Oxford Maths Students and Applicants

that's immensely helpful! thanks

so the admission test is primarly important i imagine?

btw what sort of questions do they ask you in the interviews? I've been hearing a lot of generic stuff like "Questions that test your logical analysis" but I was wondering if anyone can actually proffer an example of an interview question?

I'm not doing Maths+CompSci, nor am I applying for it (maybe you shouldn't really listen to me then :P), but when I went to the open day, in the computer science talk, they gave an example of them explaining to you that if there were a tournament with 32 players, and that in each match the best player definitely wins all the time; we can be certain that the player who wins the tournament is the best. However, we cannot be certain that the other player who loses in the final is second best; and so how could be then modify the tournament to best find the 2nd player? And how could this be done?
He explained that you would more be given hints on starting and expected to get further into it as you went along, and they would gradually make this more and more complex, eventually redesigning the whole torunament to find a definite 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or N-th best player with as few games as possible.

One thing he emphasized was that they wanted to find out the way you thought, and if it would be right for the course.

I'll be applying for maths, but this kind of logic/programming really really appeals to me, but I'm in maths too far now to really turn back. I can imagine I'll be taking a lot of these kind of optional modules when I start though! And good luck!

The admissions test is used primary as a deselector. So a less than average performance in it could mean that you don't get interviewed. In the interview stage it's used as just another piece of evidence. So your acceptance depends on your grades, personal statement, interview and exam.

I'm an international student at hong kong, and they're coming here to interview us so i'm actually getting the interview before the admission test...

and about those admission tests, apparently you get marks for working out? from the specimens there didn't appear to be any sort of mark/point system..

Did I meet you? I was giving a demo on the 3rd floor to do with spatial cognition stuff.
Have you thought about Maths & Computer Science?

Oh and this might interest you... http://www.jstor.org/stable/2286471?cookieSet=1

Wow, it's a small world! I think you did; did you recognize my name? You asked it to put in your demonstration

I have seriously considered maths and computer science, and yes computer science really appeals to me but (call me unadventurous ) I had never really looked into it further, I don't really know what its about, what it would be like to study etc. And like I said, I'm too much into maths now and I think deep down I would really enjoy maths the most. Although I wouldn't say never to something related to maths and computer science, hopefully I'll be applying for maths at Oxford this year.

Oh and thanks for the link, I'd have to spend a bit of time deciphering it though!

EDIT: After a bit of e-stalking , yeah, I definitely recognise you!

[QUOTE='DiRai[Zera]']

1. How did you guys decide between Maths at Cambridge and Maths at Oxford?
I chose Oxford because the aptitude test was earlier in the year and less predictable, therefore there isnt THAT much revision you can do for it. Whereas STEP is in June and after all the exams so at a bad time when everyone is partying, and also is heavily based on practice and tuition for it.

I reckon on average yes, the applicants are of a lower standard. But, the people who actually get in will be of the same standard.

2. For people who used Step to prepare for interviews,
I didn't do step sorry.


Best of luck, also... Oxford is a much better city if you like partying. And it's off a motorway so has better transport connections. But visit both and see which you prefer, for me, it was an easy choice due to the exam situation. Also, with STEP, Cambridge give 75%ish of math applicants offers, expecting most to fail... but I'd rather have been rejected by oxford than had an offer from Cambridge and not met it.


Well done for preparing so early, I'm sure you will succeed wherever with that attitude

I picked Oxford for the following reasons:
a) Oxford is a bigger city
b) Cambridge has always(falsely or not) seemed rather more intense than Oxford for maths, and Oxford already beats me down on a regular basis.
c) I hated the idea of getting a place then failing STEP
d) I was more likely to get in from interviews than an exam
e) It didn't really matter so I went with my gut

I didn't just 'get' STEP, STEP I was ok but STEP II was tough. Keep working at it, some people are better ta different things. 1 of the Magdalen Mathmos got a 3 in STEP I, another one got through to the last 5 of the Physics Olympiad.

The period of lectures is different - lectures are termly at cambridge with 24 for each subject while lectures will last all year or one week at Oxford [both will have the odd 8-12 topic that gets covered].

I think you will find we have year long courses (i.e. the same topic is lectured in mich,hil,trin - for instance analysis while cambridge literally have termly courses (4 topics a term, 24 lectures) - so they do analysis for one term only [of course just talking about first year here]).

Yes the intro to pure maths and complex number courses are the courses that run for a couple of lectures - this was merely to contrast with the option offered at Cambrisge called 'numbers and sets' which once again lasts all term.

if you prefer longer courses and focused and prolonged coverage of specific topics per term Cambridge would be better [i.e. 4 topics per term compared to at least 6 a term here].