This blog post is all about Imperial interviews and has come about because of a surge of emails in my inbox asking me about how to ace an interview at Imperial College. These tips are from my personal experience and could vary from university to university but I hope it helps.
So generally, physics interviews are structured into three parts (in my experience). The first part consists of questions like Why physics? Why imperial (or other university)? What makes you want to do a physics degree and what inspired you? and similar types of questions.
The second half consists of maths questions, so for me, I was asked to draw graphs like y = e^(cosx) as an example from my Imperial interview. Make sure you are familiar with all of AS and a bit of A2 maths. Learn how to draw composite function graphs - this will help you massively in interviews.
The third part consists of physics questions. So this is mainly based on what you have written in your personal statement. In my personal statement, I wrote about medical physics and how much I enjoyed this field of physics. Consequently, I was asked questions about radioactive decay and I had to state a few equations and draw some graphs related to this. But other interviewers may ask you a general/unrelated question like how many water molecules are in a glass of water and you have to show them your train of thought. So you’d start off with something like the size of an average atom is 10^-10m and then from here work out the size of a water molecule, the volume of a water molecule assuming each atom is spherical and then the volume of the water in the glass, account for spaces between molecules and then from here you can work out how many water molecules are in the glass of water. For this I would say google something like ‘common university interview questions for physics’ and there should be questions out there you can work through.
The Thinking Physics book by Epstein is perfect for interviews because you need to think in the same way the book thinks. I would say the best way you can prepare for interviews is by revising everything you’ve learnt in AS and as much as you’ve learnt in A2. If the interviewer asks you about a topic you haven’t learnt yet don’t be shy to say to them that you haven’t learnt it yet (I had to do this in one of my interviews). Also, if you don’t know how to answer a question it is totally okay (I couldn’t answer most of the questions they asked me!). The most important thing is that you show them your trail of thoughts. For instance, for the maths equation I mentioned above, you would say something like: an e^x graph looks like this and a cos(x) graph looks like this. For small x, the cos(x) graph is more dominant and then for large x the e^x graph becomes more dominant.
Additionally, read at least two physics articles on recent/exciting research currently being carried out and use this in the interview to show that you’ve read into the field and you are up to date with what’s going on.
To be honest the interview is just there to see if you are who you say you are in your personal statement. The main thing to do is to just be enthusiastic and show your passion for the subject. Ask your interviewer about their work/research at the end of the interview to show that you are interested in what they do. They will love that! :)
To prepare for my interview I googled standard interview questions for Physics, I looked on the Oxford or Cambridge (can’t remember, I think it was Oxford - it’s been four/five years since my interview!) website for interview videos. These showed what a typical interview would be for different subjects - it helped me a lot!
I also went through all the content I learned in AS Physics and Maths as well as reading a bit ahead in A2 Physics and Maths so that I went into the interview knowing as much as possible.
Don’t be nervous though, I messed up my Imperial interview and came out crying but still got the offer so no need to be nervous. Like I said, they’re only seeing if you are human and if you are who you say you are in your personal statement.
Make sure you know your personal statement inside out - if you mention a particular topic in your personal statement then they may ask you about this topic in the interview so be prepared!
I think that's everything, I hope you've found this useful!
Good luck for your interviews guys and girls! I'm sure you'll do great! Believe in yourself and you'll be fine! :)
