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King's College Mathematics School

Hi, my teachers recommended that I apply to King's College Mathematics School but I'm kind of nervous so I want to kind of get a idea what type of questions i'll get in the exam and also what learning style they use in their daily school life.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can answer this
I'm starting there on Monday so I'll be able to tell you about the school more in a couple of weeks :h:

The exam was slightly like a Maths Challenge paper. I think they have a practice paper online, and that was ridiculously helpful to me. (
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/mathsschool/specimen-questions.pdf )

The topics the questions are based on aren't so hard - I think a lot of it is KS3 Maths, but the questions themselves are quite challenging.
They're not expecting you to get 100%, or even finish every single question, it's designed to see how you work and answer the questions etc.

The most helpful thing I can tell you, is do the practice paper, make sure you understand as much of what you did in it as you can, and if you take the exam, relax!

But wait to see what others say.
(And if you have any more questions that no one ends up answering, definitely come to one of the open evenings.)
Sorry I wasn't all that helpful...
Hi, I am starting on Monday too, so also not that helpful...

But yeah, the test was quite similar to the one they published online, so after practicing that it won't be a problem. Many people were quite nervous after that test because they didn't get to finish (myself included...) but we still got in eventually :wink:
I went to the open day of the school back in February 2014 (when they didn't even have a building yet) and just fell for it. After two years of coming there every fortnight, I do think it's a great place - and hopefully I will have the same opinion once I start.

I promise to add on teaching style after a few weeks :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by iwishicouldfly14
I'm starting there on Monday so I'll be able to tell you about the school more in a couple of weeks :h:

The exam was slightly like a Maths Challenge paper. I think they have a practice paper online, and that was ridiculously helpful to me. (
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/mathsschool/specimen-questions.pdf )

The topics the questions are based on aren't so hard - I think a lot of it is KS3 Maths, but the questions themselves are quite challenging.
They're not expecting you to get 100%, or even finish every single question, it's designed to see how you work and answer the questions etc.

The most helpful thing I can tell you, is do the practice paper, make sure you understand as much of what you did in it as you can, and if you take the exam, relax!

But wait to see what others say.
(And if you have any more questions that no one ends up answering, definitely come to one of the open evenings.)
Sorry I wasn't all that helpful...


Thank you soooooo much, and please do get back to me on how it is there!! :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by sunsetyellow
Hi, I am starting on Monday too, so also not that helpful...

But yeah, the test was quite similar to the one they published online, so after practicing that it won't be a problem. Many people were quite nervous after that test because they didn't get to finish (myself included...) but we still got in eventually :wink:
I went to the open day of the school back in February 2014 (when they didn't even have a building yet) and just fell for it. After two years of coming there every fortnight, I do think it's a great place - and hopefully I will have the same opinion once I start.

I promise to add on teaching style after a few weeks :smile:


Thank you!!! i'll have a look at it online and try out the questions
Original post by NinaBean
Thank you soooooo much, and please do get back to me on how it is there!! :smile:


I don't really know how helpful this will be because I don't really know what you want to know, but here goes:

The school is wonderful! I love it so so much!
The teaching is mostly really great and the teachers are so enthusiastic about their subjects and some try so hard for you to like it!
With the majority of classes, they get you to try out methods first, you make conjectures (kind of like an opinion based on incomplete information, so a bit like a theory I guess) and then the teacher will show you how to do it.
Most of the time, they won't help you straight away - they want you to be independent, but at the same time, if you really need the help they'll supply it.

The atmosphere at the school is great - it's really "chill" but at the same time, the school is really organised and they've got very good pastoral care (e.g. one on one meeting with your form tutor every other week.) There's also quite a big emphasis on extra-curriculars (Our clubs are starting this week and everyone's going to at least one).
There isn't so much in the way of "cliques". There are groups, but you can hang around with anyone and no one will tell you to go away.
Also the Year 13s are really nice. We've asked them for help with a variety of things and they're always so willing - and although we don't know them properly, they just all see really great and relaxed (they stay after school to play board games).

All I'll say about the work, is that it's hard (but not in all subjects). (This is coming from someone who's set 4 maths :biggrin:) (but I know people in the other sets who struggle as well). They started us off with Further Maths in Core as opposed to C1. But they go at a pace which allows everyone to catch up and feel confident with the work. It's challenging, but not to the point where you're utterly confused and giving up (and the only subject I think people had/are having some difficulty in, is Core).

I don't know how helpful this is/if you want to know more, but feel free to message me at any point, or just reply to this with any other questions you have!!!

(Also, with regards to the exam, if you want more practice than just the practise exam, do some maths challenge papers).
Reply 6
Original post by iwishicouldfly14
I don't really know how helpful this will be because I don't really know what you want to know, but here goes:

The school is wonderful! I love it so so much!
The teaching is mostly really great and the teachers are so enthusiastic about their subjects and some try so hard for you to like it!
With the majority of classes, they get you to try out methods first, you make conjectures (kind of like an opinion based on incomplete information, so a bit like a theory I guess) and then the teacher will show you how to do it.
Most of the time, they won't help you straight away - they want you to be independent, but at the same time, if you really need the help they'll supply it.

The atmosphere at the school is great - it's really "chill" but at the same time, the school is really organised and they've got very good pastoral care (e.g. one on one meeting with your form tutor every other week.) There's also quite a big emphasis on extra-curriculars (Our clubs are starting this week and everyone's going to at least one).
There isn't so much in the way of "cliques". There are groups, but you can hang around with anyone and no one will tell you to go away.
Also the Year 13s are really nice. We've asked them for help with a variety of things and they're always so willing - and although we don't know them properly, they just all see really great and relaxed (they stay after school to play board games).

All I'll say about the work, is that it's hard (but not in all subjects). (This is coming from someone who's set 4 maths :biggrin:) (but I know people in the other sets who struggle as well). They started us off with Further Maths in Core as opposed to C1. But they go at a pace which allows everyone to catch up and feel confident with the work. It's challenging, but not to the point where you're utterly confused and giving up (and the only subject I think people had/are having some difficulty in, is Core).

I don't know how helpful this is/if you want to know more, but feel free to message me at any point, or just reply to this with any other questions you have!!!

(Also, with regards to the exam, if you want more practice than just the practise exam, do some maths challenge papers).


I know that this has been so long but i finally took the exam and can I just say that your advice HELPED SO MUCH!!! if i didnt look online at those papers and revise from them i don't think that i would've been so calm during the exam! Like when i was doing the paper I,strangely, was so calm about it.Especially after knowing that it's about the method not the answer I made sure that I presented logical thinking throughout. I didnt get to finish the paper, overall i missed out about two pages but honestly if it wasnt for you i probably would've just done two pages.
Once again thank you thank you thank you and now im just waiting to see if i got through to the interviews.
i took the exam on the 10th of december so do you remember how long it took them to give a reply on whether or not you got through to interviews?
Original post by NinaBean
I know that this has been so long but i finally took the exam and can I just say that your advice HELPED SO MUCH!!! if i didnt look online at those papers and revise from them i don't think that i would've been so calm during the exam! Like when i was doing the paper I,strangely, was so calm about it.Especially after knowing that it's about the method not the answer I made sure that I presented logical thinking throughout. I didnt get to finish the paper, overall i missed out about two pages but honestly if it wasnt for you i probably would've just done two pages.
Once again thank you thank you thank you and now im just waiting to see if i got through to the interviews.
i took the exam on the 10th of december so do you remember how long it took them to give a reply on whether or not you got through to interviews?


I sat the exam in March so there were less people. I think it took them about 2.5 weeks? You'll have almost definetly got a reply by the 5th January, which I guess is a while, but I'm not 100% sure.
Good Luck!!

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