Oxford MAT 2013/2014

Seriously? I can try the ACM without learning to code? Just doing combinatorics and number theory sounds fantastic!

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Yeah, just figure out the algorithms and let your teammate code it up.

You can check out this, http://2013.nwerc.eu/en/results/problems/ the Northwestern European Regional Contest problem sets. You might be interested in problem C, D, E, F.

Unfortunately Cambridge got into World Final this year. If I get into Oxford, I'll compete next year.

BTW, UK doesn't have any contest similar to Putnam, right? (why would I even ask? I suck at maths anyways)

Actually, I want to know that as well. The Putnam happens to be something I want to participate in pretty badly.

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I did Putnam a couple of weeks ago. It was fun, even if I didn't even understand what some of the questions meant.

Currently at university in America, but applying to go to UK instead.

In 2013 the average score on questions 1-5 was:
44.8 (52.1) amongst all applicants;
54.2 (63.0) amongst shortlisted applicants;
60.6 (68.2) amongst successful applicants.

Anyone surprised by how low the statistics are for this year's MAT exam?

I'm surprised why someone with 80+ on the MAT got rejected

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I'm surprised why someone with 80+ on the MAT got rejected

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Same. In fact, I would have thought 70+ would be enough to get an offer when the average is as low as this year's.

Also, some people that take the test actually get 5 or less?

I'm surprised why someone with 80+ on the MAT got rejected

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Same. In fact, I would have thought 70+ would be enough to get an offer when the average is as low as this year's.

Also, some people that take the test actually get 5 or less?

4 people didn't get an offer with a score of 85+, quite a few more (10-15) didn't get an offer with a score of 80+.

I see.

Are the figures you have given inside information or have you worked it out from the graph in the PDF?

Did a pixel ratio on the graph

Haha nice

4 people didn't get an offer with a score of 85+, quite a few more (10-15) didn't get an offer with a score of 80+. I mentioned on the Oxford thread that one perfectly good reason for this is that a lot of the high-flying mathematicians (including a lot of international applicants) whom get 80+ scores are probably also applying to top-Ivies in the USA. It might be the case that if someone gets an offer from a top-Ivy they might withdraw their application from Oxford either before or after interviews, so they wouldn't get an offer from Oxford (and it'd be logged as a rejection). This probably explains 1 or 2 of the 4 people who were rejected with a score of 85+. There are other possible reasons (for example, international qualifications being sub-par, or even not meeting Oxford's standard, might lead to them being rejected despite a good MAT).

Also, the 'rumour' about the 'magic number' on the MAT has always been 90%. Apparently no-one with a 90%+ score has ever been rejected by Oxford themselves, no-one has this year, but I don't know if the rumour is actually true or not. Someone with an MAT score of 80%, but with a very low interview score easily overall falls into the hundreds of applicants with a mediocre combined MAT/interview score, so it isn't really shocking that people with 80-85% have been rejected this year, even considering the fact that the 'average' was lower this year (generally the top 10-20% of the scorers on the MAT are affected less by the difficulty of the MAT paper, compared to the average applicant).

rejected. a bit disappointed that I can't experience the Oxford life.

Maybe I shouldn't apply at all, as the tutor said in the interview.

Well, guess I'll just move on. Interning at Google this summer and applying for Ph.D in the next 2 years ...