Mathematics Applicants 2012

The Tutor's at my sixth form are pretty lenient with predicted grades, especially when Oxbridge is mentioned, so fingers crossed I will be predicted A*A*. Are you currently applying to Oxford/Cambridge?

The Aptitude Test doesn't seem as hard as STEP, I'm fairly sure with practice I could take it on. (famous last words )

Anyone got any idea's of fairly good maths Uni's that would be good backup
choices when applying?

Cheers!

Thanks very much, would it be better to do 4 A-levels (maths, fm, physics and chemistry) and get maybe A*A*AC/A*ABC or do 3 and get A*A*A?

Thanks very much, would it be better to do 4 A-levels (maths, fm, physics and chemistry) and get maybe A*A*AC/A*ABC or do 3 and get A*A*A?

Definitely 3. It is possible that they offer you A*A*AA (a few people were offered 4 As last year) so that's not worth the risk whatsoever. Unless you're confident you can get an A in the 4th and it won't affect your other results - don't bother.

I don't think it will or has affected my other results, but I wouldn't like to say I'm confident of getting an A in chemistry next year.

If i were to drop Chemistry, so I was doing 3 A-levels and then did an AS in Economics, would that be worth anything or would uni's just overlook it?

Sorry for all the questions, nobody at my sixth form has a good answer to these questions!

I'll be going to Oxford in October. The MAT isn't supposed to be comparable to STEP, they're both two very different exams.

If you have the extra AS already, it probably wouldn't be worth the extra hassle of an extra AS. Top universities may appreciate it a little, but the focus will always be on your main three!

Thanks, at least I've got a few months to think about it

Do all applicants to Oxford get to sit the MAT? Or is it possible for them to reject you straight away? :P

I agree with Xero Xenith on the extra AS - but if it doesn't affect your A2s and you want to do it because of interest it can't do any harm!

And I'm quite sure everyone sits the MAT, then you are told whether you are given an interview and so on...

Ah cool, thanks very much

What does the interview consist of? Will you be given questions to answer or is just a chance for you to explain why you have an interest in Maths?

You're given questions to answer. My interviews had no "tell us why you love maths" at all, it was just solid maths questions.

Could you explain what you mean?

STEP is an exam you're supposed to prepare for, like with an A-Level exam; it just asks for some more thinking and self-teaching. This isn't what the MAT is about, the MAT is an aptitude test and solely relies on just C1 and C2 knowledge. The difference is, you won't be given C1/C2 questions, you'll be given questions that you really can't prepare for in any way other than to seriously dig deep in regards to your mathematical abilities. This is true for STEP as well, more so if you don't prepare properly for it.

As well as STEP being 100 times harder.

Personally I find STEP easier than the MAT. I sat the MAT once I had done my A-Levels and just saw a lot of STEP as challenging A-Level questions, and rarely had to 'think outside the box', which is what I found challenging with the MAT.

The point is, you can't compare the two exams, they both test for two different things. It's obvious they're very different given you can prepare for STEP but not the MAT.

I guess when I looked at the MAT it looked a lot easier, however I haven't completed maths A-level so naturally STEP would look a lot harder. My maths teacher insists that STEP is amazingly difficult in comparison. He entered into uni around 5 years ago, did really well in the MAT apparently got got a 3, U in STEP II/III. I guess it's down to personal preference.

I dont know if you have any tips, but im finding it hard to choose a maths course because unlike say german where it says: culture, language, literature etc... I dont know what some of the maths modules are so I dont know if i'll like them...?
Any ideas??