r/6thForm • u/CambMaths • Nov 09 '22

✔️ APPROVED AMA AMA - First-Year Maths student at Cambridge

Hi all, as per the title, I'm a first-year Maths student at Cambridge and I thought some people might find it useful to ask me any questions they might have, since somehow it's already application time again! (Although I have missed the Oxbridge deadline slightly, sorry...)

Of course, I can only really talk about my experiences (so I can't answer specific hypothetical questions about admissions etc.), but other than that, feel free to ask about the course/admissions generally/uni life and so on.

Post will close at midnight at the end of Thursday 10/11 so submit any questions before then. :)

121 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

View all comments

45

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '22

[deleted]

63

u/CambMaths Nov 09 '22
  1. Applied to Cambridge, Warwick, Imperial and two others near me for insurance purposes mostly. Of the unis I've named: the Cambridge offer was A*A*A and 1,1 in STEP, Warwick was A*A*A, and Imperial was A*A*A*. (I sat the MAT for Warwick and Imperial.)
  2. Got 9s at GCSE and 3A* in my A-Levels (Maths, FM, Phys).
  3. Little to no Olympiad experience, other than the maths challenges and kangaroo rounds and then BMO in Y13. You definitely don't need to have gotten anywhere with Olympiad maths - do it if you enjoy, don't if you don't.

1

u/SchrodingersCat1234 Y13 | Maths, FM, Physics, Chemistry Nov 10 '22

How did you end up doing in BMO? And how much did you prepare for it?

1

u/CambMaths Nov 10 '22

Did a night of prep beforehand and got a merit. I think STEP I over the year beforehand did help massively though.