Oxford Physics Students and Applicants

Im totally ****ed.

Have you heard from hertford yet?

EDIT: Im really ****ing screwed...

Yes, the 'Report on Physics Aptitude Test 2010' accompanied my rejection letter, and it basically says marks ranged from 16-97, with a mean mark of 66 and standard deviation of 14. So they decided that all applicants scoring 71 and above were short-listed.
I thought the cut-off mark was quite high as well, but oh well, good luck

That is ghastly. Everyone on here seems to think they have between 50-60 (myself included). Who are all these genii with >71% ??
It's also remarkable that you seem to be the only one with this document

I know 71! I think I got about 50 and I was happy with that.
I don't know, it seems like I'm the only one who's got rejected! Or maybe it was an easy decision for them probably because I was a weak applicant or something, I'm not quite sure.

'' Our primary short-listing criterion is the total mark achieved on the tests, which ranged from 4 to 94, with a mean mark of 46 and a standard deviation of 16. More details are shown in the graph which plots the cumulative rank of candidates scoring a certain mark. All applicants scoring 47 and above were then short- listed.''

considering that this one has a s.d larger than this year, it would have to mean that oxford are interviewing a lot less than like 40-45% of the applicants this year....
it would have to be at most 25-30% as a rough estimate (maybe even as low as 15%>)... which seems pretty harsh, they didn't have that many more applicants compared with this year (1019 in 2010, from 971 this year)......

anyone know the reason for this?

'' Our primary short-listing criterion is the total mark achieved on the tests, which ranged from 4 to 94, with a mean mark of 46 and a standard deviation of 16. More details are shown in the graph which plots the cumulative rank of candidates scoring a certain mark. All applicants scoring 47 and above were then short- listed.''

considering that this one has a s.d larger than this year, it would have to mean that oxford are interviewing a lot less than like 40-45% of the applicants this year....
it would have to be at most 25-30% as a rough estimate (maybe even as low as 15%>)... which seems pretty harsh, they didn't have that many more applicants compared with this year (1019 in 2010, from 971 this year)......

anyone know the reason for this?

Same, i feel like **** now

EDIT: If hes talking crap I feel a lot of neg coming his way..

No I did too. And I don't think I was weak in other areas - I just say congratulations to those who obviously did better! I take my hat off to people who do it

I know, surely if they are interviewing 490 out of 1019, then surely the cut off should be close to the mean mark (66, not 71)? This year does seem really intense, I'm worried about the interview now, there's going to be a real battle for places...

It says they will be interviewing about 490, out of 1013. Thats about 48%. So they are still interviewing the same number of applicants.

yeah exactly. the thing is, there shouldn't be a significantly bigger battle than last year. there are only about 50 more applicants and the same number of places.. it seems bizarre that they've decided to drastically cut down the number of interviews.... i cant think why.

Ah, but if all the interview candidates have achieved over 71 in the PAT, then there's going to be some seriously good physicists competiting for only 190 places...

Yes, the 'Report on Physics Aptitude Test 2010' accompanied my rejection letter, and it basically says marks ranged from 16-97, with a mean mark of 66 and standard deviation of 14. So they decided that all applicants scoring 71 and above were short-listed.
I thought the cut-off mark was quite high as well, but oh well, good luck

Just recieved a rejection!








Good luck for those who have interviews!