I applied through the UCAS system in 2019 and matriculated in October 2020, so some of my advice and experience may no longer be relevant.
Things unique to Cambridge
You will need to submit your UCAS application, especially early for Cambridge, since they release offers on the day that UCAS closes for every other university. Speak to your university counsellor about when to submit your UCAS application (for Cambridge applicants).
After submitting out your UCAS application (find out more here), you need to complete the Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ), and the Cambridge Online Preliminary Application (COPA) for international students. These two forms are very similar and have the same login details, so they should be easy enough to fill out.
Do fill out these two forms as soon as Cambridge acknowledges your application. It is a matter of urgency and importance.
The SAQ has a section for you to write another optional “mini” Personal Statement. I don’t have mine anymore, but I highly recommend writing this “mini” Personal Statement. Explain why you want to study at Cambridge in particular and why you would be a good fit for the course.
Another thing to consider is your college (the place where you live). You can find guides to choosing a college here and here. I applied directly to Christ’s College, but I was placed in the winter pool and was accepted instead into Wolfson College. Some colleges, such as Wolfson, are for mature (over 21) students only, and some colleges are for women only.
Admissions assessment
All applicants need to do a written test for whatever course they are doing. You need to register for it well ahead of time, so ask your university counsellor how to register for it. For me personally, I had to head down to the British Council in person to register for the Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA).
Need ENGAA help? Look here.
Do not underestimate the importance of the test. The tests for all subjects were implemented in 2016 to filter out the best students (source).
Cambridge takes a holistic view of applicants, and your score on this test is one of the things that they look at. Study hard for it, set aside time to analyse the content covered and past year questions, do practice tests and time yourself. Most of these resources can be found online. If you do receive tuition, try to gear it towards doing well in this test.
Be warned, this test is not easy, mostly because of time constraints. I felt like I failed the ENGAA when I walked out of the room. The best thing to do is to answer every question since marks are not deducted for wrong answers.
Interview
I’m not sure about the interviews conducted in an international student’s home country (Cambridge conducts interviews in Singapore and other countries outside of the UK). Still, I flew over to London and later went down to Cambridge to do my interview. Why? I wanted a holiday.
The interview is not designed to find out whether or not you are a good student. The interviewers have read at least part of your personal statement and know your grades, which is why you’ve made it to the interview phase. They are, however, interested in learning how you think critically within the context of the subject (essentially, a brain in a chair, as a friend of mine put it).
Make sure you brush up on your basics and write some notes on real-life examples or books you have read on the subject so that you understand what you are talking about. There are technical questions, but the point isn’t to get them correct; it is to be led to the correct answer. I’ve personally found the discussion to be more challenging than the questions themselves since the professors know a lot more about pretty much anything you can talk about than you do.
The biggest tips I can give would be to keep calm and think out loud. You don’t have to break it down into extremely fundamental bits, but you should at least be very honest with them about what is going on in your head. You can be quiet to think for a while, but it cannot be awkwardly dead silent in the interview room for long periods.
Other resources
These resources are mostly geared towards engineering applicants, but there are some overlaps.
Cambridge has a recommended book list for engineers here, and they have individual book lists for most, if not all, subjects. These are not compulsory but are to merely broaden your knowledge in the subject area. My favourite science/engineering books are Think Like an Engineer by Guru Madhavan, How To by Randall Munroe, The Science of Rick and Morty by Matt Brady and Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku.
If you have friends in university studying engineering or anything similar, ask them to send you links and updates on new projects that have piqued their interest. Or, find videos on YouTube about any interesting scientific or engineering works.
The i-Want-To-Study-Engineering website is extremely helpful, and the questions are challenging and interesting. This website is crucial if you want to study engineering.
Another good resource is HE+, which covers a broad range of subjects, including Engineering.
Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems by Thomas Povey is the best book to get if you are going to do an Engineering interview. Professor Povey himself teaches Engineering Science at Oxford.
A friend of mine, currently doing Medicine at Christ’s College, Cambridge, has a page about applying here. Be sure to check it out!
Conclusion
Remember that applicants are considered holistically, so don’t panic too hard if you mess up in one area.
I wish you the best of luck!
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