The Oxford TSA thread - 2015 applicants - 5th Nov 2014

For the last 4 years, 40/50 has been a score of >69... Where did you get 65 from?

Sorry if these have already been explained, but could someone explain 32 from 2009, and 30 and 21 from 2011 please? Thanks in advance

http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/images/99502-tsa_oxford_section_1_2009.pdf
http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/images/99504-tsa_oxford_section_1_2011.pdf

The papers of the last years (starting 2009) were more difficult compared with the early ones (including the specimen). The difficulty of the Specimen paper seems to me about the same as the 2008 test. So you probably want to check the score conversion for 2008.

It will give you around 65.

You should do one of the recent papers because they are a lot harder!

I've done all the papers now, I think the essay questions have got easier though?

Can you find an average mark of the people being accepted anywhere?

Hey guys, could someone please help me with this question-

I have several jobs to do tomorrow morning. To save time I am going to try and
do several jobs at once. I need to be finished by 3pm when I have to meet a
friend. The jobs take the following amount of time:

Train journey to meet my friend ----- 40 mins
Wash my hair -------- 25 mins
Read my revision notes --------- 30 mins
Walk to the train station ------------ 10 mins
Watch my favourite television program ---------- 30 mins
Ring my mum on my mobile ----------------- 3 mins
Paint my nails ------------- 20 mins
What is the latest time I need to start?
a. 1.15pm
b. 1pm
c. 12.22pm
d. 1.50pm
e. 2.10pm



Thanks in advance

To avoid explaining a wrong answer, could you let me know the answer? I think I have got it right

Hey guys, could someone please help me with this question-

I have several jobs to do tomorrow morning. To save time I am going to try and
do several jobs at once. I need to be finished by 3pm when I have to meet a
friend. The jobs take the following amount of time:

Train journey to meet my friend ----- 40 mins
Wash my hair -------- 25 mins
Read my revision notes --------- 30 mins
Walk to the train station ------------ 10 mins
Watch my favourite television program ---------- 30 mins
Ring my mum on my mobile ----------------- 3 mins
Paint my nails ------------- 20 mins
What is the latest time I need to start?
a. 1.15pm
b. 1pm
c. 12.22pm
d. 1.50pm
e. 2.10pm



Thanks in advance

I don't have the official markscheme as this came from a test that's not on the website-- however other people have said the answer was A.

Thanks for the prompt response

No worries, it's good practice. Okay great I got that answer.

This is more common sense than anything.

Obviously when you are washing your hair you can do nothing other than that.

There's 25 minutes.

However, While watching TV, you could also paint your nails so since we are doing both things at the same time, it only takes as long as the longer one. This should make sense.

We add 30 minutes (TV show time). 25 and 30 makes 55.

Now, on the way to the train station, we could also call mum. Using the same reasoning as before, this will take 10 minutes. We start walking and the calling mum at 0 minutes, the call ends in 3 minutes and we carry on walking without the phone for another 7 minutes.

We add 10 minutes (train station time). 25 and 30 and 10 makes 65 or 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Finally, what better than to kill time on the train by reading our revision notes. We sit on the train for 40 minutes and we spend 30 minutes of that time reading our notes.

We add 40 minutes (train journey time) 25 and 30 and 10 and 40 makes 1 hour and 35 minutes.

So if we need to be ready by 3. 3 subtract 1 hour and 35 minutes would mean getting ready at 1:25. Since this is not an option, we better start at 1:15pm which is A.

No worries, it's good practice. Okay great I got that answer.

This is more common sense than anything.

Obviously when you are washing your hair you can do nothing other than that.

There's 25 minutes.

However, While watching TV, you could also paint your nails so since we are doing both things at the same time, it only takes as long as the longer one. This should make sense.

We add 30 minutes (TV show time). 25 and 30 makes 55.

Now, on the way to the train station, we could also call mum. Using the same reasoning as before, this will take 10 minutes. We start walking and the calling mum at 0 minutes, the call ends in 3 minutes and we carry on walking without the phone for another 7 minutes.

We add 10 minutes (train station time). 25 and 30 and 10 makes 65 or 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Finally, what better than to kill time on the train by reading our revision notes. We sit on the train for 40 minutes and we spend 30 minutes of that time reading our notes.

We add 40 minutes (train journey time) 25 and 30 and 10 and 40 makes 1 hour and 35 minutes.

So if we need to be ready by 3. 3 subtract 1 hour and 35 minutes would mean getting ready at 1:25. Since this is not an option, we better start at 1:15pm which is A.

You need to find the jobs which can be done at the same time. It takes 40mins on the train, and during these 40mins she can read her revision notes (30mins) and also ring her mum (3mins). It takes 10mins to walk to the train station, she could have rang her mum in these 10mins if she wanted to. It takes 30mins for her to watch her tv show, but she can paint her nails at the same time (20mins). It also takes 25mins to wash her hair.

40mins+10mins+30mins+25mins = 105mins = 1hour and 45mins.

3:00pm-1hour and 45mins = 1:15pm

The answer is A

No worries, it's good practice. Okay great I got that answer.

This is more common sense than anything.

Obviously when you are washing your hair you can do nothing other than that.

There's 25 minutes.

However, While watching TV, you could also paint your nails so since we are doing both things at the same time, it only takes as long as the longer one. This should make sense.

We add 30 minutes (TV show time). 25 and 30 makes 55.

Now, on the way to the train station, we could also call mum. Using the same reasoning as before, this will take 10 minutes. We start walking and the calling mum at 0 minutes, the call ends in 3 minutes and we carry on walking without the phone for another 7 minutes.

We add 10 minutes (train station time). 25 and 30 and 10 makes 65 or 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Finally, what better than to kill time on the train by reading our revision notes. We sit on the train for 40 minutes and we spend 30 minutes of that time reading our notes.

We add 40 minutes (train journey time) 25 and 30 and 10 and 40 makes 1 hour and 35 minutes.

So if we need to be ready by 3. 3 subtract 1 hour and 35 minutes would mean getting ready at 1:25. Since this is not an option, we better start at 1:15pm which is A.

It could be A, I would say by intuition as you need 50 mins for your journey (so it's cut off to 2:10), but then you also need 55 mins (two things of 30 mins which can be both done at the same time and 25 mins as it's the longest thing left, and you NEED at least 25 mins because if you needed 20, you couldn't do the 25-mins-thing)... does it make any sense to you?

2013: 70,2