Official Cambridge Applicants Thread 2016 Entry

Original post by Terezoza

Hii

anyone else applying for physical natural sciences? I'm curious to see what you're doing for work experience/ relevant extra curricular activities
Thanks in advance!

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Hi, I applied for Physical Natsci this year, and I don't think most people did much aside from reading a couple of books.
On my application I mentioned rowing, a 6-week research placement, science vids on youtube and stuff, books I'd read, scientific magazines...
Work experience isn't really important for NatSci (unless it shows that you have an interest in your subject, like the research placement) so yeh :smile:

Reply 1781

Economistician

13

Original post by hopefulecon12

Haha thanks :ahee:

Haven't really thought about that. Maybe an economist? Or work in finance? Dunno for sure though. How about you? :yep:

Not too sure either. But definitely something in finance. Maybe consulting ir banking.

Reply 1782

raineandfyre

2

@Terezoza:
I'm applying for PhysNatSci and I'm halfway through several of Brian Cox's physics books at the minute. I read articles from New Scientist and From Quarks to Quasars online, Focus magazine, and I'm hopefully going to spend a week in the physics dept at a local uni. And I'm going on a few engineering taster days simply to see if that's interesting, as it's related.

That's basically it for extracurriculars/work experience at the minute.

Reply 1783

raineandfyre

2

Original post by Rovensie

Cancelling standardised exams does not necessarily leads to higher level of creativity, because the students may not use the spare time well. Who knows if they would just sleep away the day :/

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Scrapping school league tables instead would be a better move imo, it would make schools rethink their priorities on what and how they teach.

Reply 1784

Original post by Colmans

I left 2010 and took AS Maths in 2008.

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Sorry Colmans, but you are so full of **** lol. If there were maybe 2-3 people per set that'd be just about believable.

Edit: this is the thing about everyone in 2 top sets of the 10 sets getting full marks in AS maths.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1785

Colmans

11

Original post by Blutooth

Sorry Colmans, but you are so full of **** lol. If there were maybe 2-3 people per set that'd be just about believable.

Edit: this is the thing about everyone in 2 top sets of the 10 sets getting full marks in AS maths.

I'm not sure I can be bothered to argue but would you think the claim that 224/263 boys got A* in GCSE and that 74 boys got an A* in Maths A2 is also unbelievable?
(That's this year's data.)
I reckon there will be lots of people on TSR who got 100% in AS in several subjects themselves and knew plenty of people at their grammar/selective independent who did the same.

Reply 1786

Original post by Colmans

I'm not sure I can be bothered to argue but would you think the claim that 224/263 boys got A* in GCSE and that 74 boys got an A* in Maths A2 is also unbelievable?
(That's this year's data.)
I reckon there will be lots of people on TSR who got 100% in AS in several subjects themselves and knew plenty of people at their grammar/selective independent who did the same.

No that's not unbelievable because that's very different from everyone in 2 classes of people scoring full marks in 3 modules isn't it.

Reply 1787

Original post by Colmans

I'm not sure I can be bothered to argue but would you think the claim that 224/263 boys got A* in GCSE and that 74 boys got an A* in Maths A2 is also unbelievable?
(That's this year's data.)
I reckon there will be lots of people on TSR who got 100% in AS in several subjects themselves and knew plenty of people at their grammar/selective independent who did the same.

If there are 20 people in your top sets, then even if a person had a 85% chance of getting full UMS the probability all 20 did is 0.85^20 which is less than 4%. And I doubt everyone had an 85% chance or better of getting full ums in their AS.

Reply 1788

Original post by Blutooth

No that's not unbelievable because that's very different from everyone in 2 classes of people scoring full marks in 3 modules isn't it.

I think they do like 4 modules in AS and c1 in gcse so lots of chance to retake and get top 3.

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Reply 1789

ThatPerson

Original post by Blutooth

If there are 20 people in your top sets, then even if a person had a 85% chance of getting full UMS the probability all 20 did is 0.85^20 which is less than 4%. And I doubt everyone had an 85% chance or better of getting full ums in their AS.

If it was anywhere but Eton I would say it was impossible, but when you have been having education of the highest quality for ~7 years I think it's much more achievable. Still amazing that no one dropped a single UMS point, but the subject in which you are most likely to do that in is AS Maths.

Reply 1790

Original post by ThatPerson

If it was anywhere but Eton I would say it was impossible, but when you have been having education of the highest quality for ~7 years I think it's much more achievable. Still amazing that no one dropped a single UMS point, but the subject in which you are most likely to do that in is AS Maths.

I think St. Paul's in London is the best in the country for maths. They have like one kid per year going to the IMO :/.

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Reply 1791

ThatPerson

Original post by physicsmaths

I think St. Paul's in London is the best in the country for maths. They have like one kid per year going to the IMO :/.

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I hadn't even heard of Mathematical Olympiads till the beginning of Year 12. Before that I thought the Maths challenge was some pointless test we had to do every year :tongue:

Reply 1792

Original post by ThatPerson

If it was anywhere but Eton I would say it was impossible, but when you have been having education of the highest quality for ~7 years I think it's much more achievable. Still amazing that no one dropped a single UMS point, but the subject in which you are most likely to do that in is AS Maths.

There are quite a few schools that are as academic in Eton in the country. http://www.best-schools.co.uk/uk-school-league-tables/a-level-passes/. I'm not fond of league tables but this gives you an idea. Now, I don't think at any of these places is it likely that the 20 or so students in the top sets got full marks in their AS maths. Now if they were sitting exams early and doing retakes as has been suggested, it might be possible, but still rather unlikely. Case in point if you assume on average 8.5/10 get full marks at Ums, the chances all 20 do is still less than 4%.But it's not even that likely that 9/10 exams on average achieve full UMS.
Most of the Oxbridge scientists, including mathmos, I know didn't.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1793

Original post by ThatPerson

I hadn't even heard of Mathematical Olympiads till the beginning of Year 12. Before that I thought the Maths challenge was some pointless test we had to do every year :tongue:

Same i found out about it in year 12 about 2 months before the SMC when my school did it.

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Reply 1794