Oxford MAT 2013/2014

On the Interview timetable it says we have to be there by 5pm on Sunday 15th December- but it says if you're travelling far they can accommodate you so you arrive a day earlier. (Do they mean arrive Saturday and stay overnight?)
I am travelling for 2 hours- in my opinion not that long- what should I do? When do the interviews actually start? The day you arrive on Sunday?- I have a feeling they start on Monday but I just want to be sure- I dont want to get a heart attack and realise I have an interview an hour after I arrive.

Applying for Maths only btw.

Just to confirm, there are no Maths, Maths&Stats, Maths&Phil, Comp, or Comp&Phil interviews scheduled for Sunday (though you can still check with your college if you like). You should still arrive by 5pm on Sunday 15th December for the briefing, to see when you have interviews, and to get settled in.

You'd need to talk to your specific college about that I'm afraid. They all have slightly different ways of doing things and timings do vary between subjects. Sunday is *normally* just a briefing, with interviews starting on Monday, but it's worth checking.

just had my interview over Skype.
i completely messed up on the graphing one. As in, i did EVERYTHING wrong. but the second question went alright. My chances are close to 0 now though, the graph was too easy of a question for me to have messed up that badly on :/. I must have came off as so stupid. Second interview in 13 minutes

just had my interview over Skype.
i completely messed up on the graphing one. As in, i did EVERYTHING wrong. but the second question went alright. My chances are close to 0 now though, the graph was too easy of a question for me to have messed up that badly on :/. I must have came off as so stupid. Second interview in 13 minutes

just had my interview over Skype.
i completely messed up on the graphing one. As in, i did EVERYTHING wrong. but the second question went alright. My chances are close to 0 now though, the graph was too easy of a question for me to have messed up that badly on :/. I must have came off as so stupid. Second interview in 13 minutes

Yeah, that's fine. While we're on the topic of arranging stuff in circles, take a look at this problem:
Given any arrangement of white and black tokens along the circumference of a circle, one is allowed the following operations- take out a white token and change the colour of both its neighbours, or put in a white token and change the colour of both its neighbours. Is it possible to go from a configuration with just two tokens, both white, to a configuration with two tokens, both black?

Posted from TSR Mobile

I'm sure the tutors will understand that applicants are just nervous during the interviews. I had my telephone interview yesterday, I was freaking out completely! Which colleges are interviewing you, by the way?

How did the interview go for you? Were the questions loosely A Level based, any questions on the PS etc. or typical 'Why Oxford/Maths?' style questions? I'm sure you'll get in, but Im just curious. My interview is on Monday.

Long time no reply, sorry I was trying this problem but couldn't seem to get very far. I believe the answer is no, and playing around with it I believe the key to cracking it would be identifying an invariant i.e something which holds for all configurations stemming from WW, but not for BB. I'm guessing its something positional but as I say I've not really got very far with it.
Just to clarify though, I asked Gabriel Gendler this question (member of the UK IMO Team) and he said only two out of the top 20 UK Mathematicians managed to solve this problem. So I'm guessing its pretty hard. But thanks for the problem anyhow, its very interesting and I would be happy to give it another shot if you gave me some hints towards the solution.

How did the interview go for you? Were the questions loosely A Level based, any questions on the PS etc. or typical 'Why Oxford/Maths?' style questions? I'm sure you'll get in, but Im just curious. My interview is on Monday.

x

That's quite interesting. Your interview seems relatively non-mathematical compared to my own (and everyone I know pretty much, in my first interview I was being asked a maths question before I managed to take my coat off and sit down, and the whole 45 minute interview was maths ) - even more odd given that it finished early. However, you're not supposed to talk about interviews on here (especially interview questions that have come up for the current year) so you should edit the questions out of the post.

(Note, don't read into anything I've said as an indication of whether you're likely to get in or not, I think it's mostly differences with Skype/telephone and non-Skype/telephone interviews, although I'm basing this on one other person I knew who was interviewed on Skype and had a much less mathematical interview as well. I'd be shocked if you were rejected though.)

Yes, I hadn't been expecting just four short and relatively easy problems.
It ended within 20 minutes, but the tutor said at the beginning that it'd take about 30. That confused me a little as well.
It might be the Skype/phone thing, but I do have another theory. St John's explicitly states that the interviews are given relatively little weight while making admissions decisions for maths; they mostly use grades and MAT scores. Do you think it's possible that they didn't go hardcore because the interview wouldn't matter to them much anyway?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes, St. John's has been the only college (that I know of) that has actually stated little weight is given to the interview. However, all colleges in Oxford pretty much use the same policies (otherwise your chances would be better off applying to a certain college, something Oxford actively try to avoid happening, and it'll can cause a nightmare for pooling) so you can be pretty sure that all colleges give 'little' weight to the interview (whatever 'little' means - it's about the least quantitative word I've heard all week ). However, it must be said, for the majority of applicants that 'little' weight given to the interview is probably the difference between an offer and a rejection. I think the biggest factor is the Skype/telephone interview, it's considerably more difficult conducting the type of interviews you'd have in person, over the phone. Just because 'little' weight is given to the interview, that isn't really an excuse to give more laid-back interviews, that makes 'little' sense really (especially for pooling purposes, if the interview scores that St. John's post are based on an easier interview it becomes difficult for other colleges to 'standardise'.)

Uh, yeah. That makes sense. Some problems do become impossible to discuss without being face to face. In any case, it's over. 25 long days left to survive before the final decision.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes, St. John's has been the only college (that I know of) that has actually stated little weight is given to the interview. However, all colleges in Oxford pretty much use the same policies (otherwise your chances would be better off applying to a certain college, something Oxford actively try to avoid happening, and it'll can cause a nightmare for pooling) so you can be pretty sure that all colleges give 'little' weight to the interview (whatever 'little' means - it's about the least quantitative word I've heard all week ). However, it must be said, for the majority of applicants that 'little' weight given to the interview is probably the difference between an offer and a rejection. I think the biggest factor is the Skype/telephone interview, it's considerably more difficult conducting the type of interviews you'd have in person, over the phone. Just because 'little' weight is given to the interview, that isn't really an excuse to give more laid-back interviews, that makes 'little' sense really (especially for pooling purposes, if the interview scores that St. John's post are based on an easier interview it becomes difficult for other colleges to 'standardise'.)

If "little" weight is given to the interview why are they potentially wasting many people's time?
This is very annoying to hear- why give some people false hope? Why not just select with MAT score instead of this unnecessary process then (if what you say is true) which delays a quick decision by over a month.