UCL Interview

I received a letter from UCL today. In the letter it says: "It is the policy of the College that, wherever possible, every applicant for a place should be interviewed before an offer can be made. I am accordingly asking you to come and visit the Department on Friday 12th January 2007 at 2.00 p.m.".

It later goes on to say "You will be given a personal interview by a member of the Mathematics staff some time between 2.00 and 3.00 pm.".

Ok, so - I was expecting to be interviewed before receiving an offer from UCL as it's only the top proportion of applicants to whom they offer places without an interview (as far as I know anyway).

I've never been in a real interview situation before. In terms of Maths itself I'm not worried too much, I've got 3 new modules in January that I'll have learnt over the holidays so I'll know plenty of content.

What kind of things should I know for the interview? What kinds of things should I ask? I'm not worried over things like greeting people and body language, etc, but more about the kind of things I should be ready to get asked and talk about.

Any tips? Thanks in advance!

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Reply 1

lonelyGrace

I've got interview in UCL on 7th Feb, which is really late :eek:

, lol but for maths and stats though.
apparently, ucl only interviews ppl who dont have alevel furgher maths but have good predicted grades.

Reply 2

aqfrenzy

I know people doing IB (no further maths then heh) who got straight offers. Everyone else I know with UCL offers are doing FM A2 I guess.

But still, tips please! :P

Reply 3

The J-Man

i had my interview for maths at ucl, last week friday ... they said they would make me an offer... it is no sweat...

Reply 4

aqfrenzy

Tell me what they asked/said! Do I need to prepare myself for anything?

Is it the case that if you have an interview you're basically going to get an offer (as far as UCL is concerned).

Reply 5

The J-Man

uh not sure they jus asked me to integrate sin^2 x and i got it within minutes and the guy said ur the kinda person we want so we will make u an offer, and i was like ok kool sounds good.

Although sum other ppl there on the same day got harder questions, i tink it depends on how good they think u r...dunno

Reply 6

aqfrenzy

sin^2 x ?! seriously?! Do they talk to you about your PS and such stuff?

Reply 7

temptasyon

I just got a letter from UCL today and have an interview on 12th jan at 2pm too.. its about time i heard from them! Its been driving me crazy waiting....

mpat89

I know people doing IB (no further maths then heh) who got straight offers, maybe that is because of the guy in question having 11 A* @ GCSE though :P. Everyone else I know with UCL offers are doing FM A2 I guess.

But still, tips please! :P

Im doing the IB and had straight offers from UCL with only 1A* at IGCSE. And actually, IB higher maths is pretty much equivalent to futher maths. On my visit to UCL, Dr Bowles said that its a competitive course therefore they will first consider applicants with further maths, but its not in the policy. dont worry, if they want to interview, you will most likely be given an offer. i think interviews focus a lot on differentiation and integration (including the trig one) UCL has some pretty evil maths puzzles as i saw on my visit lol but ive never heard of anyone being given those puzzles at interviews. they will probably want to talk about your personal statement as well, like the hobbies/extra-curricular as ice breaker.

but then again, it might just be an informal chat. a friend of mine has an interview at royal holloway and i think their sole reason is to talk about her work experience at an orphanage LOL

Good luck, tell us how it goes :biggrin:

Reply 10

Anarchy Everywhere

aimee_22

UCL has some pretty evil maths puzzles as i saw on my visit lol

Tell me about it lol I tried to solve the cut in half cheese one and it frustrated me so bad :biggrin:

Reply 11

Speleo

Can you describe the puzzle?

Reply 12

Anarchy Everywhere

It was something based around cutting a trapezium like below (ignore measurements) in half with one cut. I can't remember what measurements where given.

http://intermath.coe.uga.edu/topics/geometry/polygons/resrces/divtrap.gif

Reply 13

dbasehackr

My UCL Interview was quite a waste of time, I travelled 143 miles to london and had 10 mins with a guy who really didnt want to be there... Two Math Problems - One Integration of a simple polynominal & Factorisation of a cubic. Then I had no questions on maths - my questions were computer-based, I was thinking: "Does this guy know I'm applying for Mathematics?".

Anyway, long story short 60.00GBP, 8h's on a train, a terrible interview - and to top it off - A Formal Promise of an offer to be received in 2-3 weeks!? Goes to prove that no matter how many interviews you attend - you JUST DON'T KNOW THE OUTCOME!!!!

Reply 14

aqfrenzy

Should I not be worried then? :smile:

It's only gonna cost me £6 to get there and back, just another trip to central for me.

What did most people wear?

Reply 15

-Aimee-

have you ever tried integrating 1/x^2 with limits of -1,1??? if you do it by hand, and if i remember correctly, the answer is -2. weird thing is, one, its a negative number and two, its not really possible to integrate 1/x^2 as you have 2 asymptotes. so...........anyone cares to solve the problem? i just said it was an invalid integration due to the asymptopes.

theres another one about crossing the bridge as well. a team of 4 patrollers with only one flash light needs to cross a bridge, with maximum 2 people crossing at the same time, and one person has to return with the flash light for the next group. A takes 1 min to cross the bridge, B takes 2, C and D takes 5 and 10 mins respectively as they are wounded. when 2 people cross the bridge, the time taken is equal to the time it takes the slowest person. you have only 17 mins to help you team cross the bridge. how will you do it? i personally gave up on this one

have fun :biggrin:

Reply 16

Anarchy Everywhere

That integration problem is a popular problem on this board it seems :biggrin:

The answer that I was given was because it's not orthodox due to it's rapid incline and therefore you couldn't integrate it the same as normal ones.

The second one is new to me..

errrm..
A+B go +2
B comes back +2
C+D go +10
A comes back +1
A + B go +2

I liked this puzzle :biggrin:

Reply 17

-Aimee-

tazmanmaniac

That integration problem is a popular problem on this board it seems :biggrin:

oooooooooohhhhh i like the way you think but...

hang on... no buts, it is right

hmmmm.... why didnt i think of that :tongue:

Reply 18

qwerty3

man if these are the types of Q's asked its pips but just worried about my PS as i havent read ll my books yet :s-smilie:

Reply 19

Convalescent

Maths at UCL has been increasingly popular over the last few years, increasing by over 100 every year for the last few years and had something like 1850 applicants last year. Dr Bowles told me that if you have further maths and good predicted grades then you're in a good position to be made an offer as long as you attend their compulsory open day. If you only have single but good reference and personal statement then you'll be given an interview. I got the impression that just attending the interview didn't mean you would get an offer.