Singapore Cambridge Applicants 2015

Original post by jumpnshoot

Hi guys,

Just wondering if any of you all know what are the weightages of the overseas interviews(I had mine in Singapore), TSA's MCQ and essay? How much do they take into consideration?

I just had my TSA and messed up my essay quite a fair bit, almost completely ): what are my remaining chances of getting into Cambridge?

Every College has a different assessment method. Some colleges (like the one I applied) do not use the TSA to assess applicants. It is fair to say that the whole assessment is not based on just one component, but a holistic assessment. I assume you are a Singaporean (since we love to think of parts of an assessment as havig weightage), so don't think of it as a rigid system.

Furthermore, do take into consideration the fact that your application would be compared to others (including the University wide pool). This includes students who are yet to be interviewed from other countries (HK and Cambridge). Cross your fingers and hope for the best. Remember, the whole process is to see if Cambridge is right for you (in terms of how they teach/study).

Side note: I too screwed up the essay big time, but I guess it is meant to be like this (seeing that 30 mins is really not enough time to write a perfect essay).

Reply 42

Did anyone else find the TSA today a lot harder than the normal TSAs on the practice website? :frown:

I found the essay okay but I'm seriously worried about my TSA :frown:

Reply 43

Original post by SkatyBoy

Every College has a different assessment method. Some colleges (like the one I applied) do not use the TSA to assess applicants. It is fair to say that the whole assessment is not based on just one component, but a holistic assessment. I assume you are a Singaporean (since we love to think of parts of an assessment as havig weightage), so don't think of it as a rigid system.

Furthermore, do take into consideration the fact that your application would be compared to others (including the University wide pool). This includes students who are yet to be interviewed from other countries (HK and Cambridge). Cross your fingers and hope for the best. Remember, the whole process is to see if Cambridge is right for you (in terms of how they teach/study).

Side note: I too screwed up the essay big time, but I guess it is meant to be like this (seeing that 30 mins is really not enough time to write a perfect essay).

Yup I'm Singaporean too. I presume you took the TSA this afternoon at HCI too? My open application allocated me to apply to St Edmund's College if that helps.

I remembered the M.E. formula wrong and well, I guess I can say my essay qn 1 went down the wrong path from the start onwards. Really freaked out when I realised walking out not so much of the time but the content haha worried that one major screw up will pull my entire application down (since competition's already so intense that leaves no room for mistakes ya?)

Reply 44

Original post by rubisco

Did anyone else find the TSA today a lot harder than the normal TSAs on the practice website? :frown:

I found the essay okay but I'm seriously worried about my TSA :frown:

it was definitely harder than the sample paper cambridge gave, did you manage to finish all 50 questions?

Reply 45

Original post by jumpnshoot

it was definitely harder than the sample paper cambridge gave, did you manage to finish all 50 questions?

I finished all 50 with maybe 5-10 minutes to go, but a few questions I just made complete guesses, and some of them I just didn't understand because the wording seemed strange. Like I didn't even understand what the one about 'cut length' was talking about :frown:

Reply 46

Original post by jumpnshoot

Yup I'm Singaporean too. I presume you took the TSA this afternoon at HCI too? My open application allocated me to apply to St Edmund's College if that helps.

I remembered the M.E. formula wrong and well, I guess I can say my essay qn 1 went down the wrong path from the start onwards. Really freaked out when I realised walking out not so much of the time but the content haha worried that one major screw up will pull my entire application down (since competition's already so intense that leaves no room for mistakes ya?)

What course are you applying to? And whats M.E. formula. :tongue:

Do you think your interview went okay (by Cambridge standards)?

Reply 47

Navo D.

2

Ye this paper was defo harder than the Cambridge papers, similar difficulty to oxford 2013 (but that may just be me thinking its hard because I took it under proper exam conditions). I guessed a few as well, including that weird cut length one (how could it be in pence????) and the train mapping.

How did you find the supplementary essay?

Reply 48

Original post by Navo D.

Ye this paper was defo harder than the Cambridge papers, similar difficulty to oxford 2013 (but that may just be me thinking its hard because I took it under proper exam conditions). I guessed a few as well, including that weird cut length one (how could it be in pence????) and the train mapping.

How did you find the supplementary essay?

I found the actual content of the essay okay, but my organisation was all over the place :frown:

Hahah but when I saw the one about rubisco I thought it must be a sign, even though I didnt end up doing it :tongue:

Reply 49

I think it would be best if all of us don't talk about the actual questions that appeared on our TSA. Remember, we are still bound by the non-disclosure agreement and that may apply to the TSA itself. I know the kiasu Singaporean feeling of comparing questions. :tongue:

Reply 50

leeberun

hey guys, i took the PBS-TSA in the test yesterday in HC, it was cool to me since we dun hv math problem in the PBS-TSA at all, though the wordings are very tricky and British.

and the essay question also surprised me, base on cam saying "studying psychology in IB/AL is not necessary", i assumed it ought to be fundamental question, but the question we got was really deep.

Reply 51

Original post by rubisco

I finished all 50 with maybe 5-10 minutes to go, but a few questions I just made complete guesses, and some of them I just didn't understand because the wording seemed strange. Like I didn't even understand what the one about 'cut length' was talking about :frown:

That's great already I only managed to finish 47 hahah completely guessed 3. The cut length one ringd a bell mind refreshing my memory what the question was about?

Reply 52

Original post by SkatyBoy

What course are you applying to? And whats M.E. formula. :tongue:

Do you think your interview went okay (by Cambridge standards)?

Economics. The multiplier effect formula got it totally wrong. I could answer most of the questions with 2 mistakes though so I guessed it went relatively well?

Do cambridge take interview, TSA MCQ and TSA essay scores, add them up and take the highest few or do they look at interview report, MCQ etc and only if ambiguous will they look at your essay? If the former I reckon my essay will pull me down beyond hope haha

Reply 53

Navo D.

2

Do you know if it was compulsory for Singapore interviewed applicants to take the TSA last year as well? Trying to guess what the distribution will be like this time :tongue:

Original post by rubisco

I found the actual content of the essay okay, but my organisation was all over the place :frown:

Hahah but when I saw the one about rubisco I thought it must be a sign, even though I didnt end up doing it :tongue:

Haha yeah, I went for the heart one wbu? I guess my points were valid and scientific enough but it was just all over the place and not perfectly coherent. 30 mins is not enough for this! Brings back memories of SAT essays :angry:

Reply 54

Original post by Navo D.

Do you know if it was compulsory for Singapore interviewed applicants to take the TSA last year as well? Trying to guess what the distribution will be like this time :tongue:

Haha yeah, I went for the heart one wbu? I guess my points were valid and scientific enough but it was just all over the place and not perfectly coherent. 30 mins is not enough for this! Brings back memories of SAT essays :angry:

It has been quite an established policy to test all overseas applicants, be it the TSA or any other prescribed exam. Like I said above, some Colleges use the TSA in their assessment, while some, like the one I applied to (Magdalene), does not take into account my TSA or Essay results that I have done at HCI yesterday. Still, it is important for me to do the TSA, as it will be used by other Colleges if I get pooled. (I hope not!)

To check if the College you are applying uses the TSA, check out the subject page on the Cambridge website (under the section Admission tests).

Obviously 30 mins is not enough! I suspect Cambridge deliberately gave us a short amount of time, just to see if we can argue and think straight. Again, there are no right and wrong answers for the essay, just how well you put your thoughts into words.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 55

Navo D.

2

Original post by SkatyBoy

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I applied open choice and still haven't received an allocation :tongue:

Anyway its just a matter of hearing back from them now, best of luck to everyone on here!

Reply 56

Original post by SkatyBoy

It has been quite an established policy to test all overseas applicants, be it the TSA or any other prescribed exam. Like I said above, some Colleges use the TSA in their assessment, while some, like the one I applied to (Magdalene), does not take into account my TSA or Essay results that I have done at HCI yesterday. Still, it is important for me to do the TSA, as it will be used by other Colleges if I get pooled. (I hope not!)

To check if the College you are applying uses the TSA, check out the subject page on the Cambridge website (under the section Admission tests).

Obviously 30 mins is not enough! I suspect Cambridge deliberately gave us a short amount of time, just to see if we can argue and think straight. Again, there are no right and wrong answers for the essay, just how well you put your thoughts into words.

The college allocated to me (st edmund) at the webpage only wrote down TSA as the admission requirement, does that mean they take very little account of your interview results/report (which does not seem logical) and likely place a huge emphasis on TSA MCQ + essay?

Reply 57

Hahah I know it was SAT all over again I never wanted to repeat that 😂 Ohh I did the muscle one, and I found the timing okay I'm just worried that it won't make a whole lot of sense :frown:

oh well, we have all done all we can so now we just have to wait and feel sorry for all the UK people 😊

Reply 58

Original post by SkatyBoy

It has been quite an established policy to test all overseas applicants, be it the TSA or any other prescribed exam. Like I said above, some Colleges use the TSA in their assessment, while some, like the one I applied to (Magdalene), does not take into account my TSA or Essay results that I have done at HCI yesterday. Still, it is important for me to do the TSA, as it will be used by other Colleges if I get pooled. (I hope not!)

To check if the College you are applying uses the TSA, check out the subject page on the Cambridge website (under the section Admission tests).

Obviously 30 mins is not enough! I suspect Cambridge deliberately gave us a short amount of time, just to see if we can argue and think straight. Again, there are no right and wrong answers for the essay, just how well you put your thoughts into words.

Ohh I thought they made us do the TSA regardless of where we applied since we internationals do fewer interviews than the UK applicants and hence they need another criterion to assess us on? I really hope that's not the case and the TSA was only for pooling purposes :frown:

Reply 59