KIng's College Maths School - Interview Stage

Hi, I applied to King's College Maths School, sat the entrance exam and was offered an interview. I have to sit two interviews, one solely on maths and the other general. I am a bit worried as to the preparation of this interview. If anyone also have an interview, please feel free to mention it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Continuation from:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2340183&page=9

Hi again, my worry for this interview is that I will need reiteration for the particular concept they are trying to teach, or panic and blank out on trying to solve/come up with suggestions for problems they present. I don't think there is much we can do to prepare for the maths one, considering we do not have a concrete idea of what they are going to even teach us.

Yeah, I agree completely- I am going to try get my Maths Teacher teach me a concept and I want to see how well I grasp it....

That seems like a good idea, I am going to treat the interview as merely a friendly conversation as opposed to viewing it as something I am being assessed on.

That's a good idea too, the word interview frightens me
Hopefully I'll be able to provide a good impression.

I am actually more worried about the maths interview to be honest, I guess I'm still not confident enough . I want to walk out of the interview pleased with myself, not dwelling on where I think I went wrong like after the aptitude test.

YEAH, Exactly my concern, I think I did the best I could in the test and I dont want to be let down by the interview, which is the easier part...

Exactly, I would be so hard on myself if I mess up at this stage. I actually thought I messed up the aptitude test big time when I got home, I knew they wouldn't even think of inviting me back...I was pleasantly surprised. I guess the main problem we probably both have is confidence in ourselves to some degree.

I agree, I was also gutted after the aptitude test, I didn't even finish the paper. But I think they were looking for those who had clear logic, which we both have.

I didn't finish either , it's weird how we had very similar reactions. I agree completely; they wouldn't have followed the conventional 'as long as they have the right answer, they get all the marks' marking convention, and probably looked at how well we approached the questions that we attempted. It wasn't like a GCSE paper where you can get good marks through regurgitating methods taught to you by teachers - it required more logical thinking. Even the first question through me off at first, nerves get to me so quickly that my mind begins racing. I always have this 'everyone is probably way better than me' defeatist attitude whenever I do these kind of things.

I think we should be perfectly fine - the fact that we got into the interview stage shows that we are in fact capable.

Yeah, because I'm so used to GCSE conventional Maths, the first question also through me off, but eventually I did get the answers. Lool, I always have that reaction when I'm competing for something, I think of the people around me as all better than me. I think we have alot in common...

Yeah + when we started I kept on rubbing out and redoing the 1st question I attempted while it seemed like everyone was flipping to the 2nd page lol . I don't tend to finish questions properly in one go as I panic and start attempting another one...it becomes an ongoing cycle. Just goes to show how messy my mind is. I didn't even get to see most of the last page as I was too busy trying to sub values in and check answers. I messed up the subbing in, making me think my answers were wrong .

I didn't even start from the front, I started from the back and thought Q1 would be easier. But in actual fact the end was easier than the actual front. I can't move on to another question before I complete one completely, I just can't! I missed up in one of the basic question, I made some stupid mistake and I still question my GCSE ability

Well, we shouldn't worry about this now as we obviously impressed them enough to get to this stage . I know how you feel, on my way back home, I tried to recall ALL of the questions word for word, with the exact values and try to work them out in a more relaxed atmosphere. I get different answers and begin questioning whether I put what I think is right or not - it drives you crazy Like that basic velocity question towards the start of the paper where you had to compare velocities, I was worried that I said that the smaller fraction was greater than the larger fraction, getting my numerators and denominators mixed up - so simple!

It happens to me as well, sometimes we over complicate some problems and get wrong answers. Apparently its common for high achievers because they like going outside the box But lets forget about the exam, because we both got in, lets focus on the interview...

Exactly, though I think I am going to go blank when they ask me to describe myself or something lol

Lool, but I'll wake up when I hear about x's and y's

I live in Barking and Ill have to take the train every day, costing me £1.60 a day...
I might get travel bursary though