The Official Cambridge Offer Holders Thread 2016 Entry MK II

best

mum

ever

edit: how did you celebrate?

Also no banter.
Just one person talking to himself
You know who you are.
Hint square 3 and you have your answer.



Posted from TSR Mobile

Pretty sure she's having a mid life crisis.

Mainly with copious amounts of watermelon, it was practically all I ate for the entire day. She made one of those huge fruit platter things for breakfast, dread to think what time she got up tbh. She was way too excited, swear she took the whole thing more seriously than my birthday

That's parenting goals

whoah, is n9's initials CS?

be more concise

also stop throwing in dimensional analysis propaganda ****s sake m8

also your post is literally taller than you if you printed it out

also my ps was probably shorter than your post end my ****ing life

When was that? I joined the thread after I received my offer in January, was lurking for a while during interview time on this thread though.

I should emphasise that the PS is far from a priority for maths. That borne in mind, the structure I used was along the lines of

- Intro: a deepish-sounding notion of what mathematics 'is', or what core feature you love about it. Best if it's concise, original and memorable. It may be appropriate to link this in to a (perhaps non-technical?) maths book of your choice, though preferably not a clichéd one (where clichéd here means 'written by one of Simon Singh, Marcus du Sautoy or Ian Stewart'.

- I followed this up with some stuff about the maths Olympiad stuff I had done up to that point, plus a little about my formal qualifications. (Note that while lying is normally a bad idea on personal statements, elision and ambiguity can work wonders if correctly applied.) A teacher once told me 'Don't state - relate', in the sense that while merely saying you got a Gold in the SMC or whatever is a bit dull, following this up with '... which I could not have achieved without my natural ambition' or 'which inspired me to learn more about combinatorics' or whatever is a bit more useful for whoever is reading it.

- I then talked a little about specific things I had looked at beyond the syllabus. Were I to rewrite mine I would be a lot more specific than I was; rather than saying 'I extended my knowledge of integration' it may be more fruitful to say that 'I looked at DUTIS/reduction formulae/dimensional analysis methods*' and going into a little more detail. The risk is that you'll be asked to show that you can walk the walk as well as talk the talk in the interview, so don't mention it unless you're rather confident.

- I then used a chunky paragraph to discuss my experiences with physics, which made some sense in my circumstances I assure you. If this applies, it may be appropriate to couch this more as applied maths than as physics (the two, after all, are asymptotically equal).

- I also discussed my maths mentoring experience. In this sort of scenario it is important to ensure that you discuss the benefits that proceeded for you, rather than the students in question - for example, concise explanation, communication and so on.

- My school insisted that I had a paragraph utterly unrelated to maths, which was probably a good idea in fairness. Just throw anything in here that makes you look interesting. Perhaps it was not a good idea to do as I did and try to link activities to mathematics in a cringe-inducing manner: I find it doubtful that anyone would be convinced by my assertion that my DofE expeditions improved my mathematical ability through the experience of practical problem solving, but who knows. It may yet succeed.

- A short concluding paragraph is generally a nice idea; essentially restate in a couple of sentences why you're a good applicant, convey your passion and round it off by summarising what you hope to get out of university.


That ended up longer than I anticipated - rather like my personal statement, in fact, so be prepared to judiciously trim. In the end, it's unlikely to be a major factor in the decision, though it may well be used in interviews as either introductory general chatter or as a lead-in to some maths you may have mentioned.

Feel free to let me know if you have any more specific questions.







*sadly underrated

Posted from TSR Mobile

Why does everyone call Zacken 'zacin'?

The basis of your question is false; by a simple dimensional analysis of your post, we can deduce that one poster exists who does not refer to 'Zacken' as 'zacin'. Therein lies a contradiction. Therefore, by mathematical induction, it is false.

QED

Pretty sure she's having a mid life crisis.

Mainly with copious amounts of watermelon, it was practically all I ate for the entire day. She made one of those huge fruit platter things for breakfast, dread to think what time she got up tbh. She was way too excited, swear she took the whole thing more seriously than my birthday

It was mentioned a few times and literally everyone is on there.



Posted from TSR Mobile

I am no one therefore I am not part of everyone

QED

Zacin PS exclusive

'The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Cambridge are several. I feel that Cambridge can give me a better background and a better education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another university, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same university as Nick Griffin. To be a "Cambridge man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.'

- zacin

Posted from TSR Mobile

Wait I'm so confused. Is CS = SK = a metaphor for omnipotent mathematical memes and obscure reference generator e.g. K' s shirt?