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The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Biology and Chemistry guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Natural Sciences (Biological)
Special Offer: Get both the Chemistry and Physics guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry AND Physics
The Chemistry Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- Why are explosions a risk in flour mills? What stops bags of flour exploding in the kitchen?
- Why do we blow on soup to cool it down?
- How many molecules are there in a glass of water?
- How does a glow-stick work?
- Why don’t fish freeze?
- What issues might there be if you wanted to create a metallic oxide that has good conductive properties but is also transparent?
- What is the concentration of water?
- Why does iron rust and how can rusting be stopped?
- How does blood maintain its pH?
- Discuss the bonding in benzene.
The Physics Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- When an ice cube melts in a glass of water, does the water level increase, decrease or stay the same?
- A tennis ball is placed on top of a basketball. The balls are dropped. To what height does the tennis ball bounce?
- How high can you go up a mountain on just a Mars bar?
- If you dig a hole right through the Earth and jump into it, what is your motion?
- If you leave a fridge turned on in a thermally isolated room, what happens to the room?
- If you could fold a piece of paper as many times as possible, how many times must you fold it to reach the moon?
- Sketch the displacement time and velocity time graph for a skydiver jumping out of a plane.
- Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship?
- Why is the sky blue?
- Two identical beakers with the same volume of water are placed on each pan of a double-pan balance. A steel ball is suspended from a string and submerged in the water of one of the containers. A hollow plastic ball of the same volume is submerged in the water of the other container and fastened to the bottom of the beaker by a string. Will the balance move, and if so in which direction?
The Biology Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- Why does an egg rot?
- Why are there only twenty amino acids?
- What problems do fish face underwater?
- What evidence is there that humans are still evolving?
- Why can’t humans live forever?
- How has the human diet changed in the last three decades and why?
- What are the problems with the current taxonomy system?
- How would you poison someone without the police finding out?
- What causes the common cold and why is there no cure? How does the flu vaccine work?
- Why do we need ATP, why not just release energy from glucose directly?
- How much of human behaviour is genetically determined?
- What techniques could be used to date how long a disease has existed in a population?
Click the button below to buy right now!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Chemistry and Physics guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry AND Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Biology and Chemistry guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Natural Sciences (Biological)
Natural Sciences Suggested Reading
Biology of Cells
Computer Science
Evolution and Behaviour
Chemistry
Earth Sciences
Materials Science
Physics
Physiology of Organisms
Mathematics
Elementary Mathematics
Natural Sciences Practice Questions
Biological
Why is there salt in the sea?
How do amino acids behave in both acidic and basic conditions?
What is the significance of the human genome project?
How does DNA fingerprinting work? What is its use?
Why are there so many steps in the cascade of reactions?
How do you tell if a protein codes for a transmembrane protein?
Why are there only twenty amino acids?
What shape are bacteria and why?
What is the concentration of water?
What problems do fish face underwater?
What evidence is there that humans are still evolving?
What are the arguments for preserving biodiversity
Why does an egg rot?
Why can’t humans live forever?
Comment on a population pyramid.
Is shopping the new religion?
What does George Bush have in common with a monkey? How can you see they are related?
How could you tell how long a disease had been prevalent in an area
How does the immune system recognise invading pathogens as foreign cells?
How does DNA fingerprinting work? What is its use?
Why are there so many steps in the cascade of reactions
Tell me about this log
If a brain was placed in front of you, how would you describe it?
If you were a virus, how would you communicate your opinions to me?
Give an example of how specialist biological knowledge has helped food production.
Are humans still evolving?
Are their chances of developing breast cancer identical for two twin girls?
Comment on a population pyramid.
Describe an example of evolution in action.
Describe and draw a Volume/Pressure curve of a balloon and compare it to workings of the lung.
Do you have a favourite animal?
Does the molecular structure of glycine change with pH?
Draw a graph of how a bacterial population changes over time and one for human population. Why is there a difference?
Draw the full chemical structure of DNA.
Draw the structures of as many compounds as you can think of with the formula C4H8O, with an emphasis on the different chemical groups that may be involved.
Female deer appear to select their mates based on the size of their antlers. The older deer have bigger antlers. How would you confirm this experimentally?
Give an example of when specialist biological knowledge has helped a global issue.
How do dolphins regulate their body temperature in cold and warm water?
How does the leg respond to reflexes? What would happen if you stimulated both the sensory and motor neurons at the same time?
How many sulphate ions would you expect in a 0.5 litre aqueous sulphuric acid solution at pH 2.0 assuming it was completely dissociated?
How would you find out which colours a rat can distinguish? What about an octopus?
How can mutations cause an RNA or DNA to be longer or shorter?
How can we cure global warming if environmental measures fail?
How could you measure how much blood is in your body right now?
How do stem cells become specialised?
How do you measure blood pressure?
How does a caterpillar transform into a butterfly?
How does an electron microscope works?
How does DNA fingerprinting work? What is its use?
How does respiration differ between fish and mammals?
How does the immune system recognise invading pathogens as foreign cells?
How is a horse’s leg adapted to running?
How is an elephant’s foot adapted to it’s purpose?
How is aspirin synthesised? What organic reaction takes place?
How long is a gene?
How many atoms are there in a Brussels sprout?
How many genes are in a cell?
How many mice would you use in an experiment?
How many molecules of gas are in the room?
How would you find out what function a gene has in humans? What about in plants?
How would you mass produce insulin?
How would you measure the mass of nitrogen in this room?
How would you tell if a mouse could differentiate between the smell of an apple and the smell of chocolate?
I see from your personal statement that you do a lot of sports. What effects does lactic acid have on the body and brain?
I have just injected myself with an unknown substance. Work out what it is doing to my body by asking me simple questions.
If money was no barrier, how would you scientifically prove life on Mars?
If a brain was placed in front of you, how would you describe it?
If senses work only because our brain interprets electrical signals, what is reality?
If you could save either the rainforests or the coral reefs, which would you choose?
Imagine that I am a research funding organization and I am awarding grants to various research proposals. Why would I award funding to someone studying the mating habits of the Bolivian hairy shrew instead of someone studying a new cancer drug delivery mechanism?
Is it easier for organisms to live in the sea or on land?
Ladybirds are red. So are strawberries. Why?
Radiation can cause cancer yet we use radiotherapy to treat cancer. What could explain this apparent paradox?
Should all stem cell therapy be legalised?
Talk about a piece of recent scientific research. Why was it important and how could it be improved?
Tell me about this pot plant.
Was Lamarck right about inheritance?
What are the problems with the current taxonomy system?
What can you tell me about this skull?
What did you have for breakfast?
What do you know about the bonding in a benzene ring?
What evidence is there that humans are still evolving?
What is a gene?
What is a neurotransmitter?
What is the difference between bacteria and viruses?
What is the Red-Queen Effect? What is its significance?
What is your favourite pathogen?
What safety precautions do medical professionals take when performing an X-ray and why?
When competing for mates, male deer engage in “show-flghting”, and the loser eventually backs down. Is there an evolutionary advantage to this, rather than fighting to the death?
Why are bacterial infections easier to treat than viral infections?
Why are dogs the most common type of pet?
Why are fish slimy?
Why are infectious diseases no longer the biggest killer in the UK?
Why are so few flowers and animals coloured green?
Why can you stay balanced whilst cycling, but not on a stationary bike?
Why can’t humans live forever?
Why did E = mc2 change the world?
Why do cats eyes appear to ‘glow’ in the dark?
Why do leaves have stomata on their bottom and not top?
Why do lions have manes?
Why do people have different gaits when they walk?
Why do so many animals have stripes?
Why do some habitats support higher biodiversity than others?
Why does an egg become rotten?
Why does the brain:body ratio of moles and bats differ?
Why is the preservation of biodiversity important?
Why is there a higher probability of being killed by an asteroid collision than by a heart attack?
Will the population of mankind ever stop increasing?
Would it matter if tigers became extinct?
Write down an organic reaction you have studied at school and explain its mechanism.
Why do leaves have their stomata on the lower surface?
Why don’t animals have wheels?
How can you tell how genetically identical the individuals of a species are?
What evidence is there to suggest that humans are still evolving?
Can you design an experiment to test the effect of bird faeces on lichen growth?
What makes drugs physiologically active?
Why it is easier for oxygen to associate after one oxygen molecule has already done so?
Why is it that everyone regards Darwin as such a great man?
Explain the differences between bacteria and viruses.
How would you test to see if a rat could tell red from blue?
How has the human diet changed in the last three decades and why?
What would you define as a species?
Why is water so important to life?
If you could save either the rainforests or the coral reefs, which would you choose? Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it.
Here’s a cactus. Tell me about it.
Why don’t most herbivores have green fur?
What percentage of the world’s water is in a cow?
Why are there so few large predators?
Give me an example of how specialist biological knowledge has helped food production.
Why is there a higher probability of being killed by an asteroid collision than by a heart attack?
What kind of changes would occur to the environment if a large asteroid impacted earth?
What are the arguments for preserving biodiversity?
Tell me about a banana.
What makes drugs physiologically active?
What would you do if I were a Magpie?
How many animals did Noah take on the ark?
If a carrot can grow form one carrot cell, why not a human?
Discuss ways in which plants are adapted to dry conditions.
Why are big, fierce animals so rare?
How does the immune system recognise invading pathogens as foreign cells?
Describe a potato and then compare it to an onion.
Why don’t animals have wheels?
Physical
How many grains of sand are there in the world?
Why is life X enantiomer-based rather than Y?
Why does the boiling point of water rise as salt is dissolved in it?
How many atoms are there in a brussel sprout?
What makes some chemicals explosive?
An alkane has 750 carbon atoms. Given the length of a carbon.’carbon bond and a carbon”hydrogen bond calculate the total length of the molecule.
Calculate the number of hydrogen atoms that are in the water in a glass.
Can you draw an alkane where every carbon atom is in a different NMR environment?
Can you think of any ways that playing in your school football team would make you better at Chemistry?
Can you change an endothermic reaction into an exothermic one?
Compare and contrast electronegativity and ionisation energy.
Compare and contrast hydrochloric acid to phosphoric acid.
Draw the shape of the molecule B2H6 .
Estimate the mass of oxygen in this building.
Explain the bonding in benzene.
How do glow sticks work?
How do the double bonds in a hydrocarbon affect its solubility?
How do you make aspirin?
How many isomers of XXX can you draw?
How many moles of water are there in this bottle of water?
How would you measure pH of a solution if I told you how many hydrogen ions there were in it?
The nucleus and electrons are oppositely charged. Why do electrons not crash into the nucleus?
What is the density of air in this room? What about outside? What about in Beijing?
What determines whether an acid is strong or weak?
What does pH stand for?
What is entropy?
What is the cause of Le Chatelier’s principle?
What is the difference between diamond and graphite? The similarities?
What is the difference between entropy and enthalpy?
What is the significance of bonding in benzene?
What is wrong with the periodic table?
What is your favourite element? Why?
What makes drugs physiologically active?
Where does Chemistry end and Physics begin?
Why are diamonds so expensive?
Why are the transition metals good catalysts?
Why are the transition metals so colourful?
Why are there so many steps in the cascade of reactions?
Why do we use water to dilute solutions?
Why does food taste better when it~s hot?
Why does the boiling point of water rise as salt is dissolved in it?
Why is glass transparent but the sand that it’s made from not?
Why is life carbon based and not silicon based?
Why is Vanadium so special?
You have 30 seconds to name as many functional groups as possible.
How would you travel through time?
When an ice cube melts in a glass of water, does the water level increase, decrease or stay the same?
How would you measure pH if I told you how many hydrogen ions there were?
How does a glow-stick work?
Tell me about these eggs?
Tell me about your life, from the beginning to what made you sit in that chair
Derive a Henderson equation.
What is ‘turning you on’ in chemistry at the moment?
How many molecules there were in the glass of water on the table?
If I could fold this piece of paper an infinite number of times how many times must I fold it to reach the moon?
How high can I go up a mountain having only eaten a mars bar?
What makes a material hard?
How would you measure pH of a solution if I told you how many hydrogen ions there were in it?
How does depressing a piano key make a sound?
Why do you think chemistry will change your life and the life of those around you?
Why does the boiling point of water rise as salt is dissolved in it?
How would you travel through time?
Explain the bonding in benzene.
Why does iron rust and how can the rusting be stopped?
On a hot day, what should you do with a fridge?
Write down an organic reaction you have studied at school and explain its mechanism.
How would a square wave differ from a sinusoidal wave when applying both to a transformer?
Why don’t fish freeze?
How many of these pebbles would it take to fill a car?
Why aren’t you applying to study Maths instead?
What would be the most exhilarating ride: being dropped through a tube to New York or New Zealand?
Does the snow falling on top of a train have an effect on its velocity?
What is the equation for the motion of a pendulum?
Why is the sky blue?
What happens if you throw a lead soldier or a ton of gold out of a boat, does the lake go up or down?
A container with liquid nitrogen is left in a laboratory, and its temperature is being recorded over a long period. The recorded temperature shows variations. Why?
Sketch the graph of x/(x-1).
How does a boat float?
How high can I go up a mountain having only eaten a Mars bar?
How would you reshape a cuboid wire to double its resistance?
I’m bouncing a marble, what is happening to the particles at the top of the marble?
A ball bearing is flying through space (vacuum and no overall gravitational field). It heads towards a doughnut, through it’s centre and out the other side. Draw graphs of 1) speed versus time and 2) acceleration versus time.
Draw the graphs of y=1/x +x and y=7+3cos(2x+pi/2).
Describe a heat engine.
Draw graph of weight versus time for the following: 1) man stands on scale very gently and then gets off again very gently; 2) man jumps onto scales and then jumps off again; 3) man stands on scale and lets his knees unlock so that he drops, then stops. For each of these describe the reasoning behind the graph.
The wall of death fairground ride: it’s spinning in a horizontal circle. Then the floor that people are standing on falls away. Calculate how fast it has to spin before the floor can fall away without the people dropping out given that : coefficient of friction=m and radius of the thing=r.
Derive an expression for the separation of fringes caused by Young’s Double Slit apparatus.
Calculate (in algebraic terms) the change that will take place to the fringe pattern when a piece of glass is placed in front of one of the slits. Draw the new fringe pattern.
If you leave the fridge turned on in a thermally isolated room, what happens to the room?
Calculate the speed a coin will hit the floor when dropped from 2m above the ground.
Does the snow falling on top of a train have an effect on its velocity?
Explain the different between entropy and enthalpy.
Explain the principle of how the global positioning system (GPS) operates.
How did the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos determine the distance to the sun?
How can a plane fly upside down?
How can light be both a wave and a particle?
How do forest fires spread so quickly?
How does depressing a piano key make a sound?
How high can I go up a mountain having only eaten a Mars bar?
How high can I go up a mountain on just a Mars bar?
How many of these pebbles would it take to fill a car?
How much is the mass of nitrogen in this room?
How much water has to go through a hydroelectric power station in order for me to make a cup of coffee?
How would you explain what ‘momentum’ means, to a non-physicist?
How would you go about calculating the number of atoms in the world. What information would you need to calculate it and given this data work out the answer.
If you have a helium balloon on a string in a car, and the car accelerates, what happens to the balloon?
If a sand timer was turned over onto a weighing scale, would there be fluctuations in the weight displayed as the sand fell through?
If I am in a room with 7 people and guess all their birthdays, what is the probability of getting (only) one correct?
If I have a three litre and a five litre bottle. How can I get four litres of liquid?
Integrate y = cos2x + sinx2
Prove m3-m is always divisible by 6.
Sitting here explain how we know a centripetal force exists?
Suggest a method of storing large amounts of hydrogen.
The titanic weighed over 50,000 tonnes. Why did it not sink earlier?
What safety mechanisms prevent a plane from being damaged by lightning?How would you weigh the Earth?Why was 2011 an incredible year for physics?What is the area of your skin?
What is centrifugal force?
What is the equation for the motion of a pendulum?
What makes a material hard?
Why did the Titanic initially float? Why did it split into two?
Why does heat rise’?
Why don’t fish freeze?
Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship?
How many grains of sand are there in the world?
What happens if I drop an ant?
Materials Science:
Can you think of a logical reason why stress concentrates on the bottom of a crack when you stretch a material?
How do isostress lines in a crack develop and how would you locate them mathematically?
If a human being was doubled in dimension would he jump higher or less high?
What structure can prevent cracks in carbon fibre?
If the world’s surface temperature were to rise by 20 degrees what would be the initial and then subsequent long-term effects?
Geology:
How would you calculate the number of molecules of H2O in the ocean?
How does the age of ice change as you walk up a glacier?
You have a picture of a rainbow. Which colour would fade first?
How would you go about calculating the total amount of energy reaching the Earth’s surface?
Calculate the mass of the oceans.
How do tectonic plates move?
What is the true mass of all the water on the earth?
Suggest a list of conditions necessary to sustain life on Earth?
What do you believe would be the major differences on Earth if, a) no atmosphere had ever formed? b) there was no water? c) plate tectonics did not exist?
Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?
How do mountains originate?
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Biology and Chemistry guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Natural Sciences (Biological)
Special Offer: Get both the Chemistry and Physics guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry AND Physics
The Chemistry Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- Why are explosions a risk in flour mills? What stops bags of flour exploding in the kitchen?
- Why do we blow on soup to cool it down?
- How many molecules are there in a glass of water?
- How does a glow-stick work?
- Why don’t fish freeze?
- What issues might there be if you wanted to create a metallic oxide that has good conductive properties but is also transparent?
- What is the concentration of water?
- Why does iron rust and how can rusting be stopped?
- How does blood maintain its pH?
- Discuss the bonding in benzene.
The Biology Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- Why does an egg rot?
- Why are there only twenty amino acids?
- What problems do fish face underwater?
- What evidence is there that humans are still evolving?
- Why can’t humans live forever?
- How has the human diet changed in the last three decades and why?
- What are the problems with the current taxonomy system?
- How would you poison someone without the police finding out?
- What causes the common cold and why is there no cure? How does the flu vaccine work?
- Why do we need ATP, why not just release energy from glucose directly?
- How much of human behaviour is genetically determined?
- What techniques could be used to date how long a disease has existed in a population?
The Physics Interview Guide discusses the following questions in detail:
- When an ice cube melts in a glass of water, does the water level increase, decrease or stay the same?
- A tennis ball is placed on top of a basketball. The balls are dropped. To what height does the tennis ball bounce?
- How high can you go up a mountain on just a Mars bar?
- If you dig a hole right through the Earth and jump into it, what is your motion?
- If you leave a fridge turned on in a thermally isolated room, what happens to the room?
- If you could fold a piece of paper as many times as possible, how many times must you fold it to reach the moon?
- Sketch the displacement time and velocity time graph for a skydiver jumping out of a plane.
- Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship?
- Why is the sky blue?
- Two identical beakers with the same volume of water are placed on each pan of a double-pan balance. A steel ball is suspended from a string and submerged in the water of one of the containers. A hollow plastic ball of the same volume is submerged in the water of the other container and fastened to the bottom of the beaker by a string. Will the balance move, and if so in which direction?
Click the button below to buy right now!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Chemistry and Physics guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Chemistry AND Physics
Special Offer: Get both the Biology and Chemistry guide together for a discounted price!
The Cambridge Interview Guide – Natural Sciences (Biological)