Oxford PAT 2013

The test is going to be on Wednesday the 6th of November, so after some discussion on the Oxford applicants thread, now seemed the right time to create a thread for it.

The past papers can be found here on the Oxford physics site, alongside the PAT syllabus. In addition, there are the AS Physics Olympiad question papers, which unlike the PAT are accompanied by mark schemes. What makes the Olympiad papers especially useful is that the multiple choice section is very similar to the PAT's.

For information about registering for the PAT, see here.

For an interesting perspective on preparing for the PAT, by somebody who got 90 in it, I suggest looking at this blog, if you can get past his sometimes irritating expressions.

For books, there really aren't any, but for a good exposition of the A Level curriculum and tons of questions I would recommend A Level Physics by Roger Muncaster. While the questions are mostly not the kind you'd find in the PAT, they are useful for revising areas of AS.

Hopefully we'll be able to help each other out with questions and resources; good luck all.

To get the thread started, does anyone else get the same answer as me to question nine of the maths section of the 2006 PAT paper?

Area below the horizontal axis is constant: 8

As the graph of

|x^n|

is just the graph of

x^n

with the negative parts reflected, the total area is then:

[br]2\int^2_0 x^n dx\ + 8 = 2[\frac{x^{n + 1}}{n + 1}]_0^2 + 8 = \frac{2^{n + 2}}{n + 1} + 8

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

arcturus7

13

Good job Glavespian. Hopefully there'll be some useful discussion going on here.

I haven't done the paper you're referring to, but I'll have a look and get back to you with my answer!

Has anybody done the stupid duck question from 2010? That thing stole a load of my time away, was so angry with it.

Glav, in response to your earlier question on the Oxford applicants thread, having done A2 (on my gap year at the moment), there are definitely some A2 syllabus questions on previous PATs. Capacitors in particular jot out in my memory - it may be worth looking at them and perhaps at radioactivity, although the radioactivity questions are generally fairly common-sense based. I'd recommend looking at the A2 Olympiads whenever possible.

Reply 2

IlariaM

Glad this thread has been made, I was waiting for it!
I haven't done any past papers yet, as I'm still studying some maths and physics that I haven't done at school (I'm an international student). But I'll start them in the next few days :smile:

Reply 3

Glavespian

OP

Original post by arcturus7

Good job Glavespian. Hopefully there'll be some useful discussion going on here.

I haven't done the paper you're referring to, but I'll have a look and get back to you with my answer!

Has anybody done the stupid duck question from 2010? That thing stole a load of my time away, was so angry with it.

Glav, in response to your earlier question on the Oxford applicants thread, having done A2 (on my gap year at the moment), there are definitely some A2 syllabus questions on previous PATs. Capacitors in particular jot out in my memory - it may be worth looking at them and perhaps at radioactivity, although the radioactivity questions are generally fairly common-sense based. I'd recommend looking at the A2 Olympiads whenever possible.

Thanks, I heard about capacitors being on there so I've been studying them from an older A Level Physics text, which has harder questions than the AQA A2 textbook which I don't get till next week. Radioactivity did actually appear, like you say in a common sense way, on the 2007 AS Olympiad. I'll definitely try giving the A2 ones a go.

Reply 4

theBlackAce

I saw circular motion is on the syllabus as well, but not sure how often it comes up? I'm studying it and memorising formulae and stuff anyway and it doesn't seem too bad.

Also, are there any specific books to prepare for PAT like there are for the BMAT and CAT? Or any sort of tuition/tutors? I didn't do great in my AS due to extenuating circumstances, but I really badly want a good shot at this, and it would probably help a lot.

Reply 5

Tuya

4

How similar is PAT to AS physics challenge? Considering they are meant to cover pretty much identical syllabus and are both made by Oxford?
Is a mid silver in the AS challenge correspondent to about average in the PAT?
Thanks in advance, and nice thread!
Btw, am I looking at Physics applicants or Engineering applicants?
Engineering personally :smile:

...

Reply 6

Glavespian

OP

Original post by theBlackAce

I saw circular motion is on the syllabus as well, but not sure how often it comes up? I'm studying it and memorising formulae and stuff anyway and it doesn't seem too bad.

Also, are there any specific books to prepare for PAT like there are for the BMAT and CAT? Or any sort of tuition/tutors? I didn't do great in my AS due to extenuating circumstances, but I really badly want a good shot at this, and it would probably help a lot.

Well, when I went on an open day, I spoke to an admissions tutor at New College; he said the main indicator of what would come up is past PAT papers and that they, the tutors, were only interested in mechanics. Since motion in a circle is mechanics I think it could come up, but if it hasn't been on a paper before, following from his advice it's unlikely to. I'm still going to try to master the syllabus though, so that if they change their minds I'm prepared. =p

There are no books that I've ever heard mention of, but I've recently brought A Level Physics by Roger Muncaster, which has a lot of practice questions for AS topics, although I don't think it's that useful for the PAT. An excellent look at how to prepare for the PAT I've found is this blog by a guy who got 90 on it, if you can get past the sometimes irritating writing style, he has some useful tips.

Original post by Tuya

How similar is PAT to AS physics challenge? Considering they are meant to cover pretty much identical syllabus and are both made by Oxford?
Is a mid silver in the AS challenge correspondent to about average in the PAT?
Thanks in advance, and nice thread!
Btw, am I looking at Physics applicants or Engineering applicants?
Engineering personally :smile:

...

The multiple choice questions seem very similar, the rest, after doing two Olympiad papers, I don't think is really that useful. In the AS Olympiad they seem to be trying to test you on mostly hard electricity, waves etc. problems rather than the mechanics of the PAT. I still find it good practice though, & it might be useful to collate together all the mechanics questions that are in the Olympiad to form a kind of constructed PAT.

I don't know how comparable the scores are, but the average score in the PAT is 50, which is normally the interview threshold, with most offer holders getting 70+ or 65+, that' only what I think I remember, the open day seems a long time ago now...

I'm a physics applicant, but I think the thread's already a mix of both. :wink:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

Physics4Life

1

Can anyone recommend any learning resources to help me teach myself some of the stuff which is in the test?

I'm the only one at my school doing it and none of the teachers are really too helpfull :L

Reply 8

french mouse

6

I'm an international student and I'm trying to prepare to the PAT by learning the AS phyics syllabus (which is really quite different to what I have done)... I'm a bit late though and only half way through it! I looked at las year's paper and found myself able to do most of the maths (although some of it I hadn't even heard about). The physics I am nowhere near understanding how I was supposed to answer...

I think that if I keep cramming the physics AS syllabus I should be able to get 50% as a result but would it hinder my application ? I'm a bit at a lost and am not sure if it's really even worth trying. Does anyone have any advice ?

Reply 9

IlariaM

Original post by french mouse

I'm an international student and I'm trying to prepare to the PAT by learning the AS phyics syllabus (which is really quite different to what I have done)... I'm a bit late though and only half way through it! I looked at las year's paper and found myself able to do most of the maths (although some of it I hadn't even heard about). The physics I am nowhere near understanding how I was supposed to answer...

I think that if I keep cramming the physics AS syllabus I should be able to get 50% as a result but would it hinder my application ? I'm a bit at a lost and am not sure if it's really even worth trying. Does anyone have any advice ?

I'm in the same boat, I still need to learn a huge part of the physics syllabus, which is much broader than what we've learnt at school. If I'm able to cover enough of it and solve the problems in the past papers, I'll give it a try. Otherwise I might consider not applying to Oxford at all.

Reply 10

Glavespian

OP

Original post by Physics4Life

Can anyone recommend any learning resources to help me teach myself some of the stuff which is in the test?

I'm the only one at my school doing it and none of the teachers are really too helpfull :L

Original post by french mouse

I'm an international student and I'm trying to prepare to the PAT by learning the AS phyics syllabus (which is really quite different to what I have done)... I'm a bit late though and only half way through it! I looked at las year's paper and found myself able to do most of the maths (although some of it I hadn't even heard about). The physics I am nowhere near understanding how I was supposed to answer...

I think that if I keep cramming the physics AS syllabus I should be able to get 50% as a result but would it hinder my application ? I'm a bit at a lost and am not sure if it's really even worth trying. Does anyone have any advice ?

I've added some of the resources I mentioned earlier to the OP, so they're easier to find, there aren't many though.

Some inarguable advice is of course to only do stuff which is on the PAT syllabus; that sadly, doesn't cut much down. Apart from the multiple choice section, the questions tend to be either mechanics or electricity so if you wanted some areas to concentrate on, those would be the ones. For the maths, you could check out Edexcel's module list, as the information about what is covered in C1 & C2 is very similar to the knowledge the PAT syllabus requires.

50% would probably get you an interview, but it would a bit below what most people who get offers would get. You can read a little information on the relationship between scores, interviews & offers in the reports Oxford publish that goes with each test.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 11

daisy96

6

Hey guys! I need your help in studying for PAT, so my exam board is cie, so I am confused in some things, i mean how deep shall i get in each topic? Like in arithmetics what topics shall I have knowledge about? Shall i revise statistics along with probability? What do they mean by properties of polynomials? Is it the division of polynomials and such? And in trignometry how deep shall I get? Please help!

Reply 12

daisy96

6

Hey guys! Do we have to revise vectors and statistics for PAT? And how deep shall we get in trignometry?? Thanks in advance for the reply!

Reply 13

blumemusik

9

I just tried my first past paper (the 2012 one)
And now I'm reconsidering applying hahaha

I haven't actually marked it yet, does anyone know where I could find sample solutions? I know Oxford don't do a mark scheme, but has anyone come across any solutions?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 14

Glavespian

OP

Original post by daisy96

Hey guys! I need your help in studying for PAT, so my exam board is cie, so I am confused in some things, i mean how deep shall i get in each topic? Like in arithmetics what topics shall I have knowledge about? Shall i revise statistics along with probability? What do they mean by properties of polynomials? Is it the division of polynomials and such? And in trignometry how deep shall I get? Please help!

Original post by daisy96

Hey guys! Do we have to revise vectors and statistics for PAT? And how deep shall we get in trignometry?? Thanks in advance for the reply!

Well, you definitely only need to study probability not all of statistics, it came up on the 2006 paper so very well may do again. By properties of polynomials I would guess that they mean the kinds of things you learn in C1 & C2 like discriminants, it's really all they could test you on, as that's all the majority of applicants would know. Again, checking out Edexcel's specification is a good idea as that's what most students sit for maths. I think it's the same for trigonometry really, except that they like to set different questions from most you encounter at A Level, like the one, again, in the 2006 paper.

Vectors don't seem to be on the syllabus at all.

Original post by blumemusik

I just tried my first past paper (the 2012 one)
And now I'm reconsidering applying hahaha

I haven't actually marked it yet, does anyone know where I could find sample solutions? I know Oxford don't do a mark scheme, but has anyone come across any solutions?

The best way I've found is to copy and paste the entire question into a search engine & see whether you get answers from forum posts & the like, although this doesn't really work for the maths ones. Another way would be to post your answers here, & if someone else has done the 2012 paper they might be able to confirm them. You might want to do the 2006 paper, which I've done, or the 2007 one, which I'm going to do, before you decide not to apply, then post your answers here & I'll post mine, so we can both check them. :smile:

Reply 15

Physics4Life

1

Original post by blumemusik

I just tried my first past paper (the 2012 one)
And now I'm reconsidering applying hahaha

I haven't actually marked it yet, does anyone know where I could find sample solutions? I know Oxford don't do a mark scheme, but has anyone come across any solutions?

I should be doing the 2012 one in the next couple of days so we can share answers soon :biggrin:

Reply 16

daisy96

6

Original post by Glavespian

Well, you definitely only need to study probability not all of statistics, it came up on the 2006 paper so very well may do again. By properties of polynomials I would guess that they mean the kinds of things you learn in C1 & C2 like discriminants, it's really all they could test you on, as that's all the majority of applicants would know. Again, checking out Edexcel's specification is a good idea as that's what most students sit for maths. I think it's the same for trigonometry really, except that they like to set different questions from most you encounter at A Level, like the one, again, in the 2006 paper.

Vectors don't seem to be on the syllabus at all.

The best way I've found is to copy and paste the entire question into a search engine & see whether you get answers from forum posts & the like, although this doesn't really work for the maths ones. Another way would be to post your answers here, & if someone else has done the 2012 paper they might be able to confirm them. You might want to do the 2006 paper, which I've done, or the 2007 one, which I'm going to do, before you decide not to apply, then post your answers here & I'll post mine, so we can both check them. :smile:

Much much thanks!! :smile:

so if I study C1 and C2 edexcel it's enough right?? Okay things like: CirclesEquation
Finding the centre and radius
Equation of a tangent
Equation of a circle through 3 points
Circle properties, are they included as a part of coordinate geometry? Thank you so much!

Reply 17

Glavespian

OP

Original post by daisy96

Much much thanks!! :smile:

so if I study C1 and C2 edexcel it's enough right?? Okay things like: CirclesEquation
Finding the centre and radius
Equation of a tangent
Equation of a circle through 3 points
Circle properties, are they included as a part of coordinate geometry? Thank you so much!

Well, it won't be exactly what they want but that's what the majority of applicants will have. As circle stuff doesn't seem to be on the syllabus, I would only do the basics that could be counted as coordinate geometry, it's up to you though. Continuing the bit I wrote about trig, it's always useful to know more of it, as you'll be using it extensively in C3 & C4, plus it helps you consolidate what you already know.

Reply 18

Physics4Life

1

A quick question, where do we sign up to do the test? Because we have to sign up ourselves don't we?

Reply 19

Glavespian

OP

Original post by Physics4Life

A quick question, where do we sign up to do the test? Because we have to sign up ourselves don't we?

According to this, you need to contact an exams officer at your school to arrange everything, they can be quite slow so you might want to do it as soon as possible. I spoke to them in August & nothing has happened yet. :frown:

Oxford PAT 2013

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