Oxford MAT Test - 5th Nov 2014

I got 84, which I'm really thankful for. My course is Mathematics and Computer Science so I got the nifty logic questions which I liked

flipping hell thats really high. Well done ! thats a crazy score! Did you apply to imperial aswell?


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So did you just send an email to the relevant admissions department and asked for the score?


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If you want to know your score, you should ask your college (not the department).

Gavin

I checked the Oxford MAT site randomly, and noticed that the paper, solutions, general admission feedback and statistics have now been uploaded. It seems that the difficulty of last year's paper was an anomaly, though I thought that this year's paper was of comparable difficulty.

I checked the Oxford MAT site randomly, and noticed that the paper, solutions, general admission feedback and statistics have now been uploaded. It seems that the difficulty of last year's paper was an anomaly, though I thought that this year's paper was of comparable difficulty.

Another interesting thing to note is how much higher the score is for accepted candidates. Suggests that even after shortlisting, they still look at the MAT to determine the offer.
2013 was a killer paper for sure.

Another interesting thing to note is how much higher the score is for accepted candidates. Suggests that even after shortlisting, they still look at the MAT to determine the offer.
2013 was a killer paper for sure.

Wow oxford admissions are ridiculous rejecting that many people with a MAT score of 90-100.

That is outrageous...they literally do just go off of interviews to decide offers. Clearly for a subject like maths, this is ludicrous. Tutors taking people they like instead of those who are better at maths.

As someone who held an offer for oxford maths last year and rejected it to go to MIT, I have to say i really have no faith in the system.

Wow oxford admissions are ridiculous rejecting that many people with a MAT score of 90-100.

That is outrageous...they literally do just go off of interviews to decide offers. Clearly for a subject like maths, this is ludicrous. Tutors taking people they like instead of those who are better at maths.

As someone who held an offer for oxford maths last year and rejected it to go to MIT, I have to say i really have no faith in the system.

I do agree with you that they shouldn't have rejected as many people as they did with scores of 90-100, but I think the interviews are emphasised because the tutorial system is such a big part of Oxford. The tutors rejecting these candidates with good MAT scores may feel that the candidate would not suit this tutorial system, after all, they will likely teach them for 2+ years. Remember also that the MAT has a multichoice aspect, so those with 90-100 may have guessed some of the answers and got them correct

Wow oxford admissions are ridiculous rejecting that many people with a MAT score of 90-100.

That is outrageous...they literally do just go off of interviews to decide offers. Clearly for a subject like maths, this is ludicrous. Tutors taking people they like instead of those who are better at maths.

As someone who held an offer for oxford maths last year and rejected it to go to MIT, I have to say i really have no faith in the system.

I do agree with you that they shouldn't have rejected as many people as they did with scores of 90-100, but I think the interviews are emphasised because the tutorial system is such a big part of Oxford. The tutors rejecting these candidates with good MAT scores may feel that the candidate would not suit this tutorial system, after all, they will likely teach them for 2+ years. Remember also that the MAT has a multichoice aspect, so those with 90-100 may have guessed some of the answers and got them correct

I think getting 80+ demonstrates clear mathematical ability even if you did guess a couple of questions. I wonder why those people didn't get an offer. Either they failed the interview spectacularly, turned up high, or withdrew their application.

To be fair, the vast majority of those achieving 90-100 were accepted.

A couple of other options:
- People who are great at tests, but didn't respond well in a interview scenario (interviews mimic the key teaching style, the tutorial). There are people who might learn better in other ways. This could include international students without a good level of English.
- People whose interviews weren't nearly as good as their MAT suggests, perhaps implying they cheated on the test.

how could you cheat?

The way the MAT is administered has tightened up a bit lately, but with a school's co-operation it would be very easy. e.g. giving a candidate much more time. Or even assisting them with answers.

I've heard rumours that it seems to happen in some countries.

Hey guys

I just received feedback. I got a score of 63 which was 263rd (joint) out of all candidates (but I prefer to think of it as joint 38th . There are 270 places in total.

At my (ex-)college, St. John's., there were 126 applications, 10 offers made by St. John's, and a further 16 made by other colleges. Not sure how useful this is. Not very by my assessment.