MAT preparation

i am in year 12 and studying further maths, maths, history and economics as my alevels. i havent done too well in my mocks and was wondering what i could do to improve my critical thinking. also when and how to start preparing for admissions exams such as the AEA and MAT

Reply 1

grand-stork

You should be starting MAT prep now! The earlier the better. All the past papers are on Oxford's website and I'd recommend just working through some (not necessarily in timed conditions) to get a sense of what the questions are like and to identify any particular weak spots. It's good to use the markschemes to give you hints if you get really stuck, and even if you get through a question and get it right, the markscheme will often offer a different perspective on how to approach it. Doing past TMUA & STEP questions is also probably a good idea just to get a good breadth of examples.

In terms of critical thinking, it might be helpful to try to begin challenging absolutely everything you say (probably moreso in history than the others) and come up with all possible arguments for why you're wrong. And then refute those arguments, and keep going until you're utterly fed up of all this critical thinking nonsense and you just want to do some maths. Rinse and repeat. It might work, or it might not.

Best of luck with your studies :smile:

Reply 2

Stiffy Byng

Critical thinking does not require you to challenge everything. You need to learn to distinguish between authoritative and unauthorative sources. Challenging everything can lead to flat-Earthing, anti-vaxxing etc.