Oxford MAT 2013/2014

Original post by jadoreétudier

You are preparing very early!!
I'd advise you to not do any more papers at least until the end of summer.
This time last year I'd've found it difficult to get my score above 40 probably. What education system are you on?
Go through all the Dr frost worksheets for the MAT slowly and look out extension problems for yourself if you want.
Since you have nearly a year till the exam you could spend quite a long time on each topic.
If you're getting 65 now I'm sure you'll do much better by the time you've finished Dr frost and all the papers and when it's time for you to actually sit it. 65 right now is pretty fantastic

Thanks a lot for replying to me :smile:

I am doing the A levels Edexcel. Its just that I got (100) in both C1 and C2. So I was shocked when I got 65 in the first exam I solved (I gave it everything I had and I pushed myself to my limit).
Also I am not aware of this Dr Frost sheets, would you be kind enough to give me a link to it as this would help me immensely.
Thanks a lot for your support

Reply 2124

Faroukyasser

Original post by NewtonsApple

I'd seriously recommend Step 1 past papers. If you can solve a good number of questions I.e 4 to 6 under timed conditions you'll find the Mat long answer section more manageable as I'm guessing that's where you're losing the marks. I took step 2 and 3 last year and felt that helped me this year.
For the short answers practise SMC type questions and c1-2 stuff. It's not too bad once you get your head around it.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Exactly what you said. I am getting steady (8s & 9s)/10 in the SMC. But the long answer sections are an absolute nightmare :/

Reply 2125

NewtonsApple

Original post by Faroukyasser

Exactly what you said. I am getting steady (8s & 9s)/10 in the SMC. But the long answer sections are an absolute nightmare :/

It's good at the moment don't worry, btw by SMC I mean Senior Maths Challenge, I think you misunderstood. Anyhow good luck.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2126

Faroukyasser

Original post by NewtonsApple

It's good at the moment don't worry, btw by SMC I mean Senior Maths Challenge, I think you misunderstood. Anyhow good luck.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I thought you meant the (S)hort (M)ultiple (C)hoice questions :biggrin:

ohh and thanks :smile:

Reply 2127

jadoreétudier

2

Original post by Faroukyasser

Thanks a lot for replying to me :smile:

I am doing the A levels Edexcel. Its just that I got (100) in both C1 and C2. So I was shocked when I got 65 in the first exam I solved (I gave it everything I had and I pushed myself to my limit).
Also I am not aware of this Dr Frost sheets, would you be kind enough to give me a link to it as this would help me immensely.
Thanks a lot for your support

Ooh I wish I did a-levels.. would have been quite good to know that the MAT required nothing more than what we had covered in school.
Here's Dr frost: http://www.drfrostmaths.com/profile.php?user=JFrost&page=4

Reply 2128

dbkey

5

Original post by hilbert_spaces

MIT's course shouldn't be easy, otherwise there won't be that many IMO gold medalists going to MIT every year.

I think probably what you looked at were the easy versions for scientists and engineers. Maths majors usually take 'Honors' courses.

I found Havard's Algebra and Analysis courses. They seem to be quite challenging.

http://www.math.harvard.edu/~elkies/M55a.10/
http://www.math.harvard.edu/~elkies/M55b.10/

The country which has won the IMO most is China, so I wonder which universities their medalists go to?

Reply 2129

Original post by dbkey

The country which has won the IMO most is China, so I wonder which universities their medalists go to?

They generally stay in their own country.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2130

Original post by dbkey

The country which has won the IMO most is China, so I wonder which universities their medalists go to?

They usually go to MIT or Peking University.

Reply 2131

dbkey

5

Original post by souktik

They generally stay in their own country.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Original post by hilbert_spaces

They usually go to MIT or Peking University.

So how come we don't know much about those universities (the chinese ones)?

Surely if they can teach gold medalists (and not just any gold medalists but gold medalists from the winning team!), these universities must have some s**t hot courses (and lecturers) to challenge these immortals?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2132

Original post by dbkey

So how come we don't know much about those universities (the chinese ones)?

Surely if they can teach gold medalists (and not just any gold medalists but gold medalists from the winning team!), these universities must have some s**t hot courses (and lecturers) to challenge these immortals?

Those unis teach primarily in Chinese (correct me if I'm wrong). And yes, they're brilliant, especially at anything STEM related. Just google the ACM-ICPC World Final results of the past few years. Dominated by the Russian and the Chinese.

Edit: I would just like to say that there's no special credit for being in the "winning team". The IMO is a competition for individuals.

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2133

Original post by souktik

Those unis teach primarily in Chinese (correct me if I'm wrong). And yes, they're brilliant, especially at anything STEM related. Just google the ACM-ICPC World Final results of the past few years. Dominated by the Russian and the Chinese.

Edit: I would just like to say that there's no special credit for being in the "winning team". The IMO is a competition for individuals.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Wow, did you participate in the high school informatics Olympiad?

Actually some of the best North American teams are 'Chinese teams' as well. e.g. the world finalist teams this year Berkeley, USC, Northwestern.

Reply 2134

smileatyourself

4

Original post by souktik

Those unis teach primarily in Chinese (correct me if I'm wrong). And yes, they're brilliant, especially at anything STEM related. Just google the ACM-ICPC World Final results of the past few years. Dominated by the Russian and the Chinese.

Edit: I would just like to say that there's no special credit for being in the "winning team". The IMO is a competition for individuals.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Original post by hilbert_spaces

Wow, did you participate in the high school informatics Olympiad?

Actually some of the best North American teams are 'Chinese teams' as well. e.g. the world finalist teams this year Berkeley, USC, Northwestern.

So the "best" in league tables really refer to "the best in english speaking" and so are not necessarily "the best"?

Is this not "proof" that it's not just teaching that is required to make someone brilliant but they have to have it in them in the first place?

After all, I'm sure the Chinese and US teaching methods are very different, yet both produce top students, albeit, they're still Chinese!

Reply 2135

Original post by hilbert_spaces

Wow, did you participate in the high school informatics Olympiad?

Actually some of the best North American teams are 'Chinese teams' as well. e.g. the world finalist teams this year Berkeley, USC, Northwestern.

No, lol. I learnt how to print "Hello world!" and multiply numbers in C++ last year, does that count? (Okay, I think I've forgotten those things as well.) :tongue:

I just have a lot of friends and acquaintances who have been shortlisted for the IOI team (there's a pretty big overlap between the IMO and IOI shortlists in India), a few of them have made the team as well. I know about the ICPC mainly because some of them keep talking about it.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2136

Original post by souktik

No, lol. I learnt how to print "Hello world!" and multiply numbers in C++ last year, does that count? (Okay, I think I've forgotten those things as well.) :tongue:

I just have a lot of friends and acquaintances who have been shortlisted for the IOI team (there's a pretty big overlap between the IMO and IOI shortlists in India), a few of them have made the team as well. I know about the ICPC mainly because some of them keep talking about it.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah, if you are good at solving combinatorics and number theory problems in Math Olympiad, you can master the essence of Informatics Olympiad in pretty much a month. In China it's extremely rare for someone to get into both IOI and IMO though. Their team selection problems are way harder than the real IMO/IOI problems.

Some of my friends studying Mathematics at univ told me they should have chosen Computer Science cuz in that way, you get to do the interesting maths courses like algebra, functional analysis, combinatorics, probability and can avoid the boring courses like PDE and geometry.

I hate geometry and PDE as well, but some people would like them for sure.

Reply 2137

Original post by hilbert_spaces

Yeah, if you are good at solving combinatorics and number theory problems in Math Olympiad, you can master the essence of Informatics Olympiad in pretty much a month. In China it's extremely rare for someone to get into both IOI and IMO though. Their team selection problems are way harder than the real IMO/IOI problems.

Some of my friends studying Mathematics at univ told me they should have chosen Computer Science cuz in that way, you get to do the interesting maths courses like algebra, functional analysis, combinatorics, probability and can avoid the boring courses like PDE and geometry.

I hate geometry and PDE as well, but some people would like them for sure.

China is hardcore. :biggrin:

Btw, it's rare for someone to be in the actual teams for both IMO and IOI in India as well. The overlap is mostly in the shortlists.
I really should have tried the informatics olympiad, but I'm too lazy to learn programming. :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2138

Original post by souktik

China is hardcore. :biggrin:

Btw, it's rare for someone to be in the actual teams for both IMO and IOI in India as well. The overlap is mostly in the shortlists.
I really should have tried the informatics olympiad, but I'm too lazy to learn programming. :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile

That's fine. You can do ACM next year at Oxford.

IMO, a good ACM team needs 2 coders, 2-3 problem solvers, and a mathematician. You can be the problem solver and mathematician without doing any coding!

Reply 2139