Studying / practicing for a test,something you don't find very interesting

When  I had no motivation  to start ‘too much uninteresting work’ I would allow myself to only do the briefest amount.  I used to say I am only going to do one second of this work.  Once started I was more or less hooked in.  I knew I could come out of the work after one second so it never felt unbearable.   

I'm joining Gonville and Caius. I'm really looking forward to the course, and the opportunity to meet people who will be happy to talk about maths and science!

Hi, Welcome to Cambridge!! :) Which college are you joining? (I was in King's). I hope you have a great time- for me the undergraduate Natsci course was definitely a highlight- I miss my undergrad time. 

Hi, I did mainly biological sciences options (Physiology, Cells, Chemistry and Maths B in first year) but I think the principle of the interview will still be the same- Like Fibonacci Squid has pointed out the interview mimicks a supervision. They mostly want to see how you think and how you can apply your knowledge to new situations and to solve problems. They want to see if you love your subject and if you would thrive in the Cambridge environment. Good luck :). 

Hi, I'm headed off to Cambridge to start my Natural Sciences degree in exactly a week so this was kind of fun to see this morning. I'm going to do Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Materials science first year.

Remember the test is super fast so yeah trying to speed up each time is definitely a good thing. I guess they've built up some more resources over the past couple of years but when I did the NSAA there were about 2 practice papers for the new assessment so there wasn't an awful lot of practice we could do, so I was mostly using UKMT challenge papers and chemistry olympiad questions.

Definitely do the trying to make it faster thing. There are a lot of questions for a short space of time and you will need to practice moving on quickly if you get stuck/go down the wrong train of thought. Have you read through the syllabus to double check the topics included? I found this useful as there were some chem and phys things that we hadn't re gone over in A-level so it refreshed my memory. 

Should you get to interview, it's designed to mimic a supervision, so it's all about topic based problem solving. I really loved mine (I love problem solving) and my interviewers were quite friendly which helped. For some interviews you are supposed to get stuck because they want to introduce new material/concepts and then see you process and apply it. I went into my interview thinking fun problem solving time with people at the top of their fields which definitely helped the stress levels. 

Which college are you applying to or is it an open application? Have you had a chance to visit? I was a covid application year so it was only online open days for me. Do not recommend.

Thanks for asking! I'm focusing on physical sciences, so as I understand it in 1st year undergraduate I would be doing Earth Sciences / Materials Science / Physics. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do after that but I will figure out eventually. I found an interest over the last year or so in volcanology and Large Igneous Provinces but I have no way of telling how long that interest will last (I've been interested in cycling for several years but other interests lasted only a handful of months.) Anyway, even if I lose that interest I will no doubt find something else interesting. I don't know specifics of what any given natural science interview looks like but I watched a fairly recent one that was recorded to do with physics (an applicant had to determine how much power a toy helicopter thing was using to fly, and had to ask questions like whether we assume the toy is stationary in mid air etc.) It's getting to late to write all about it anyway otherwise I will be too slow in further maths class!

The competition/challenge idea is good :). It sounds like you are doing a very good job. I studied Natural Sciences in Cambridge and I loved it :). In fact I liked Cambridge so much that I did my masters there too and after being abroad for a year I returned to Cambridge to work for a while whilst I sort out a long term plan. I think your attitude to the interview is good- it's really something to look forward to and an opportunity to have a fun discussion about science with experts in the field. When I applied there were no standardised tests yet (and each college could set whatever test they wanted but you couldn't prepare as you didn't know what format the tests would take in advance), so unfortunately I have no experience with the tests. But if you have any questions about the interview or Cambridge in general or the Natural Sciences course, I am very happy to help :). Out of curiosity, are you planning to do mainly biological or physical sciences options? I wish you all the best with the application! 

Sometimes we just need a budge! Good luck! 

I guess that would be an interesting idea to think about how I would go about solving the questions while I am idle. The problem is that I simply have to practice doing them quickly, in exam conditions. The only thing I can think of to make it more motivating I guess would be to see it as a challenge (Do X number of questions within a timeframe of Y minutes.) That way I suppose I would be motivating myself by trying to get faster. Otherwise at the moment, all I am doing is trying to complete individual subject questions in the time allocated for the exam (30 mins.) Maybe if I push myself to do it in 25 and then 20 that would be a good idea. I have no idea why it took your comment for me to think of all this, should have been obvious in the first place!

Can you turn the questions into a robotic voice? Voice Assist of some sort? That way you can have Alexa or Siri or whatever robot of your choice ask you the questions while you do something mindless like make tea or go for a walk.