Oxford MAT 2013/2014

There's also a book by Stephen Law called 'The Great Philosophers' which I'd reccomend for all of the fact based stuff. It gives succinct profiles of the 50 most important philosophers with biographies, their theories, publications, connections with contemporaries etc. Very useful

Yeah, imagine, if we get interviews, waiting by the computer on the day when the offers are released my heart would be in my mouth every time I got an email I think the biggest nightmare I have would be getting an offer, then somehow having a disaster in the end of year exams and missing it!!!

Luckily I have no such pressure - no history of Oxbridge in my family. I think I'm breaking new ground by actually applying :L

Are your school offering you any help in preparing for the MAT?

Applying for oxford maths too! Anyone know where to get old MAT papers from like 2000-2005?

Nice, i'll take a look on amazon

I'm worried about getting an interview :L. Although aren't you like guaranteed an interview if you do well enough in the MAT? Or is it only part of the 'whole picture' with gcse and AS involved as well?
Yeah that would be awful, but in some ways a bit better. At least then you only have yourself (kind of) to blame, as opposed to oxford for not giving you an offer And at least you know you are good enough for the oxford administrations officer.

My school I think are going to put in a small amount of effort. I think there might be others (like one other person) applying to do Maths, so we mght have 'general' sessions for MAT and STEP sort of things, but nothing too special. What about you?

Are you sure you're looking at the right exam? Orbit-Stabilizer is ( advanced) first/ second year uni stuff!

EDIT: you looked at the Tripos exam, STEP is a lot more understandable than that

I think you have the wrong exam

Hahaha, I'm so silly. What is the Tripos exam for?

Hahaha, I'm so silly. What is the Tripos exam for?




I found the right exam and actually managed to get the question right! Woop woop

http://www.mathshelper.co.uk/oxb.htm has a few but not all the papers.

added this to the OP now :3

Computer Science applicant reporting in. Can STEP I be used as preparation for the MAT?

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Sitting this for Oxford Maths & CompSci but I'm sh*tting myself because I got really low scores in my first two past papers, i.e. high 50s/low 60s...

I think a score of 70+ will pretty much guarantee you an interview, as the 'average successful applicant score' has been around 65-70 in the past few years. However, if you have excellent GCSE/AS results, I'd be very surprised if you didn't get an interview with 50-60 on the MAT. At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway

Another factor to take into account is the fact we're applying for Math/Phil - although Oxford have emphasised the fact that similar mathematical capability is required for the joint courses, surely the 'interview boundary' can't be exactly the same...right?

To be honest, I'd just love to get an interview - I think if I got to that stage I'd have the confidence to get myself an offer. I'd be absolutely gutted if I got rejected on the MAT


Your school sounds identical to mine :L I don't think there is any sort of Oxbridge reputation for Maths, or at least none that I'm aware of I think there's one other person applying for the MAT so we might have a couple of tutorials in the preceding month, but no more than that! My parents are trying to find a tutor especially for the MAT, but they seem to be few and far between

Also, do you know where else you're applying to?

So around 8 MC questions and 3-4 decent responses to longer answers? The boundaries seem to be pretty low but then I guess its because of the difficulty.

I didn't get great GCSE / AS to be honest, so I think I'm going to need as many marks as possible :L

Yeah I presume the boundaries might be slightly lower than if someone did Maths by itself, or Maths and Stats. Or maybe I'm just telling myself this as a confidence boost ^^

If I get rejected on the basis of the MAT then to be honest that's fair for me as it just means that I'm just not good enough for Maths as a degree. It would be much better to get rejected on a competence level, than doing awfully at interviews and getting rejected for that. Or getting rejected due to GCSE / AS grades.
By the way, do you think my B will consideralby hurt my chances? What did you get in GCSE? I got 6*4A1B, but I'm worried that every other applicant will get like all A* or at least All A*/A.

I think getting a tutor would be quite nice. I reckon if I asked, my teachers might be willing to spare some extra time, although I can imagine a lot of the questions they might have difficulty with, if they haven't practiced much.

I've looked at bristol and I've been considering LSE, but not really much else in terms of other uni's. What about you?

It's much more difficult getting 70% in the MAT than it is getting 70% in A-Level exams obviously.

Also I don't really agree with your "it would be much better to get rejected on a competence level, than doing awfully at interviews or being rejected for AS grades". Firstly, the interview is designed exactly to see if you're both competent and competent enough to learn at the pace, and way, Oxford teaches the course. Also, getting 'low marks' at AS would be a perfectly good reason to reject someone for maths - getting 90% in A-Level Maths/Further is laughably easy for someone good enough to study at Oxford (hence why the entry requirement is now A*A* in Maths/Further).

Also your GCSEs are perfectly fine, assuming you got an A* in GCSE Maths. My GCSEs are much worse than 6 A*s, 4 As and a B.

It's much more difficult getting 70% in the MAT than it is getting 70% in A-Level exams obviously.

Also I don't really agree with your "it would be much better to get rejected on a competence level, than doing awfully at interviews or being rejected for AS grades". Firstly, the interview is designed exactly to see if you're both competent and competent enough to learn at the pace, and way, Oxford teaches the course. Also, getting 'low marks' at AS would be a perfectly good reason to reject someone for maths - getting 90% in A-Level Maths/Further is laughably easy for someone good enough to study at Oxford (hence why the entry requirement is now A*A* in Maths/Further).

Also your GCSEs are perfectly fine, assuming you got an A* in GCSE Maths. My GCSEs are much worse than 6 A*s, 4 As and a B.

If I recall, it's actually out of 115? So it's a bit less than 70% but yes of course you are right.

You misunderstand me. I mean that everyone is basically expected to get A/A in maths and FM AS to apply to oxford, which I think is perfectly fair. But considering they don't look at UMS, I'm afraid that they will judge your other AS and your GCSE's more harshly. And I would be annoyed to get rejected on the basis due to having inferior grades in other subjects. It would be frustrating to get rejected not due to lack of mathematical competence, but due to doing less well overall. I feel that the MAT is the real discriminator, and that if I do poorly on it, then I don't deserve to ge an offer / interview ect. It should be the most significant part of the application.

If I recall, it's actually out of 115? So it's a bit less than 70% but yes of course you are right.

You misunderstand me. I mean that everyone is basically expected to get A/A in maths and FM AS to apply to oxford, which I think is perfectly fair. But considering they don't look at UMS, I'm afraid that they will judge your other AS and your GCSE's more harshly. And I would be annoyed to get rejected on the basis due to having inferior grades in other subjects. It would be frustrating to get rejected not due to lack of mathematical competence, but due to doing less well overall. I feel that the MAT is the real discriminator, and that if I do poorly on it, then I don't deserve to ge an offer / interview ect. It should be the most significant part of the application.

How much harder is the interview than MAT? How much harder / easier is the interview than STEP I?

Hmm, I would say the interview is harder - but this is coming from someone who found the MAT pretty straightforward. My interviews definitely got more mathematically complex than the MAT and, added with the pressure of performing and wanting to impress a tutor, I would say interviews, overall, are harder than the MAT.

I didn't really do much STEP I, but I didn't really find it mathematically more difficult than the MAT, just more varied and requiring you to know more maths overall.