Oxford mathematicians

PLEASE post your interview questions. The process is over now so it won't affect anything and I'm interested to see if I can do them. DO NOT link to other threads, I've read them all. So please can you just post what you were asked. Thanks.

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Reply 1

Cirsium

As a general rule questions at interview aren't a static question, they're leading somewhere based on your answers. So it isn't possible to just say: here are the questions.

Reply 2

F1 fanatic

and besides, chances are we aren't going to remember the exact details.

Reply 3

mrsmann

Nonsense, I remember what I got at my interview at York (i.e. draw some graph) or whatever. Even if you can't remember exactly what it was I'm sure you could say the level of difficulty it was at or the rough topic.

And why the hell did I get rep for this thread? :mad:

Reply 4

Font

mrsmann

Nonsense? why can't you remember it then - dumbass :rolleyes:

Reply 5

mrsmann

I can. I just didn't say what question I got because that's irrelevant. I want to know what people who got interviewed at Oxford got. Do you understand? :rolleyes:

Reply 6

F1 fanatic

Being arsey with people isn't conducive to getting help, funny enough. The level is just above A-level. Hard enough for you not to be able to do with standard knowledge from school (in theory) but not so hard you can't manage it. Then the tutor can help you along. Calculus and graph questions are common I believe. You may get more of an idea from the Admissions exam for mathematicians sample paper.

Reply 7

mrsmann

I had a look at the Oxford entrance exam and it's easy compared to the STEP! So I thought they must ask you difficult things at interview or else it's gonna be a bit hard to differentiate between good candidates.

And Dulac insulted me first but I'm the rude one??? WTF?

Reply 8

Chewwy

"find 7465 mod23, without using paper"

"describe your ideal holiday"

Reply 9

F1 fanatic

mrsmann

heh, it's all relative. It's also under pressure in an interview situation. Not that many people do STEP anyway. And I was talking generally, it wasn't just Dulac you were having a go at. None of your posts so far in this thread have been overly friendly or encouraging of help.

Reply 10

henryt

I wrote the questions from my first 2 interviews down somewhere, and I can vaguely remember my 3rd interview (I was tired/not really trying)... I'll go and type them up, if you really want...

Reply 11

mrsmann

F1 fanatic

Sorry I didn't mean to come off like that.

Thanks for the post Popa Dom.

I wrote the questions from my first 2 interviews down somewhere, and I can vaguely remember my 3rd interview (I was tired/not really trying)... I'll go and type them up, if you really want...

I don't mind, if you want to go for it, if not don't worry about it.

Reply 12

henryt

Here - hopefully they'll help. I got through most of them without too much difficulty/prompting, bar the last questions in first and second interviews, which were quite nasty, but I finished just in time. In the third interview I think was having an allergic reaction to the fresh paint, or somesuch, which meant I didn't really get that far. But it was at another college anyway, so I didn't really mind...

Reply 13

mrsmann

Thanks a lot! I'll have a go at them.

Reply 14

henryt

Popa Dom

The hardest question I got was "given an equilateral triangle of sidelength one, and 5 points placed at random within the triangle, prove that there are two points within a half of each other" Which is pretty easy if you know a certain trick, but otherwise is pretty hard, and its not exactly taught in schools. I also got asked the thing from die hard 3 about water in jugs which made the whole interview experience seem way more badass tan it rally was

Ohhh!! I've just worked it out. The trick seems so obvious now! *sigh*

Reply 15

Square

A friend of mine was asked to prove the 'Three Rule'. Whereby if you have a number, and all the digits add up to a number which you can divide by three, the original number is divisible by 3.

Reply 16

eponymous

In the interviews, are you given pen and paper?

Reply 17

eponymous

Popa Dom

"given an equilateral triangle of sidelength one, and 5 points placed at random within the triangle, prove that there are two points within a half of each other"