Cambridge Maths

I take maths, further maths, chemistry and economics at a level and i’m currently in y12.

I’ve been good at maths my whole life and i really enjoy it. I want to study maths at a good university (like Cambridge) since i want to do something in quant afterwards.

On the Cambridge website it specifically states they try to separate “ability” and “good teaching”.I easily understand maths but i’m not that good at it when i haven’t been taught it, for example i got a bronze in the SMT, but in exams i get really high scores.I wouldn’t say my teachers are “outstanding ”but i’m just good at learning and understanding topics individually.

I constantly see international students winning olympiads and difficult maths challenges and i really struggle to compare myself to them since i’m just not on their maths level.

Is there any way for me to see if i’m capable of getting into Cambridge for maths in y12 since it’s quite difficult to start the STEP papers when we haven’t got through much as level.

Reply 1

mqb2766

Original post by Anonymous

I take maths, further maths, chemistry and economics at a level and i’m currently in y12.
I’ve been good at maths my whole life and i really enjoy it. I want to study maths at a good university (like Cambridge) since i want to do something in quant afterwards.
On the Cambridge website it specifically states they try to separate “ability” and “good teaching”.I easily understand maths but i’m not that good at it when i haven’t been taught it, for example i got a bronze in the SMT, but in exams i get really high scores.I wouldn’t say my teachers are “outstanding ”but i’m just good at learning and understanding topics individually.
I constantly see international students winning olympiads and difficult maths challenges and i really struggle to compare myself to them since i’m just not on their maths level.
Is there any way for me to see if i’m capable of getting into Cambridge for maths in y12 since it’s quite difficult to start the STEP papers when we haven’t got through much as level.

Theres obviously no definitive test in y12. Theyd expect you to be doing some supercurriculum maths in y12, so part of that could be do learn some problem solving/elementary maths and see if you can bump up your smc performance. Or you could hit some of the mat/tmua questions that use elementary maths or do the step foundation worksheets and the first 1/3 or so really just assume gcse knowledge or some nrich/recreational maths or ... Theres also the other supercurriculum stuff as well so books, pop videos, ....

As with most maths, you usually find you get better with practice/reflection and practice is rarely wasted as step is roughly a level curriculum. Many people struggle with step questions when they first start, but if you stick with it, it usually gets better.

For the point about "winning difficult challenges", I did the last couple of years smc papers in an elementary / problem solving way (just search on here). Over 1/2 of the questions can usually be done in this fashion and thinking of it as "difficult" can be self defeating. Rather see if you can spot patterns, sketch it, sub numbers, simplify, work backwards, ... While step questions are more a level focussed, developing some problem solving skills is rarely wasted.

(edited 7 months ago)

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