#bionatsci

Well done on getting an interview! That’s a tricky one. I’d give them a quick read through, but mainly focus on consolidating your other knowledge. If questions come up on bits that you haven’t studied yet but that you said you would have studied, let the interviewers know the situation, and they’ll probably either give you some extra information to help with the question, or go for a different topic that you have covered. Don’t be nervous about doing this, as they don’t want to stress you out by forcing you to attempt something that you have no idea about. I wouldn’t worry too much though, as after all, the interviews are partly to see how teachable you are, so if you don’t know anything about a topic and then can answer well based on the info they give you, that’s a positive as it shows you can take on new information quickly. Good luck, we’re rooting for you!

Yes you can. It would probably be worth writing an extra personal statement in the SAQ to explain why you want to study bionatsci, as I’m sure you realise it is a bit different to biomed at other unis, but Cambridge knows that its courses are often quite unique, so that extra personal statement will allow you to focus in on the cambridge course and why you want to do it.

You would stand a chance of applying, but I would highly recommend doing at least AS Maths - you’ll have to do a maths course in first year if you get in, so it’s good to keep your maths skills up (if you don’t have A Level maths you have to do some catch up work over the summer before starting). Also, there can be a lot of stats involved, so if you’re concerned about struggling with the maths, you might want to look for courses without a compulsory maths module. Maths A Level would also really help with your two science A Levels. Is there any possibility that you could take English Lit (or Maths) as a fourth AS at your school? 

To be honest, any college other than Girton or Homerton would make it really easy to walk, as the other hill colleges are max a half an hour walk away from the lecture sites. If you do Chemistry in first year, you’d have a slightly longer walk than this, but not much. If you want to cut the walk down by 5-10 minutes, avoid Fitz, Medwards and Churchill, but really it’s easy enough to walk from any college.

I think you should go for Bio, because all three modules are ones that BioNatScis take fairly regularly, and I think you’d have a better chance of getting to grips with A Level Biology than Physics if you were going through it in your spare time. Depending on the college, you might end up with interviews on maths and chemistry, with very little of the other sciences, because of your A Levels, but bare in mind that you may well end up being asked why you didn’t take a third science for A Level, so if you get an interview that’s an answer to prepare in advance.

I’d say that you don’t need further maths (assuming your other three are bio, chem, maths) but that it wouldn’t hinder your application. If taking further maths would put more strain on you so that your other subjects suffered, I’d say it’s not worth it, but if not, and you really enjoy maths, then go for it.

I think you’d probably be fine - Downing can be a bit competitive for NatSci as it’s so close to the lecture sites, but you’re predicted the standard offer so I think there’s no reason not to apply there.

So I think that technically you would count as a PhysNatSci with that combination, as you’ve got two physical sciences (and as such wouldn’t be able to take Mathematical Biology as your maths option). However, for interviews, you often will have to state in advance the options that you’re considering so that the interviewers can see what you’re interested in so the most relevant people interview you. I can’t say for certain, but with your A Levels and a biochem focused personal statement I would have thought the interviews would lean more towards the biology end of the spectrum, as that’s what you’ll have covered in school, but even if your interviews were fully bio based, you’d still be able to take Materials in first year if you wanted to upon arrival.