Advice after the King's College London Maths School (KCLMS) admissions test

thanks thats helpful to know as it was kinda brutal
can i ask some questions please?
Were you were any good at IMC and the follow on Olympiad rounds where applicable?
What's the ratio of male: female in your year?
Are there many autistic students at KCLMS and do they manage to cope? do they get teased at all?

Hey guys, what did you hear back from Kings? I got rejected ☹️

Don't be discouraged! I'm sure you are still an incredible mathematician. 1500 applicants and 70 places, most of those applications are strong and appropriate, so unfortunately a lot of people are dissapointed 😞 good luck in the future 🙂

Hi I have a question, if you get a conditional offer is it specific to your predicted grades? Like for example if I have a predicted 9 in physics would I need to get specifically a 9 to meet my offer or would the grade 7-9 requirement set by the school still apply?

you only need the grades sent in the email to enroll, even if you got predicted smth else, i diddnt understand that well so hope this helps

Hi everyone, i'm a current student, you would have seen me there today and I wanted to share some advice since i've seen a lot of people worried about how the test went today:
- No one finished the test (maybe 10 people max), walking round the room I saw zero people finish all questions in any of the time slots.
- The test is marked, but based on critical thinking rather than correct answers, correct answers are worth less than incorrect worked solutions.
- I did not come anywhere near finishing my ad test last year.
I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff so if you have questions i'll answer them all!

Hiya, I have an interview in January for KCLMS and was wondering on your thoughts for a few things:
I also just wanted to say thank you for helping out on the day of the admissions test, the students I ended up talking to or interacting with were all really kind and made the actual experience a lot less intimidating or stressful

yeah of course! i'll answer as much of this as i can. And thanks so much, i assume the main reason we were there was to make people feel more comfortable 🙂
1) I was really nervous for the interview, but i did some small preparation, try and make sure you have an answer to all the questions on the email (we got an email with questions on - if you diddnt then you can ignore this). When i came out, i was very sure i diddn't have an offer, so don't beat yourself up after 🙂
2) I think they are looking for your ability to think out loud, as for help, and pick up new concepts quickly. What I did was explain literally every single decision out loud. If you want to over prepare - get oxbridge interview help from youtube
3) I'm not too sure how far i can elaborate on this, they are very touchy about things like that, but i promise it won't be too hard, its more about how you can react too it. Some advice - ignore the people saying it's a level topics. It will likely be easier and more problem-solvy than any a-level questions
5) (since i'm pretty sure i answered 4 above) for me it's just commuting. I take 3 hours on the train per day. as far as the actual school, you WILL be pushed very far out of your comfort zone in terms of public speaking, collaboration etc - but these are skills that are extremely valuable and you will need to learn at some point anyway
hope you had a great christmas, happy new year and good luck for the interviews 😀

Thank you so much for your response, this was really helpful! Wishing you a great start to the new year as well

they don't have to pay us

VERY poor effort from the school - you aren't trained and don't have safeguarding training. Did anyone have first aid training? The school should be reported for this.
You actually broke exam rules by looking at how many had finished by the way.

I think in this case adults/teachers with the required training are on site during the examination, so it is not a requirement for students to have the training. It's quite common for students to help out on open days and other similar circumstances without this training, because any major events that happen are dealt with by adults, and quite frankly the majority of the students role in an examination centre is common sense and doesn't even require training.
Reporting the school based on one post which provides very little information about the processes set in place by this school is quite rash and extreme behaviour.
OP's provision of this fact reveals no useful information, and OP only meant to calm down everyone nervous post-exam. I fear your reaction is unnecessary. Passive-aggressive language directed towards a well-meaning teenager/ their school is not a good look, and next time you intend to bring up concerns, it would be better to do it in a constructive way rather than addressing them to one student instead and potentially puting other young people off from providing support to each other online. OP hasn't revealed any information throughout this thread that could be used to unfairly advantage applicants.

The test isn't taken at the school though and was on a Saturday according to the website. As a parent I am horrified that the school thinks invigilation by students is appropriate at an off-site venue like this. An Open Day is quite a different scenario ...
Clearly training is needed if the OP felt that checking how many had finished was part of their role.

The checking of how many had finished might have just been an observation, just noticing people who were sat not doing anything mid way through the exam. I sat the test and I saw both adults and students invigilating, I'm sure any student volunteer who was there was just following the lead of the adults. It is a very big exam hall to be fair, there needed to be quite a few invigilators present but there was still an acceptable number of adults present.