Churchill College (Cambridge) Students and Applicants

Hi I am a high school student in US who is planning to apply to Churchill later this calendar year (next academic year). I know that there are already some posts regarding the format of Churchill's Maths entrance exam, but those are not really detailed and doesn't help that much. Anyone could help inform me about the format and difficulty of the exam? In addition, are there some maths topics covered in UK high school curriculum not covered in US high school system? I have finished AP Calculus BC this year (differential+integral calculus), AP Statistics last year, and trigonometry, polar/Cartesian plane, imaginary numbers, ... Something I know that is in UK curriculum but not US curriculum is proof by induction, proof by contradiction, some statistical distribution (Poisson), basic linear algebra. Do these show up in the exam(s)? And are there others topics that I ought to know? Thanks a lot!

Reply 921

Sinnoh

22

Right, it's either Churchill or Robinson for me, for Physical Nat Sci :h:

Reply 922

ctrls

9

Original post by DoubleIky

Hi I am a high school student in US who is planning to apply to Churchill later this calendar year (next academic year). I know that there are already some posts regarding the format of Churchill's Maths entrance exam, but those are not really detailed and doesn't help that much. Anyone could help inform me about the format and difficulty of the exam? In addition, are there some maths topics covered in UK high school curriculum not covered in US high school system? I have finished AP Calculus BC this year (differential+integral calculus), AP Statistics last year, and trigonometry, polar/Cartesian plane, imaginary numbers, ... Something I know that is in UK curriculum but not US curriculum is proof by induction, proof by contradiction, some statistical distribution (Poisson), basic linear algebra. Do these show up in the exam(s)? And are there others topics that I ought to know? Thanks a lot!

There is a sample paper on the mathematics page, which contains information about the format and a few sample questions. Note that on the latter page, it is stated that "the test will not be based on any particular syllabus." In general, you aren't penalised for being unable to answer a question if you haven't seen the relevant material. My understanding is that some portion of the interview will be dedicated to going over the test with your interviewers, so you can let them know then if there's something you haven't seen before.

As you may already know, if you get an offer it will likely be conditional on STEP. For that it will be advantageous to know most of the examinable material (at least for the pure section), so you should check the syllabus and consider learning a few missing topics before June (and do past papers, which will probably help gauge what is and isn't useful to learn).

Edit: Actually since you're from the US, your interview will most likely take place over Skype (or some other teleconferencing application). In that case the format will likely be different, and you may not be required to take the test. In any case however, you shouldn't need to do anything specific for the interview.