TSA Cambridge Admissions Test???

Hi
I'm looking into going to Cambridge after my A levels so after doing some research I found about about the TSA Cambridge Admissions Test, since the course I want to do requires me to sit this particular...
Has anyone here sat this test? Is it hard? Does it determine whether or not you get a place?

Anyone ??? :confused:

Reply 1

Mitch92uK

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsacambridge

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsacambridge/Test+Preparation

You're fairly safe assuming if they're making you do it, it will play some part in their decision to admit (or not) you.

thanks

I had to do that. I had a look at their sample questions and did terribly on the online practice test (something like 56%). Then again, I didn't spend 90 full minutes on the practice one, but when I took the real test on the day of my interview, I did spend 90 minutes and I think I did pretty well on it. It also had a fun question about a modified version of noughts and crosses which is much more fun than the original.

It's piss easy tbh.

It's a bit like an IQ test. The worst thing about it for me was staying foccussed for 90 minutes of pure logical thinking...gave me a headache! And I don't think it plays a large role, not as important as the interview anyway.

phil.

Reply 6

Moogen

Although some of the questions a bit tricky I didn't find it incredibly hard (although that said, you don't actually find out how well/badly you did). I found that having done AS Critical Thinking was quite useful as some of the questions were of a similar style. From what I hear though the Oxford TSA is much harder.

Reply 7

ByronicHero

I found it fairly simple: I did the online one in about 30 minutes or so and got 78 % although I dont know if thats actually good or not.... enlighten me?

Reply 8

ClareSmith1234

I have a question about the TSA for Cambridge... Are you actually expected to finish the whole thing in 90 minutes? Or is it one of those tests where you're supposed to get as far as you can but people rarely finish it? Or something in between..? It's just that I have some time management issues in exams and was wondering how much it matters if I don't quite get to the end.

Reply 9

emilY?

People usually finish relatively quickly - but may spend the rest of the 90mins going back over ones they've guessed a bit.

Its a component of the overall picture of a candidate - a poor performance doesn't mean you won't get an offer, a good performance doesn't mean you will. As far as I've heard - people are usually pretty clustered together on it anyway.... there's also not a vast amount of data to support what kind of indication it gives of future tripos performance. But that's not to say it doesn't matter how you do on it.

Thanks!

paddy__power

I found it fairly simple: I did the online one in about 30 minutes or so and got 78 % although I dont know if thats actually good or not.... enlighten me?

Do you know for sure that it's a percentage you get, as i only found out a number and it was unclear what the number meant?

Reply 12

meakame

whybird18

Do you know for sure that it's a percentage you get, as i only found out a number and it was unclear what the number meant?

For the online one it's a percentage... and yes, 78% is good (I think). On the real thing they scale to another number so you can't compare your online score with the "real" score.

As for how hard it is, the fact is: it's ANNOYING. Basically the first few questions are easy and then it gets harder and harder. Nearing the end your concentration starts to break down, so you have to force yourself to stay focussed. I took half an hour to answer the first half of the questions... and the next hour to answer the second half, if that's any indication.

Reply 13

whybird18

meakame

Thanks, i'm not sure then reeally because it wasn't a 'real' one or an online one; my school was used to sample the test papers, we did the test so they could see whether to use the questions in real future tests and we got to find out our scores. I'm guessing it's not a percentage then as it would be representative of a real test. Thanks for the help! x