Maths Interviews at King's, Churchill and Trinity

Hi

This thread is directed at current students, or students with offers to study Maths at either King's, Churchill or Trinity. These colleges give a test at interview, and I was wondering just how important a part it makes of the interview. When you went for your interview, how many did you have and were they primarily to go through your answers and any questions you couldn't answer? How many questions were you given which you hadn't hitherto seen? How much importance do you think is placed on this test, and what kind of mark or percentage do you think constitutes a 'good' performance?

Any feedback you can offer will be extremely important in trying to decide where to apply, so many thanks in advance.

Reply 1

ShaneP

OP

4

Is there anybody on this forum studying Maths at either of these two colleges?

I open it up to Trinity Maths students as well - what format did your interview take?

Reply 2

apd35

9

At Trinity, you get a test before the interview, can't remember how long it is. Then you take your answers to the interview and the interview consists of going over your answers, if you get a question right, they ignore it at the time, but any wrong answers they try to lead you to getting the correct answer. The point of this is to see how you respond to the help they give you and how you can learn. In hindsight, it's a bit similar to a supervision, except you actually have tried your hardest, rather than not being bothered to answer questions.

Reply 3

FWoodhouse

5

apd35

At Trinity, you get a test before the interview, can't remember how long it is. Then you take your answers to the interview and the interview consists of going over your answers, if you get a question right, they ignore it at the time, but any wrong answers they try to lead you to getting the correct answer. The point of this is to see how you respond to the help they give you and how you can learn. In hindsight, it's a bit similar to a supervision, except you actually have tried your hardest, rather than not being bothered to answer questions.

At Trinity, the test is an hour long, and has 10 questions, mostly pure with a few mechanics and probability. The rubric asks you to try and do three questions or more if you have the time.

As apd35 says, you take your answers straight to your interview, where they'll check your answers to the questions you tried. If there are issues (there will be issues!) then those questions will be gone through (e.g. I'd done the last part of one wrong, so we did that, and I'd done another by a long-winded method so we did it by the shorter method). Then other questions from the test paper will be picked for you to do from scratch. I didn't get any questions that weren't on the test paper, so I'd seen everything an hour before the interview.

Reply 4

khaixiang

5

oxbridge maths interview questions? where do i get to try out those? i've searched through the internet and couldnt find any. Is calculator allowed? I hope it is, i'm way too dependent on calculator nowadays. I'll be doing my interview locally in october(1st batch), and from what i heard, they recycle the questions very often and in the past, those who finished their interviews would tell their school teachers about those questions and the teachers would teach those maths interview questions to those waiting for the interview. How fair is this? Surely Cambridge would have thought of this possibility right?

Reply 5

ad absurdum

2

khaixiang

oxbridge maths interview questions? where do i get to try out those? i've searched through the internet and couldnt find any. Is calculator allowed? I hope it is, i'm way too dependent on calculator nowadays. I'll be doing my interview locally in october(1st batch), and from what i heard, they recycle the questions very often and in the past, those who finished their interviews would tell their school teachers about those questions and the teachers would teach those maths interview questions to those waiting for the interview. How fair is this? Surely Cambridge would have thought of this possibility right?

You need to remember that it's not a test. If you do all the interview questions available on the internet and then when one comes up in your interview, you might be able to answer it straight away. However, the people interviewing you will know more maths than you, so they can always stretch it in a way that is new to you. Remembering the answers to all the questions won't really help you for your interview, because they are interested in how you respond to their teaching style and stuff, and they will always be able to expose you to new stuff to see how good you are at thinking on your feet and how well you respond to their prodding in the right direction.

Reply 6

ShaneP

OP

4

FWoodhouse

At Trinity, the test is an hour long, and has 10 questions, mostly pure with a few mechanics and probability. The rubric asks you to try and do three questions or more if you have the time.

As apd35 says, you take your answers straight to your interview, where they'll check your answers to the questions you tried. If there are issues (there will be issues!) then those questions will be gone through (e.g. I'd done the last part of one wrong, so we did that, and I'd done another by a long-winded method so we did it by the shorter method). Then other questions from the test paper will be picked for you to do from scratch. I didn't get any questions that weren't on the test paper, so I'd seen everything an hour before the interview.

OK, I'd definitely like that format. I'd much rather prefer to go through questions I've at least seen and had a chance to think about, because I don't think I'd fare too well thinking on the spot with unseen problems. I hope it's similar at Churchill, where I probably will apply, but Trinity is still on the cards. I'll send them an email.

Reply 7

Cexy

Just to warn you - in my interview (at Trinity) I did have a question thrown at me that wasn't on the exam. I won't say what it was in case it's a favourite of the examiners, but it was a bit of a curveball at the time.

Reply 8

FWoodhouse

5

ShaneP

OK, I'd definitely like that format. I'd much rather prefer to go through questions I've at least seen and had a chance to think about, because I don't think I'd fare too well thinking on the spot with unseen problems. I hope it's similar at Churchill, where I probably will apply, but Trinity is still on the cards. I'll send them an email.

You won't have time to think about how to start all 10 questions, so some of the ones they ask you to do in the interview may as well have been on the spot. Two of mine were like that. (One pure, one probability.)

Churchill and Trinity are very different colleges, I advise you to try and decide between them for reasons other than their admissions procedures. I believe Churchill give you a test the night before, you then stay there overnight and have something like 2 or 3 interviews the next day.