study, which is, in this case, Engineering) from which you have to choose 1. I did not prepare much for the essay back then, but now I feel that reading The Economist may be of great help. 

2) The interview is normally 20-minute long, in which you will be asked academic questions. For me, the interviewer started by asking me some stuff I wrote in personal statement and COPA (some of which were academic while the others were not), perhaps to calm me down a little. I believe many of you will be intimidated by the thought of making some silly mistakes in the interview and fear that that will ruin your chances of getting in. However, based on my personal experience, I think the interviewer has already expected you to make some mistakes due to the solemn atmosphere and the nervousness of the interviewees. In my case, if I remember correctly, out of 7 or 8 questions that I was asked, I was initially wrong in 3 of them. However, as cliche as it may sound, try working out your solution so that the interviewer knows what you are doing (like what I did), raise any questions that you would like to seek clarification, and from there the interviewer will guide you. The first problem that the interviewer gave me was to draw a very simple graph based on the equation he gave (which was actually kind of an introductory graph in A-Levels Further Maths) but I flopped the question. However, I did tell the interviewer what problem did I face and he gave me a hint, and from there I solved the question.The last question that the interviewer asked me was something we learnt in SPM. I don’t know which went wrong (natural physics principle or Malaysian education) but apparently what we learnt in SPM was wrong. Strangely, I somehow kept telling the same answer to the interviewer repeatedly however many times he hinted me and guided me to reach the answer and halfway through the struggle, he said something like (I’m not too sure though!) “I tried to teach you but you seemed to hold on to the principle you knew and not let me teach”, to which I responded by asking him to repeat the entire hints again and fortunately from there I found the right answer to the problem. After that, when he continued asking me questions related to the principle, again I gave the initial wrong answer! However, I guess the interviewer understood that interviewees might be nervous so some mistakes could be excused. 

3) STEP is the acronym for Sixth Term Examination Paper, and it consists of 3 papers, namely STEP 1, STEP 2, and STEP 3. For engineers who apply to Christ’s College (and for some who apply to Peterhouse), you will need to sit for STEP 1. The required grade is normally 1 (which is the second highest grade), and the past papers can be found online. Do not be set aback when you first practise on the papers, they are really difficult. Assign at least half an hour for a question and try to figure out the solution without referring to the answers. However, do trust your instinct, if you feel you can by no means solve a particular question (for it is related to a particular field of maths which you are not good at), then you may very well skip that and look at the solution. Each of the 3 STEP papers is a 13-question and 3-hour paper, which includes 8 pure maths questions, 3 mechanics questions, and 2 statistics questions. 20 marks are allocated to each question with the absolute maximum score caps at 120. With that said, the examiners will mark all the questions that you attempt, but only the marks of the 6 questions in which you score higher will be counted.

When there is a will, there really is a way. Have confidence in yourself and you will do fine. You do not have to be top in your class or even school to be able to stand a chance to get an offer. To be frank, I wasn't even the top student in my class alone back in A-Levels as the competition was so intense, but eventually I am fortunate to have received an offer (a total of 3 students including me from my class received an offer, and few others were pooled). As such, I hope whoever wants to apply to Cambridge do not stress yourself too much to emerge top, as long as you put in the effort in your study and are determined to study there, after all, they don't just accept only one student, right?

And that's the Golden tip being given by this incoming Cambridge fresh grad, work hard and never underestimate yourself!