Oxbridge Maths Interview questions/advice.

is the one about the stones a trick one ?

But that's using FP2. I'm sure there's probably a way with comparing coefficients with FP1 knowledge.

You need FP2. Further complex numbers. Look up de moivres theorem and see if you can do it from there.


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What's people opinions of using past interview questions to prepare for future interviews? Do they re-use questions or is it a waste of time...

How do you get good at sketching graphs? do you just memorise different graph shapes and transformations because when i see a question where you have to sketch a graph which i haven't seen before I have no idea where to start

None of these was asked in my interview. Although a previous step quetion was asked in my interview which i realised after. It was small and a starter but still odd. They generally dont reuse it over previous years but they do repeat it within each cycle to compare candidates. Although I was asked a hard question no one in my college was asked(from those who I asked).
Also these question give you an idea of how to think and how hey will challenge you to think. Be ready to be challeneged and bot understand something asked.


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Key to graph sketching:
Trivial points such as |x|=x x>0 and |x|=-x if x<0
For trig think about general solutions to the graph first, what happens at 0 and infinity -inifinity
Now for harder graphs, look for oblique asymtotes(edexcel you will need to read about this as its not on our syllabus), horizontal and vertical asymtotes. Now around the asymtote for example if we had x=1 as an asymtote i would see what happens at just below 1 and just above 1. Differentiate to see max and min. Also look at intervals and you should understand deeply second derivitive inflextion local max and min and concavity. I was crap at graph sketching before hand pratice makes perfect and now I can do nearly all STEP curve sketching questions.



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Did they ask you questions that you couldn't answer initially, and then ones that you couldn't answer without some nudging? So were there any questions that you left unanswered in the interview?

Did they ask you questions that you couldn't answer initially, and then ones that you couldn't answer without some nudging? So were there any questions that you left unanswered in the interview?

I ( and many others) would love this booklet but surely you can do better than that...
Don't you know anybody with a scanner?
It would be nice to put this into a PDF

How do I do this lol. Sorry but i can just about work my tsr app.


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All you need is the basic graphs, and then think about multiplying them together or adding them at points along the axes, and you get used to it. I can't think of a better way to explain it - say you had $y = (\ln x)^2$ then I'd imagine drawing $\ln x$ twice and multiplying the y coordinates at each point on the x axis. If I had $y = \ln x^2$ then that's like a transformation $f(x) \rightarrow f(ax)$, except $a$ is $x$, and so the stretch is exponentially varying in the x direction...

You need a scanner to take "photocopy" the 4 sides of the document ...
If you do not have a scanner surely someone you know will have one.
post the good quality pictures on TSR and I will put them onto to PDF.

I shall use my Iphone 5 then.


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You need a scanner to take "photocopy" the 4 sides of the document ...
If you do not have a scanner surely someone you know will have one.
post the good quality pictures on TSR and I will put them onto to PDF.

I can fix the original post images by using a transformation matrix to get the angle right then adjusting contrast but I can't really be bothered

I shall use my Iphone 5 then.


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