OXBRIDGE REJECT SUICIDE WATCH

Did you make it to interview? What did you get asked?

>being british
I seriously hope you guys don't do this.

Got a Maths interview at St Hugh’s, I got asked a probability question that was essentially a derangement question, some questions about sequences and functions and some thinking about higher dimensional cubes.

>higher dimensional cubes.
What the fuck? Do you remember the question itself?

Consider a point ( 0 dimensions, 1 point, no edges), a line (1d, 2p, 1e), a square (2d, 4p, 4e) and a cube (3d, 8p, 12e). From observations for d

What do britcucks even do with their overabundance of math and physics autists?

Damn, that's hard mode. Did you need a lot of help? What do you think made them choose to reject?

Also, have you requested feedback? What does it say? I was BTFO pre-interview stage, so I'm curious as to what the feedback for interviewees will look like.

They really asked you this
Fuck this is trivial. It all makes sense now. Only brainlets go to oxbridge, that user with chad lasta was right.
Answer for your brainlet question is
V=2^d
E=V*d/2
d-number of dimensions

Wrong.

Thats hard mode if you are brainlet.
If you went to any deacent high school you would answer that shit in 1 min max.
Whats worste is that they will acept number of black students, for diversity quata, that didnt even know how to answer this.

I got a formula for p pretty quickly, but we talked through e for a few mins. I remember initially getting a recursive formula ( ie e(d+1) in terms of e(d)) which we then converted into a proper formula. In most other interviews I was talked to a fair bit.

I’d say I was rejected either because of my MAT score (I think about 60, which is enough to get an interview but a fair bit lower than many successful applicants in some years) or perhaps I wasn’t taking advice as well as I thought. It’s so difficult to read what the interviewer thinks though, so I’m gonna ask for feedback ASAP.

Wrong:
>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_honours_degree

Blacks are actually one of the groups Oxford are constantly criticised for under-offering. Many colleges have gone for years without offering a place to a single black student. Most of the foreigners are Chinese, and since they pay massive fees I wouldn’t be surprised if they were held favourably.

isnt this just euler characteristic

How is it wrong brainlet. Post you answer so we can all laugh at oxbridge students.

>a literal thread for highschool students

Stfu

I can only reply to this intellectual argument with:
U mad?

I don't understand why this isn't right desu

Reeeeee I told you to stfu. Don't reply to me anymore.

It is right, but some snowflakes got their ego hurt.

Say pls dont bully and i will stop.
Say it or else...

DEFERRED FROM YALE (im 18 janny you can't do shit, i can post on Veeky Forums all i want)

reapplying when you had already started studying at berkely would not give you an advantage for getting accepted in any way

P-pls don't bully me Chad. I'm sorry. You're very smart :)
Friends?

We are friends now :)

gay

affirmative action doesn't work like that in the UK.

universities like oxford and cambridge give 0 credit to applicants just because they're black.

Instead it is based on what school you went to . If you went to a shitty school where on average the students get garbage marks and you manage to get pretty good marks, that's more impressive than if you went to a posh , expensive private school where the class room size is typically 15 and nearly every student gets pretty good marks.

This actually works well and it means that the only niggers who get in genuinely do have intellectual potential.

I was actually thinking it'd be a disadvantage (since it would mean that my MAT score would exist in the context of an undergrad student)! Which would would be looked upon better?

>waste 50k on getting a shitty gen ed education and literally partying every day
or
>partying every day (or whatever you choose to do)
oh boy what a difference

What you should do is take the gap year, assuming for whatever reason that you dont want to go to a top uni anyways, and in that time reinforce your shitty application by reading and studying your subject, practising exam style questions, etc

If anybody, it's whites to whom Oxbridge is being generous.

I ask because I've read that Oxford math dept doesn't like gap year students due to the lack of rigor, but also that candidates who are already at university are harder to be impressed by.

>assuming for whatever reason that you dont want to go to a top uni anyway
I don't understand what you mean by this. I'm reapplying because I want to go to a top uni. Also, Berkeley isn't really known for partying, but I suppose I should assume that the tutors will think the worst of whatever uni I attend unless it's MIT/Stanford/Princeton etc

I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to discriminate for deferred entry (ie: they don't see that you're a gap year student, only admin staff).

And I meant that Berkeley is pretty up there in terms of rankings and research, even with all the SJW shit going on, and Oxford is not that much higher. Cambridge on the other hand...
And yeah, even if it's not known for partying, I've been told (by friends who studied in the US) that pretty much any US uni has parties all the time.

>lack of rigor
I don't think you know what rigor means. Also if you're studying math (which I assume you are because of that word), it's really not that hard to catch up anyways, and from experience, they cushion it anyways by providing catch-up classes

can you provide the source of that image?
the summary statistic they provide in the 2nd and 3rd rows is very vague.

different students take very different numbers of GCSEs so how you boil the results down to a mean is not obvious and makes a difference in the methodology you choose.

For example if you just take a mean grade for all a pupil's GCSE's then a pupil who got 6A*s at GCSE would contribute more to their ethnic group's score than a student who got 5A*s and 5As and a 2Bs.

Is that fair? what's the fairest way to compare how good two student's results are if they've done different numbers of GCSEs? Any way you choose to incorporate the increased difficulty of studying an extra subject is going to be arbitrary.
then there's the question of whether hard GCSEs like maths and english should be weighted to be worth more than soft ones like media studies or home economics.

You'd need to provide the methodology to these questions to know what we're looking at

I've seen charts before that ranked ethnic groups by what % of them got at least 5 GCSEs of grades C or above. Which is an extremely daft summary statistic because it weighs a student who has 5 Cs at GCSE as being worth the same as a student who has 10 A*s, and there's no reason to suppose that the distribution of results beyond this threshold of 5GCSEs with grades C or above would be the same from ethnic group to ethnic group.

deffered entry isn't the same as a gap year student necessarily.

What you're thinking of is if a student is applying while taking their A levels and applies to study maths the year after next, such that they'll spend next year doing some other thing, oxbridge maths departments are less likely to agree than other departments because they worrymore about you getting rusty in maths than they do in other subjects.

However a student re-applying during gap year doesn't present as much of a worry about getting rusty because they'll still be doing some maths during their year not at school because they'll need to do STEP or the oxford maths entrance exam that summer.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Along these lines, does the personal statement really even matter for math applicants?

Also, assume I score 80-90 on the MAT this time around. What would I need to demonstrate at interview to lock in admission? Imagine that I'm just good at test taking and that my math ability is actually around those of those scoring ~50.

So I should hold off on accepting a Berkeley offer and apply as a gap year student? (Especially considering that I could easily get into Berkeley if I reapplied)?

either go to berkeley and just do your degree there or reapply for oxford during a gap year.

going to berkely just to apply to oxford a month after you arrive is never going to be of benefit to you getting into oxford.

I've been told personal statement is not all that important. Mine was pretty cringy thinking back and I still had an interview (I did have pretty good grades, on paper). However, you 100% should build the personal statement by reading actual textbooks or doing math related stuff (ie: maybe try local Math olympiads if you're still inside the age range, even if you utterly fail). Read an easy rigorous textbook. They're not going to be impressed if you read Stewart's Calculus. They will be impressed if you read a big chunk of Munkres' Topology (this is not an easy feat, albeit he claims it is accessible to high school students - maybe take a gander at a proofs book first however). However you should be able to back up every claim you write.

But as I said that's not all that important - the interview is. They will (most probably) ask you to sit down, and immediately ask you a tricky question. They want you to show them your ability to solve difficult questions, what methods you use,etc. They don't care about your personality until the end, if at all.

For this, they're probably gonna ask you a probability (combinatorics) question, maybe an analytical geometry question, and most likely a number theory question, so prepare those well.

Its less about getting a benefit, more about hedging.

If I go to Berkeley (or don't) and get in, great.

If I go to Berkeley and get rejected, then oh well, Berkeley isn't that bad.

If I don't go and get rejected, and for some reason Berkeley doesn't reaccept me, then fml.

I just don't want it to be in a situation where being at Berkeley makes it harder to impress tutors at interview. I'd be entering Berkeley at 17 this fall, so I won't have age on my side this time when I apply.

Jesus Christ, I mentioned Stewart's Multivariable Calculus book in mine. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll change it up this time.

the personal statement does matter but it is easy to create a maths personal statement htat ticks the boxes.

Talk about what you like and find interesting and satisfying in maths , incl. any things you've studied on your own initiative. Then include a bit about what extra curriculars you like.

at interview you need to use good reasoning to try and solve the problems given to you and explain your reasoning while you are attempting to solve the problem. Some questions you'll be expected to be able to flat out solve. for example the higher dimensional cubes question you'll be expected to flat out solve.

Others you'll be expected to have a go at and make reasonable attempts at and they might provide you hints to see how you learn on your feet.

Just download the STEP example questions booklet from the STEP website.
those are the kinds of questions you will probably be asked, only easier.

If you solve every single question in that booklet I guarantee you that you will pass the interview as long as you explain to the interviewers your reasoning.

Thanks for this! Your help means a lot.

You meant STEP III, right?

hey dude don't worry too much about that, leave stewart's calculus, it is still impressive if you've read it already, but don't drone on about how it's your best achievement, especially if you've got a rigorous book already under your belt.

The thing is (I'm assuming you're american), that the standard curriculum in England Further maths covers a huge chunk of Stewarts normal calculus, not multivariable though.

It's fine if you opened stewart's calculus. some people want to learn calculus techniques. why wouldn't you? they're cool.
It isn't going to count against you.

You sound neurotic and annoying. Given that you're this nervous and unprepared I don't think you're enough of a high flyer to do maths at oxbridge. Then again maybe oxford does have to scrape the barrel and take a few mediocre people like you to fill up their intake.

If you're a brainlet it is not in your interest to game the interview and get in when you have no business being there. You'll be much better off getting a 1st at UCL or durham or something than getting a 2:2 or a 3rd at oxford.

the STEP question guide includes example questions for STEP 1-3. 2 and 3 are about as hard as each other but on slightly different topics, so you can neglect STEP 1 questions if you like but do not neglect STEP 2.

You think I'd get a low 2 because I want to prepare and perfect every aspect of my application months in advance? I don't see the correlation. I don't know what to say about the neuroticism comment, but with regard to nervousness, if never nervous, you're either manic or on dope.

You're right that I'm nervous, but that's because it's very rattling to consider that I could get a 90 on the MAT and still get rejected because I wasn't clever (in the American English sense of the word) enough when solving a specific set of questions in the space of 20 minutes.

Thanks senpai.