The Student Room Group

MAT Prep Thread 2019


Mathematics Admissions Test 2019 Preparation Thread


(Based on @r_gup's 2018 post which was based on previous year's posts. Any recommendations for stuff to be added to this post are welcome!)

If you need help with any MAT questions then please post the question in this thread (or link to it) along with your full working and explain where you're stuck.


Key Dates:

Registration deadline : 15th October 2019
MAT exam date : 30th October 2019
Interview shortlist decisions (for Oxford) : Early December 2019
Offer decisions (for Oxford) : January 2020


Advice:

\star It's worth studying the second year single pure content before beginning MAT preparation for a better understanding of the concepts behind trigonometry/calculus. However, as noted in the syllabus, the only 100% necessary part of this for the MAT is sequences and series

\star Start with the earliest papers you can find and ideally try and complete them all by the exam. The papers before 2007 are of an older style and do not follow the same specification as current papers but are good practice nonetheless. The papers up to 2017 are also now of an old specification, however will be more similar to our specification than the older ones.

\star The earlier papers are somewhat easier than current papers so be careful to not become complacent when scoring highly on early papers

\star Aim to do as many past papers as possible as timed mocks, exam technique is essential to success in the MAT

\starNote the following changes of the specification from 2018: In order to reflect the new syllabus of AS-level Mathematics, we will be removing the following topics from the syllabus: the remainder theorem, radians, the trapezium rule. We will be adding the following topics to the syllabus: combinations and binomial probabilities, derivative of ekxe^{kx}, differentiation from first principles, graphs of loga(x).

Resources:

Exam Syllabus
2016 MAT Prep Thread
2017 MAT Prep Thread
2018 MAT Prep Thread
MAT/AEA/STEP Past Papers
Official Webpage
MAT Preparation Powerpoint
MAT Section B Tips PDF
MAT 1992-1995 Solutions
MAT 1996-2006 Solutions

Exam Information/Layout:

\star The exam is 150 minutes (2 hours 30 minutes) long

\star There are 5 specific questions to be completed depending on your course

\star The first question consists of 10 multiple choice questions all worth 4 marks each

\star All answers to questions are submitted on plain paper

\star Formulae sheets and calculators are not permitted

\star Compasses are permitted


Graph Sketching:

Spoiler



Things to Look for:

Spoiler




Some tags

(edited 4 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Does anybody have access to any revision worksheets that could help with preparation?
(edited 4 years ago)
This is going to be really useful!

Was waiting for my A Level maths result this summer and had convinced myself I'd gotten an A, luckily I was completely wrong and got the A* but now I've done almost no prep for this exam since June!

My last week of summer is gonna be busy...
in
Original post by Red’s the name?
Does anybody have access to any revision worksheets that could help with preparation?

Dr. Frost maybe
Original post by RavenclawOwl
This is going to be really useful!

Was waiting for my A Level maths result this summer and had convinced myself I'd gotten an A, luckily I was completely wrong and got the A* but now I've done almost no prep for this exam since June!

My last week of summer is gonna be busy...

good luck!
Good luck everyone!! So glad I don't have to do these types of exams anymore even if they're fun to prepare for.
Original post by Notnek


\star Compasses are permitted




Why would anyone need a compass? Surely they know how to get to school by now ....
Reply 8
Original post by Muttley79
Why would anyone need a compass? Surely they know how to get to school by now ....

Haha that was just copied from last year’s thread :smile:
Reply 9
I'm an international student and planning to take mat this year. I'm kinda confused with "the number of roots". For British math, if delta=0, would you say the equation has two roots of the same value, or just one root?
Thx!
Original post by Mluo
I'm an international student and planning to take mat this year. I'm kinda confused with "the number of roots". For British math, if delta=0, would you say the equation has two roots of the same value, or just one root?
Thx!

I think you would say that it has a repeated root.

Saying it has one root doesn't seem like the correct terminology.

So like if we have (x - 2) ^ 2 = 0 then I would say that x = 2 is a repeated root, but I wouldn't say it has a single root.

But I might be wrong.
Reply 11
Original post by Rohan77642
I think you would say that it has a repeated root.

Saying it has one root doesn't seem like the correct terminology.

So like if we have (x - 2) ^ 2 = 0 then I would say that x = 2 is a repeated root, but I wouldn't say it has a single root.

But I might be wrong.

Ok thanks a lot!
Reply 12
Is there any thread containing the solutions to the questions from 1996 to 2006?
Has anyone done specimen paper 2 q5 i'm intrigued how you would explain part iv.

Also any tips for writing explanations because i can do the maths not the writing. lol
My school has a two week october half term which MAT is in the middle of. Does this mean I'll have to take it at a test centre or something? I know my school offers STEP but they haven't mentioned MAT.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by LiveOnTSR
My school has a two week october half term which MAT is in the middle of. Does this mean I'll have to take it at a test centre or something? I know my school offers STEP but they haven't mentioned MAT.

My college is opening up for people to sit the MAT, it's worth checking if your school is too :smile:
Hi,

Can someone please help me with Question 4(ii) from the Specimen Paper A.
I understand, what process, that they're doing, trying to work out the area of triangle RQP in the middle by subtracting the smaller triangles, ARQ, BRP, QCP from the main triangle. I also understand how they start doing
AQ/C X AR/b. However, I don't understand how this process is then equal to cos2a.

Many thanks for any help!
Original post by LiveOnTSR
My school has a two week october half term which MAT is in the middle of. Does this mean I'll have to take it at a test centre or something? I know my school offers STEP but they haven't mentioned MAT.

There will be lots of other admissions tests on that day too, such as the BMAT, so I would expect your school to be open. Ask them as soon as your term starts.
Original post by DanielT11
Hi,

Can someone please help me with Question 4(ii) from the Specimen Paper A.
I understand, what process, that they're doing, trying to work out the area of triangle RQP in the middle by subtracting the smaller triangles, ARQ, BRP, QCP from the main triangle. I also understand how they start doing
AQ/C X AR/b. However, I don't understand how this process is then equal to cos2a.

Many thanks for any help!


Let's look at triangle ARQ first. Hint: can you show that the length of AR is bcosαb \cos \alpha and the length of AQ is ccosαc \cos \alpha? What is the area of triangle ARQ?

Visual aid:

Spoiler

(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by I hate maths!
Let's look at triangle ARQ first. Hint: can you show that the length of AR is bcosαb \cos \alpha and the length of AQ is ccosαc \cos \alpha? What is the area of triangle ARQ?

Visual aid:

Spoiler



So, I understand now, because then the sides are cos2a smaller and, than the sides for the larger triangle. Then, repeating this for the other triangles, I'll reach the final answer.

Thank you that really helped. For some reason, I had looked at this problem many times and never considered, that I should use the smaller right angles triangles.

Quick Reply