Maths and Philosophy GV15 (2014 Entry)

Hey everyone,

Just wondering if anyone else is applying for this course and, if so, where are you applying to?

Cheers!

Indeed!
Well I am not 100% sure but I am seriously considering Durham, York and Bristol. Maaaaaaaybe Oxford however I'm highly unlikely to get in.
May I ask what you got at AS Level?

Hello again.

Yeah I'm still going applying for this, went to the open day for oxford on Friday and now I'm mostly decided on how I want to apply.

Oxford: Trinity / Hertford
Bristol
Warwick

Then two of York / Durham / Kings. I'm not too sure which one's I'd like to apply for. York has relatively easier grades (AAB I think), but I don't really want to go because I don't like the location. But this would mean my back up would probably need to be Bristol AAA, which isn't open to me messing up somehow

Ahh do Durham do the course? I thought they only did straight maths On York, I went to the Open Day on Saturday and it was very, very impressive.

I got AAAA at AS (English Lit, Maths, F Maths and Chem)



I didn't see Hertford on my visit, but I visited Trinity which looked lovely. I've changed my mind about 100 times, but I think I'm going for St. Johns

As I said above, I really liked York. The way it handled and taught the joint maths courses seemed very promising, and the surroundings were beautiful!

How are you getting on with MAT prep?

It appears that now I've gone to speak to my examinations officer for the MAT, I've made the decision to apply to Trinity. Everything feels so close, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to send off UCAS tonight...

Regarding the MAT, I found that I'm not entirely reliable. Some papers are really easy and I can get 80+ with time to spare, but others I get random questions that I have no idea where to start. It's almost worse in some of the multiple choice, as they don't give any sort of 'hint marks'.

I find that I'm pretty good at algebra and calculus, and can make a decent attempt on the 'weird q5'. My primary issue I find is that my (non algebra/equation) trig and (general) geometry are really lacking. Every time I see a diagram with circles or triangles I cry inside...
I didn't want to use all the papers so have been trying a few c1-c2 papers again but they aren't remotely challenging enough, even in the areas I struggle with :X

What about you?

Yep, mine's going to be sent off soon, perhaps a week tops?

I'm going to do my first timed paper in the next couple of days, so I don't really have a clear indication of a score as of yet. I'm doing pretty well on the multi choice, and I reckon I want to be getting at least 8/10 (32 marks I think) which would take the pressure off the bigger, more unpredictable questions. That's the plan anyway :L

My forte is exactly the same! If you check out Specimen 1, Question 4 - this is exactly the sort of question which floors me! (after the proof of sine rule and area of course!)

I think I'm going to try some Step 1 questions, just so I don't run out of MAT papers

Can't believe we're nearly in October eh?

Yeah similar, I'm aiming for 8/10 and then 3/4 of the other 4 questions, which gives me a bit less than 80. That should be enough for an offer I think.

Actually I did that question, and wow, I spent far too long on just proving the sine rule and area. I had never seen the proof at school and deriving was really kind of hard for me.

Did you look at the mark scheme? I found that for this (and some other questions), it doesn't actually make any sense. I managed to get through the cos^2 stuff by using pythagoras but had no idea about the very last part.

Sorry for the lengthy absence - college has been pretty hectic! I did manage to get my UCAS sent off though. Have you had any news through from any of the universities? I've got my first offer and an interview

I'm feeling pretty good about that MAT now, I managed a decent 70 (including full marks in the multi choice ) at the weekend. Hopefully these last few weeks of practice will just hone any areas that I find challenging .

Which college (Oxford) did you apply to again?

I sent my ucas off about a week or so ago, haven't got any offers yet though :/ Nice, where did you get yours from?

My confidence in the MAT is sort of improving. I have a tutor now and we go go through some papers, but I still find that some questions are a bit hit or miss. Sometimes I see it immediately other times the answer just never gets there. I'm actually finding the harder multiple choice worse than the longer answer questions as their is a lack of general hints. Often it also seems they word their questions in really awkward ways such that it makes logical sense given the mark scheme but I feel would be very difficult to answer otherwise.

I've left the 2012 paper for the last week but have made good progress through the others. I reckon I should be able to get 70-75 depending on the difficulty of the paper.

I ended up applying to Trinity.

Lancaster want ABB from me. Also I have an interview for Manchester next month, which I'm glad is before the (potential) Oxford interview! I wouldn't worry about getting offers through at this stage - if I remember your grades correctly, any university would be mad to turn you away!

I understand what you mean - I tend to find that so-called 'breakthroughs' in a question are quite rare. I either know what do to and how to do it straight away, or I'm pretty stumped. Anyhow, I think 70-75 would guarentee an interview.

I've also left 2012 for the final push. Hope it goes well!

I completely forgot about this :X

Wow that's excellent, have you got any more offers in the last week?
Oxford have finally sent an 'actual' acknowledgement email, and I got an offer from warwick and york now, which I'm so happy about.

It's weird to think that the exam is in just one week . I did the 2012 as a mock and only got 62 so it seems I still need a lot more practice

Awesome! Well done! I've also got an acknowldgement email from my college, plus an offer from Bristol did you get an offer from York for 'Maths & Philosophy'? I hope they reply to mine soon...

Yup, all the months of prep are coming down to next week! I've done 2 mocks (2010 and 2012) and got 70 in both. However I must admit that most of these marks were multi choice (40 on 2010 and 36 on 2012 ), so the longer questions still need work!

I reckon anything 60+ will get you an interview. Is anyone else at your college taking the test - or even any other admissions test, since they're all on the same day?

That's excellent, was that for "maths and philosophy" at Bristol because I applied there too: )

I applied for maths and philosophy to all my choices as I felt my personal statement was totally focused on it and didn't see the point in diversifying.

70 is great though, I think that's the average score for an offer?

One of my friends is doing the HAT on the same day which looks horrendous to prepare for (there isn't a lovely mark scheme the likes of the MAT ). I also have a friend redoing foundation maths gcse in the same room

Thanks Yeah I applied to both Bristol and York for Math/Phil and got an offer from Bristol so far - looks like yours is vice versa right?

Same, all my choices were Math/Phil for the same reasoning!

Somewhere around there - let's hope the exam isn't too nasty.

Wow, two ends of a spectrum right there!!! :L I also have people doing HAT, ELAT, critical thinking tests etc, so it won't just be me

This time next week, it will be over

Hey! Here's another applicant for Maths&Phil

I absolutely love BOTH subjects and just added Bristol as my fifth option yesterday.

It seem that you're doing fantastically well on the past papers for Oxford, at least both of you have a guaranteed interview To be honest, I'm feeling quite worried for the MAT myself I think the highest I scored in the timed papers was around 60%... The fact that I'm not even in the UK and the complete lack of any sort of tuition doesn't seem to help much

Hello

Where are you from? Do you do both subjects at the moment?

Also where else have you applied for? I've gone for warwick bristol york oxford and kings college.

I wouldn't say im doing 'fantastically' :P, I was pretty confident until I did the 2012 paper. It's sort of frustrating that they increase of the difficulty of the paper by the year such that it's so hard to prepare for it.
If you get 60% in the actual exam I think thats more than enough for an interview as well. Assuming the same level of difficulty (or probably greater...) I think around 50% is the automatic cut off for interview.

I get help from my teacher and I have a few sessions with a tutor but to be honest I haven't found them that useful. At least I haven't noticed a significant advantage over just spamming the MAT thread for help

I'm currently doing the European Baccalaureate in Spain and yes, I have the luck of studying philosophy as one of my 10+ subjects. It's actually one of the compulsory subjects, but I took the higher level.

I applied for Oxford, Durham, Warwick and St. Andrews first, then added Bristol a few days ago.

Now that it's only one day to go, I think I need confidence and if possible a bit luck as well Never realised how my mood on a particular day can affect my performance on a test so much

Have you planned anything to help with time management?