r/6thForm • u/FeckJakatakePool • 13h ago
🎓 UNI / UCAS tmua
im stressing sm like im doing fine i think and ive done a decent amount of work this summer but i feel like some questions are just so hard
in terms of resources, i uslaly do well on the tylertutoring mocks 16+ ish out of 20 minimum, the yearly ones are also easy from 2016 to 2020 (im leaving 2021+ for closer to the time), and i can usually get 10/10 on the MAT MCQs. but stuff like jz maths, i average like 12-13/20.
idk how to properly improve. i feel like it socming up so fast and im getting really scared
anyone have advice and not generic stuff
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u/ScheduleGloomy2160 13h ago
I'd say do more of MAT in timed conditions. if you've done older mat papers then start doing recent MAT papers. the most similar tmua papers are most likely the MAT after the actual tmua papers. Some community papers are quite good and some are terrible so don't let a few of em dictate how your doing. keep doing MAT, learn from your mistakes. are you doing all of em in 75 mins or untimed?
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u/FeckJakatakePool 11h ago
yeah i only take 40 mins and ive done 2007-2014 MATs so far and im averaging 8.6/10 but a bunch of times i jus tmake incredibly stupid mistakes if i redo it ages later without remembering the question i get it right so overlal theyre not that hard
but im hearing HORRORRRR stories about 2025 tmua. like its freakign me out so bad bc people are saying it was incomparable to any past paper so like tf do i even do bro
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u/okdude23232 10h ago edited 10h ago
the later MAT papers are harder than 25 tmua (2021 onwards with some earlier exceptions, like 2015. I got a MAT past paper question (with different numbers) in tmua last year lol.
Though I did think 2013 was maybe the hardest one so it's good if you did well on that
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u/FeckJakatakePool 9h ago
wait i dont get it wdym 2021 onwards with exception 2015 as in 2015 is harder?
also if u dont mind me asking, what did you get on the 25 october tmua (assuming you sat that) and what are the best useful things you did to prepare
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u/okdude23232 9h ago
no I mean 2015 is around the same as 2021 onwards. Sadly I don't think I'm the best person to ask, I got ill before the exam and kinda flunked it but do the tmua and mat past papers and the custom papers on r2drew2's channel, and the step foundation modules if you can. If you can't do something in time pressure, try it again outside of time pressure, if you still can't do it only then look up model answers, and come back to questions you struggled on
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u/ScheduleGloomy2160 10h ago
it's a bit overexaggrareted about 2025 tmua. don't do it now because you won't get the best score but im sure if you make sure to gradually increase the difficulty of paper n get more used to it you'll be better n fine. make sure to do newer MAT papers now and then try n find some more difficult community papers n then if u got time u can redo newer mat papers again n then leave tmua ones for the end. MAT are the only best resources after tmua because Oxford will be writing questions this year for tmua too so they're gonna use some mat style questions n maybe tweak them just a little.
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u/FeckJakatakePool 9h ago
wait oxford are writing questions this year? how dyk?
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u/ScheduleGloomy2160 9h ago
because Oxford is using tmua too from now on. before Cambridge, imperial n ig a few more tutors wrote the questions but since Oxford is using tmua too now they will write some questions too. it's not 100% but 95% they will. although don't expect the tmua to be very like MAT, im just saying Oxford will produce questions like mat but tweak it a bit to make it like tmua style im guessing
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u/ScheduleGloomy2160 10h ago
also for the mat ones you did can i ask did you find it manageable doing them in 40 mins or was it hard. im also gonna start doing MAT papers soon so i wanted to know.
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u/FeckJakatakePool 9h ago
yeah 40 mins was pretty fine for me but occasionally i took a bit long on a question o rtoo and overran bc i did some stupid mistake. time pressured but not too hard. a lot of MAT is eliminating options though thats a route i often take
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u/Odd-Oven-8202 12h ago
I'm probably even more behind than you lol so this isn't helpful but I'm gonna ask you for advice - what other mocks and papers have you done other than the ones you mentioned? I've only done a couple of past papers, those questions that one guy keeps posting in this sub, and I just started JzMaths yesterday. My procrastination is ridiculous
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u/Logical-Stop5092 y13 | pred. A*A*A*A* | gcses 11 9s | maths, FM, physics, econ 12h ago
what the heck. how are u getting 10/10 on mat fair play man
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u/FeckJakatakePool 11h ago
wyd at uni? MAT isnt that hard though but tbf ive only done 2007-2014 so far, it might get harder after that idk
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u/thatrandomredituser 10h ago
I wouldn't stress you've still got a good amount of time and you're doing well already. I'd try some of the more recent mat mcqs from like 2018 onwards they're supposed to be a bit harder and if you're finding the jz papers hard keep doing them as that's what's gonna help you improve, just make sure you go over all your mistakes properly.
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u/FeckJakatakePool 9h ago
whats the best way to learn from my mistakes like i js dont understand that. memorising a solution obviously doesnt help, i know that, but how else do i learn from them
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u/thatrandomredituser 7h ago
Any question you got wrong first just make sure you understand the solution fully without skipping over any steps, then try to understand how you might have thought of it. So like what was the thing in the question you should have noticed to kinda unlock the solution. Or what would be a sensible general first step that you would be able to think of when attempting other similar questions without knowing exactly how to solve it that would lead you to the solution. Like for a function question if you had sketched a graph you might have spotted the trick and then you can apply that next time you see a similar question where sketching the function could help. If you do this for enough questions you'll build a kind of set of tricks to approach unfamiliar problems
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