How much math do I need for the econ interview?

Context:
I'm an overseas applicant for PPE (Canada)
Our system is different from A levels- I've already taken calculus, but it's not as rigorous and I'm really concerned that I may be at a disadvantage during my economics interview if I'm thrown a math problem that I've never seen before or have never even encountered the topic!
Does anyone know how much math I need for the interview, or how I should prepare?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I'm not sure I'd call the calculus covered by A-level Maths "rigorous". It's just a standard introduction to the computational methods of calculus, it doesn't even have anything involving limits (which are covered in A-level Further Maths, which is not at all required for PPE).

In any case, the point of the interview is to give you questions you've never seen before, but based on the material you have studied which they will see from your application otherwise. So they are questions that you can approach using what you know, but in unfamiliar contexts or requiring a bit of lateral thinking to get there.

Overall, they aren't interested so much in whether you get the "right" answer, but how you reason through the problem (so you need to actually speak to them and explain your thinking and what steps you're taking), and how much prompting you need to develop that.