interview-prep-material.pdf
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My personal list of interview prep material
stuff that helped me prepare last year (and also things that I've discovered since)
covering the areas that I hear that most people (including myself) tend to panic in.
CLARIFICATION: This article does not claim to contain any qestions nor
discssion on qestions that have !een planned for" have !een as#ed or are
crrently !ein$ as#ed %dependin$ on when this is !ein$ read&" in the '( )*+, or
any other ftre interview session- It does however contain adaptations !y the
athor" of possi!le past interview qestions and may contain speclation on and
references to %from e.ternal sorces& qestions of which similar variants cold !e"
!y coincidence and n!e#nownst to the athor" !e as#ed from applicants in ftre
or on$oin$ interviews-
A note: this was originally intended as a list of things you could try in your summer but
since it's a bit too late for doing that (in this cycle at least) you could probably skim
through the literature and pick out things to try as time permits.
IM/ORTANT: Although I've listed a lot of books in this article, that doesn't mean that
you need to have gone through them to have a chance, or to improve your chances, of
getting in. or does it mean that they guarantee you getting in or an improvement of
your chances. !his is "ust a compilation of #uesitons that I feel have helped me andwould have helped me at my interview.
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$. %stimation
&ou're almost certain to get asked a #uestion to make an estimate of some physical#uantity or another in at least one of your sub"ect interviews. rom my own eperience
and from others I've heard from, these range from *ow many +ars bars do you need to
eat to run a -km marathon / does it matter how fast you run to %stimate the amount
of heat lost by ventilating your house in the winter to %stimate the volume of air
trapped between grains in a bucket of dry sand. ot only do these #uestions re#uire you
to be able to make reasonable estimates of things like the energy content of a +ars bar,
the si0e of grain of sand and the volume of a house, they also do need you to be
confident in #uickly plugging values like these into e#uations that need to be made upon the fly.
0esstimation )-* 1 Lawrence 2einstein
!his book is perhaps the best practise for this that I've come across in the past two years
(a close second is its predecessor 1uestimation 2$.-3 by the same author). 4ork through
it and you'll have no reason to get caught off guard when you're asked to guess how
much the minimum *uman 5erceptible weight might be.
A link to the book on Ama0on is here. At the time of writing it was less than 6$ from
Ama0on and less than 6$- new from other sellers.
3ac#4of4the45nvelope /hysics 1 Clifford 6wart7
As the name suggests, this book is slightly more physics/focused but covers a very
broad range of physical phenomena. Again, while I haven't personally read it through
properly, it comes highly recommended in preparing you for kind of rough calculations
you'd be asked to perform. !he problems range from all/time classics to physics of some
unlikely scenarios. In general, they are somewhat less useful in a day/to/day basis thanthose in Guestimationbut the preparation it gives for the task is still ecellent.
An ama0on link is here. !his is slightly more epensive than 1uestimation 7.- at 6$8.9-
from Ama0on and about 6$- new from other sellers, including, at the time of writing,
ook ;epository.
http://www.amazon.com/Guesstimation-2-0-Solving-Todays-Problems/dp/069115080Xhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Envelope-Physics-Hopkins-Paperback/dp/0801872634http://www.amazon.com/Guesstimation-2-0-Solving-Todays-Problems/dp/069115080Xhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Envelope-Physics-Hopkins-Paperback/dp/0801872634 -
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A!G>AH
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A good way to get practice is to work through problems such as those in this book here:
3rainteaser /hysics 4 08ran 0rimvall
Although some problems later on in the book may re#uire the use of some slightly
advanced calculus (and not usually interviewable), the vast ma"ority should be do/able
(atleast partially) with perhaps occasionally a tiny bit more than an A/level knowledge
of mathematics.
Again, here's the book on Ama0onK going for 6$F.9- direct and 6$$.9D new from other
sellers.
. Bhemistry
&ou can find a mock interview hereand the actual #uestions are likely to be slightly
more advanced than that. Again, more often than not, interviewers won't be trying to
catch you out but trying to verify if all those abilities that you claim to have (or should
be having) in your personal statement.
In my interview, for eample, all the chemistry problems that I was asked were soluble
solely with mathematics (these included calculus with rate e#uations) but you should be
prepared for anything from a standard A/level syllabus. eep in mind that A level
syllabuses often repeat the same kind of #uestion over and over again so to get properpractice, it's a good idea to look at #uestions on the same topics from as many different
eam boards as you can.
2hy do Chemical Reactions 9appen 4 ;ames
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!*%>
!hese can include probablility and written discussion of physical phenomena.
!he level of probability #uestions can most often be tackled easily with a knowledge of
Bombinatorics and 5ermutations (though officially you don't need to know either of
these) and a careful breakdown of the problem.
Bonsider:
You play a game of coin-toss with a friend. The only rule of the game is that if you get a
tails, then the other person wins and vice versa.
The coin is fair and has an equal chance of yeilding head or tails for any toss.
Are you more liely to win if you start or let your friend start with the first toss!
!he answer is that you're more likely to win if you let your friend start.
*int: 4rite down an epression for the probability of you winning in each case and try
to convert it into a form that you should be familliar with. (ot neccesarily from a
'statistics' course).
;iscussion #uestions can be verbal (which is good because it's a conversation and you
get support from the interviewer in real time if you need it), or in the case of a pre/
interview test, involves a small written account that you would then discuss with theinterviewers. Luestions could include:
"hy is the sy #lue! $iscuss with reference to the interaction of light with the
atmosphere.
$iscuss why the moon sometimes appears red during a full lunar ecclipse.
=o are almost $aranteed to $et a qestion a!ot somethin$ yo have never seen
!efore-
!his will probably include a short eplanation (which for some can be frustratingly
incomplete) and an e#uation about the behaviour of something that happens. &ou'll then
be epected to be discuss the what happens to the system as various conditions are
changed.
Other miscellaneos sorces of practice that aren>t entirely tailored to an A4level
sylla!s !t sefl nontheless-
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%arvard Pro#lem of the "eeis an ecellent set of over F- #uestions in physics,
maths and logic. Gnfortunately, a large number of them re#uire knowledge some
advanced calculus and mechanics to do that you're not epected to have for an
interview.
;o/able #uestions with an A/level knowledge may include:
5roblem $, D2$3, F, $E, D and ME
!his is list is not comprehensive and there probably are many more that you could
do.
2$3 K I recently had a lecture on this very #uestion
!he incredibly rare The &hicen from 'ins( And )) *ther +nfuriating
Brainteasers &uri Bhernyak, >obert >ose is an all/classic. I've only ever seen
one problem from this book and the solution to it (while I understood the
mathematics behind it) I still find difficult to convince myself of. !his book is
e.pensive (possibly because it's old and there aren't too many copies around).
!he publicly available !rinity Bollege at