Cambridge Philosophy Students and Applicants

So I was reading about the available courses at Cambridge, and it says something about A Level Mathematics or equivalent being recommended for the Mathematical Logic paper in the third year.

Is it required? Could you do like extra study in years one and two to be able to do it? Or can you do it without A Level Maths, or would you just fail spectacularly? How is the Philosophical Logic paper different?

By the time you get to third year, you'd probably know from two years of logic whether you wanted to and were able to do the math logic paper. There's certainly nothing on it that you'd know or learn from A level maths (including further) - I imagine they say that because you would need to be reasonably good at maths to take the paper, because it involves doing technical mathsy stuff, unlike phil logic, which actually includes loads of philosophy of maths itself. And can get slightly technical. But unlike math logic, you won't get a whole question that says 'outline a proof of this'.

You certainly wouldn't have to learn any A level maths if you ended up wanting to do it, anyway. If you could have taken A level maths you'd be fine. It's a long way ahead anyway. You can be perfectly interested in maths and the philosophy of maths and still have no desire to do that paper, believe me.

First: YAAAY CLARE!!
It is by far the most amazingest college in the whole wide world.

Second: There are 3 in 1st year, 1 in 2nd year and 2 in 3rd year. Things change each year!

Thanks! Okay, well I like to think I'm fairly good at maths Still, I'm just starting to teach myself C1 all the same...

Anyways, I've finally returned to my personal statement, and I'm regretting writing every word. Yay! I hope they don't mention any of the opinions I had in it, any of the books I mentioned in it or anything. FEAR. I would much rather have interviews that didn't mention my PS or essay at all.

Lmao I know!! I'm cringing as I read through my PS... most of the 'opinions' I don't actually feel, and are really hard to back up.. oh dear

And yeah I applied to Clare as I would be more likely to be asked about the Philosophy of Biology, which I think sounds really interesting
(ssshh though, we're not allowed to say the name of our interviewers!!)

Cambridge offers Philosophy of Biology!? :O

I know, same!

I'm just going through my PS thinking, "yeah you know, I don't really mean that."

Or, "yeah that's a really vacuous statement which has no significance."

Or the majority of the time I'm thinking, "DO NOT ASK ME ANYTHING ABOUT THIS!"

Oh well...I'm actually looking forward to them asking what I have to say about the books I've read, not about random philosophical problems -- the thing that tends to happen is that when someone asks for my opinion I'll always say the first thing that comes to my head, rather than make any deliberation on the matter lol.

Do you know what your interviewer specialises in, in terms of philosophy?

Wow, short notice for flight booking!!
Anyways, I'm pretty sure we don't all have our tests on the same day. Someone earlier in the thread (elwoodc?) maybe said she has her test on the 10th and I have mine on the 9th. As far as I know it's arranged within the colleges. Oh, from what I understand, the tests at each college are different (if only slightly) so it would be unlikely if we were all going to be doing different tests at the same time! Oh and also my test is taking place in the college I'm applying to.... so yeah all the evidence seems to suggest we aren't doing the test at the same time lol. If you're booking flights I would guess it would be best to fly in on the 8th and stay in a hotel somewhere; if you weren't going to already...
Hope that helped

Yeah, I guess that's what I'll end up doing. I do wish they would send me an official email, though; the whole interview business is terrifying enough as it is! Anyways, thank you nemnem and elwoodc!

By the way, do you guys know something about the test? I remember reading some sample questions online somewhere, but there weren't any sample answers, so I'm still a little confused. Do you answer the open-ended questions in essay form, or with a short paragraph? And how long should an essay be, generally? I just feel that I have very little information on the subject, and I don't know anybody who has ever applied to any university in England, let alone to Cambridge.

Is everyone staying over the night before then?

Is anyone else staying over the night before who lives in London too? :P

My parents are taking me at like 7am on the actual day (the 10th) for the interview, but I don't know if I should be doing that because I'll be knackered!