Oxbridge applicants 2026??

[Justlurkingmostly]

Is there a thread for this year’s applicants - I can’t seem to find with a search. Thanks for signposting 🙏

Hello, good luck in all upcoming exams and possible interviews. My DC did the MAT this morning and TMUA last week. 🤞
Only applied for Oxford at the moment and will pop on other Unis once they have their TMUA score back in Nov.
Thinking of Imperial, Warwick, LSE and UCL or Bristol-but will of course depend on the score achieved.

@MouldyFridgemy ds had 2 interviews (both 20mins) for NatSci for each one he had 10 mins with a professor and the general format was that he had to try to solve a maths question, a physics question, a chemistry question and a general question. The key to the interview is to show how you are solving it (you have to have access to a virtual whiteboard) and chat through the different routes you could take etc. It does differ slightly from year to year and college to college but that appears to be the general format. Hope that helps

Thanks for the links to the Maths interviews.

Example natsci interview: share.google/XsRzDCDOAi6wDjqRL

@pipgems extremely helpful thank you. That has given him a bit more clarity on the potential structure. I don’t think he will have a problem with speaking out loud, half the time the school has a problem getting him to be quiet - he likes to talk to himself when solving problems.

Were the 2 interviews for the same college?On the same day?
Our issue may be the virtual whiteboard. I’ll get him to speak to school as that’s where he will be doing the interview if he gets one. I’ll assume they are set up for it as they have provided a room and IT resources for online interviews before.

@Pallando thank you. I will get him to look at that.

Anyone’s child found MAT hard and time pressure. My daughter left the last 4 mark(part of the last question). She said its very time pressure. Thanks so much for the interview link. Immensely grateful, will forward it to her. Now its the wait!!!

@MouldyFridge I am very familiar with the talking to themselves my ds does exactly the same and used to get wrong at school all the time for giving away answers in class 🤣for this though it is a very good trait to have. Ds had both interviews for the same college (the one he applied to) on the same day 3 hours apart. Good luck for the wait I remember it very well the whole process was like a roller coaster my ds actually coped with it a lot better than me 🤣🤣

MAT test today and tomorrow, it should be discussed now.

Good luck to all of your DCs. I admire them all so much for putting themselves through it - especially the Cambridge maths applicants who also have STEP to worry about!

DS is in his final year reading Engineering at Cambridge (MEng year as it's an integrated masters).

He said he was thrown in his first interview when there were no pleasantries, they just went straight in with maths questions. The second interview was similar - lots of maths, but also a bit more on his supercurriculars - lectures and books he'd read mainly so do make sure if it's in the PS that they can talk about it!).

My DC did the same and didn’t quite finish.

DS has just done his PAT right now, I think I’m more nervous than him
He's getting the train back so no feedback yet
He got an email giving him an interview for Manchester yesterday so that feels like a good step as well as he loved the Physics department there too.

my DS is in the 3.15pm PAT sitting so I am killing time on here having a brew in Asda whilst I nervously wait for him. Hope everything went well for your DS @wonkylegs. I belive the people sitting yesterday were saying it was tough, hoping that will help manage DS’s expectations when he sees it!

We also received an interview invitation to Manchester yesterday, although my DS is looking at Material Science rather than physics.

Looking forward to us all being able to have a break from all this over half term!

MAT done.

DS isn’t too sure what to think about it!

He’s going to (try) to put all thoughts of university out of his head until the beginning of December but his TMUA result will spoil that plan in a few weeks time! If that score is 5 or more it’ll lower his offer from Warwick so that could boost his spirits 🤞🏻

Thank you for posting, Is there anything that you recommend that DD look into for Engg, Cam, interviews. She think most interviews are in person, so not needed any other tech support/like white board or anything. I would like to know everything before hand and be prepared, she on the other hand says, they will let you know everything you need in the invite for interview !! Gr!! She just then have to turn around and say I need x y z.
So far everyone we know said ESAT was difficult, can only wait for the results now.
saying that any other Engg applicants have offers yet? I don’t think DD has any. My Cam application just submitted 2hrs before the closing time! To be fair she does everything in time, but leave until the very last minute. I am just trying not to say/ask anything

Last year it was 78% average for an offer so indeed very mixed feeling for MAT. Ofcourse, time to move on and prepare for interview(if invited). My daughter always struggled with multiple choice question types, she is better with hard/lengthy last questions, she spent too long on the multiple choice ones, if ever next time then maybe working backward is a better approach.

I have an engineering applicant. no other offers yet except an 'on hold' from Bristol

And there must be different test versions, or at least 2 for the 2 days to avoid cheating, no?

I'm not sure I can be of much help @newlease DS sat the ENGAA - I think they were the last year to do so before it changed to the ESAT. His interviews were online and he had two of them - both were fairly maths heavy (from the off) so he had to use a whiteboard. He found the first interview very hard and the second fairly challenging, but he enjoyed them, even though he thought he hadn't done very well...how wrong he was! I only posted about the lack of pleasantries because he said it really threw him that they just went straight in with a maths question!

He is coming home tomorrow for a flying visit so I will ask him if he has any words of advice re interview prep and post again if he does. Good luck for your DD.

Yes there seems to be different versions for different sittings.

It says on the ESAT website "Results for each module are reported on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high) to one decimal place. This allows us to share scores from various test versions and sittings on a unified scale."

My son sat MAT today, he’s pretty sure that it went abysmally 😬 but is buoyed up by having two offers thus far. His other two choices are dependent on TMUA grades. Best wishes for all candidates.

I’ll comment on the MAT now, my daughter’s friend who is a maths whizz, maths, FM etc all predicted A*, thought it was “horrific”☹️… my son who is a master of understatement thought it “ more difficult than expected” left out the last parts of the long answers but went back a completed all the multi-choice, with about 3 guesses as his answers did not match the options. Time was always going to be a big pressure and it was on the day, but my son feels he did as well as he possibly could have done, and is just so relieved. Does anybody know if you hear anything if you DON’T get an interview, or do you just not hear anything until the MAT results?

I think we wont know about MAT result until much later stage, after conditional offers are out. Yeah, mine is very good at maths and found it was harder than expected too. She isnt great with multiple choice type though, spend too long on working out every single multiple choice problem then too little time left for the last 2. Typically, she left the last SMC question this year because she didnt have time and didnt want to guess and it was the only mark lost. Time to move on I guess.

Hello,
Your DC will hear if they are invited to interview or not. Results from the MAT available once students have an offer or rejection in Jan.
Good luck to your DC and his friend.

@SparrowTweetshope your DS did ok, mine found it harder than he thought it would be but he felt like he gave it his best, he found the test centre very distracting as it was busy with lots of people going in an out, they gave them earplugs but he hated them so took them out half way through
I’m not sure half term will give them much break here as they have Mocks the week they go back

DD said the same about ppl going in and out and she was right next to the door. I think all of these exams should be and would be tough, no one would come out and say it was easy?, I don’t think. DD thought it went okay and then more ppl did exams and they all come out said different things, by day two she said, she was just trying to be optimistic. Told her not to over analyse now, there is no point and they did their best!! Good luck to our kids, there is so much to do and tick off, luckily we don’t have any big exams after half term, so all pending Birthdays and meet ups are happening now that last persons exam was today!