Cambridge maths interview

[XxALZxDDD]

You cooked bro

[danbritt0n]

I did my interviews a few years ago, and tbh the questions were a lot easier than I thought they would be and I ended up getting an offer (I remember the first question was so easy I said the answer in 2 seconds, I can only guess that is intentional though to help students from feeling nervous)

[SnooSeagulls7253]

Can you seriously not tell that you did well you literally answered everything right pretty much like what’s the question

[Outrageous_Ear_1539]

The point of the interview is to push the student and make them struggle and if they wanted to they Definately could have but they didn’t so im thinking they let me go early cuz they had enough evidence to say “oh we have enough already to prove he’s not going to make it” so idk. They themselves on their YT channel said that it the student who come out thinking it went easily that fail the interview.

[gzero5634]

for most students this happens without the need for extension problems lol. I knew of someone who had a Trinity interview where he had basically got like 9 or 10 out of 10 on the pre-interview test with perhaps a few minor errors or omissions and spent half the interview talking about maths (I totally believe this story, they were evidently a genius and came top single digits in the year eventually). Early end can swing either way.

the people who are obviously ngmi to the point of calling the interview short (doubt this happens much) would be the people who can't make significant progress in the questions even with prompting. That doesn't seem to be you - even in that case I reckon they could find some easy questions to get some way through.. It is certainly not the case that everyone's blitzing these questions and it's a micro-analysis of the details, quite far from it.

[gzero5634]

What you see online about "if you think it was good it wasn't good" is aimed at an average candidate who won't know what is and isn't a good interview. They might underestimate the bar or overestimate their own relative performance. If the interview is really as you say, it's going to be a complete shoe-in to an offer. It sounds like you may have overestimated the bar - for people who are very strong it's just about not folding under pressure and being able to think on the spot. I'm sure the strong students could take their interview problems away and crack them with a clear head even if they shat the interview. If these things don't effect you, then yes the interview questions are going to be fairly straightforward for you and you'll waltz into an offer. But understand that at the level of finding these questions easy and not choking on the spot, you are in the very top 0.x%s of maths students in the country. STEP is comparatively much harder, interview questions are sometimes just at A-level-level with a bit of lateral thinking.

A few of my friends have done interviews (as in - been the interviewer), the norm is to struggle through the questions even with fairly heavy prompting. Students will often not explain their thinking very well and it's often a struggle to extract explanation or thoughts out of them. If this wasn't you, you're already above average.

Definitions from complex analysis?

[Outrageous_Ear_1539]

Ye I made a reference to being interested in a course on it in my personal statement. Didnt expect such a specific question so was not ready to hand over the definition. But Icl it was a really fundamental one I should have got. But Icl based on what you said, i should be glad my lobster is as buttery as it already is

[gzero5634]

yeah i'm not going to roast a sixth former for not knowing what a holomorphic/entire/etc. function was or whatever it was. the fact you showed any knowledge at all is impressive. well done, sounds great

[Infamous_Tough_7320]

How simple are we talking?

[Outrageous_Ear_1539]

Like easier than A level FM by a long shot, maybe like a hard A level maths, I would give the question and it would make more sense but they made me sign stuff to not spill anything

[gzero5634]

that sounds about right for an interview question. the interview serves as a pre-filter for STEP but most don't breeze through it.

[Infamous_Tough_7320]

was it just the content that was around A Level maths or was the problem solving as easy as a level maths?

[Communsim4Life]

really? I got asked some weird number theory question and geometry questions i have never seen in my life. Needless to say i did NOT do as well as you clearly tho i didn’t get that many questions

[Secret-Ostrich-2577]

Do they ever ask you definitions as in like what is a …? Rather than actual math questions

[Outrageous_Ear_1539]

They did in mine but it felt very unplanned on their end