Few queries about Oxford PAT
Hello,
Planning on taking the PAT this coming school year (November) but I have been looking at the past papers and have concluded that it seems, in my opinion, very challenging. I knew it would be by no means easy however i don't know where to start. A lot of content seems to be in the A2 spec and so I would not have had learnt it properly in class come November- so I doubt i would be able to score very well.
Oxford specify that anything you haven't covered at school you learn in your own time- I'm prepared to put in the work but it seems like a lot of the spec for the PAT is beyond my current knowledge.
just wondering if there are any recommended books or guides etc for revising/ learning content for the PAT or any tips for preparing for it?
Added to this, it appears the problems in the paper are more focused on how you do things other than achieving a correct answer- would anyone recommend good ways to improve problem solving ability? Especially with 'unfamiliar' sort of questions.
Thanks (sorry for the long post)
Planning on taking the PAT this coming school year (November) but I have been looking at the past papers and have concluded that it seems, in my opinion, very challenging. I knew it would be by no means easy however i don't know where to start. A lot of content seems to be in the A2 spec and so I would not have had learnt it properly in class come November- so I doubt i would be able to score very well.
Oxford specify that anything you haven't covered at school you learn in your own time- I'm prepared to put in the work but it seems like a lot of the spec for the PAT is beyond my current knowledge.
just wondering if there are any recommended books or guides etc for revising/ learning content for the PAT or any tips for preparing for it?
Added to this, it appears the problems in the paper are more focused on how you do things other than achieving a correct answer- would anyone recommend good ways to improve problem solving ability? Especially with 'unfamiliar' sort of questions.
Thanks (sorry for the long post)
Original post by TomA90
Hello,
Planning on taking the PAT this coming school year (November) but I have been looking at the past papers and have concluded that it seems, in my opinion, very challenging. I knew it would be by no means easy however i don't know where to start. A lot of content seems to be in the A2 spec and so I would not have had learnt it properly in class come November- so I doubt i would be able to score very well.
Oxford specify that anything you haven't covered at school you learn in your own time- I'm prepared to put in the work but it seems like a lot of the spec for the PAT is beyond my current knowledge.
just wondering if there are any recommended books or guides etc for revising/ learning content for the PAT or any tips for preparing for it?
Added to this, it appears the problems in the paper are more focused on how you do things other than achieving a correct answer- would anyone recommend good ways to improve problem solving ability? Especially with 'unfamiliar' sort of questions.
Thanks (sorry for the long post)
Planning on taking the PAT this coming school year (November) but I have been looking at the past papers and have concluded that it seems, in my opinion, very challenging. I knew it would be by no means easy however i don't know where to start. A lot of content seems to be in the A2 spec and so I would not have had learnt it properly in class come November- so I doubt i would be able to score very well.
Oxford specify that anything you haven't covered at school you learn in your own time- I'm prepared to put in the work but it seems like a lot of the spec for the PAT is beyond my current knowledge.
just wondering if there are any recommended books or guides etc for revising/ learning content for the PAT or any tips for preparing for it?
Added to this, it appears the problems in the paper are more focused on how you do things other than achieving a correct answer- would anyone recommend good ways to improve problem solving ability? Especially with 'unfamiliar' sort of questions.
Thanks (sorry for the long post)
Iv'e not done the PAT but I believe you can get more replies if you post this in the university-of-Oxford form.
The questions in the physics section don't seem amazingly hard imo, but they're noticeably less hand-holdy than current A level physics papers.
possibly an (arguably) old fashioned book like Advanced Physics by Tom Duncan would help you, it contains some hard A level questions going back to the '80s with worked answers (iirc - loaned mine out)
There are some unofficial mark schemes/model answers floating around e.g. http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/pat/
(which I found in a couple of seconds on google btw)
as the absent agent says you'll probably get more on the oxford forums.
possibly an (arguably) old fashioned book like Advanced Physics by Tom Duncan would help you, it contains some hard A level questions going back to the '80s with worked answers (iirc - loaned mine out)
There are some unofficial mark schemes/model answers floating around e.g. http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/pat/
(which I found in a couple of seconds on google btw)
as the absent agent says you'll probably get more on the oxford forums.
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