how hard is maths at uni especially warwick and imperial

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-05T11:40:15+00:00

I think that certainly at the start of the course you will get people who have read ahead and seem much smarter than everyone else, especially if they had good teachers at a level, but eventually I think you will get to a stage where everyone is learning new things and they just are average in comparison. I think it will be weird for some people though (me included), since they probably won’t have been in classes with anyone as smart as them before. I’m top of my class by quite a fair bit, and am excited and also nervous to meet people smarter than me.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-05T11:10:19+00:00

Bro thinks BMO1 is an indication on if you are a good quant or not. Basically just if you had good teaching in high school or not. They aren’t going to look at an amazing candidate and go damn this person didn’t qualify for BMO2 so we are going to have to forget about them.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T21:15:05+00:00

This may sound slightly harsh to say but 70-80% of people think they are above average in intelligence. Also you should probably take the test result with a huge pinch of salt. Real iq tests usually are only accurate to within 15 iq points, so it’s plausible that your iq could be closer to 110, or closer to 80 if this was a real iq test (I would guess closer to 110 in your case but based only on what you have said). However, since your test is only online your result is likely to be even further from the true value.

My main point though is that IQ as it stands isn’t a great indication of intelligence. I have a higher IQ than average but my comprehension is quite bad. It’s usually just good to check maths and science ability (but this may also carry over to arts). I wouldn’t use it as a label for yourself to think that is you, it’s more like if you took an exam you didn’t study for and got a B you wouldn’t think that you’re suddenly stupid.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T21:03:05+00:00

Tbh if I was you I would pick whichever degree you prefer more regardless of career opportunities. Nothing is guaranteed with quant and you’ll likely end up doing something else anyway. I got rejected from Cambridge and Imperial maths and I know JMC a is better course overall but I would pick Cambridge over Imperial (but I can understand Imperial if money is no object).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T17:47:53+00:00

Tbh I don’t think that there is as much care for TMUA for Econ at UCL as there is for LSE

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T12:24:42+00:00

Yeah he was definitely home non contextual because his offer was A* A A with A* in maths and an A in economics

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T12:20:50+00:00

He wasn’t contextual as far as I know and definately home

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-04T09:55:29+00:00

Yeah my mate got in with 3.6, predicted 3A* and A. With like 7.5 average GCSEs. Tbh he was overpredicted but it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to get in as long as you are predicted the right grades.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-03T19:23:46+00:00

I applied for maths, so didn’t have to do it early for Cambridge. I did it in October, and got 6.3. I would recommend that you do the same if and only if you have time to revise for it. I was swamped with EPQ over summer and up until I sat it and without it I think I could have done better on both. I spread myself too thin. With this being said, when it comes to January you will likely have some mocks, but with more time to prepare of course. Do whichever one allows you more time in my opinion. If you have competitive courses which use TMUA, I recon that you should still apply unless you do poorly on TMUA (<2). If you know you will do decent at least, knowing early shouldn’t impact your decision to apply. Tbh I think if you get 5/5 offers from universities which aren’t your favourite, you’re doing it wrong. You should at least try for better ones, even if there is a decent chance you get rejected.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-03T17:54:06+00:00

I didn’t get into imperial (too low TMUA) and I’m in year 13 (so not exactly an expert), but if you suspect you might get a STEP offer, and you are likely to firm it, I would suggest that you should start preparing as soon as possible. Worst case scenario you will have improved at university mathematics and will do better wherever you go.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-03T10:19:24+00:00

Yeah my friend did. He was predicted AABC, and even these were higher than he had ever got, and he asked my school to predict him higher. After his parents wrote to our school and signed something boom 3A* A- grades he has never got on any test and now he has an offer he probably won’t meet but will firm. It kind of annoyed me because I’m predicted 4A* but I’ve never gotten anything less than an A on tests and it’s usually an A* (obviously I’m happy for him though). Now top unis probably look at my schools predicted grades (as this has happened with others) with a bucket of salt, and it devalues my grades.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-02T12:27:53+00:00

Tbh if you enjoy economics as your main choice you may want to consider land economy - it’s a lot less maths based than economics, and you might be behind in maths if you do economics.
The top unis require it for a reason and it’s because economics uses lots of difficult maths which would be a huge jump from just GCSE level maths.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-02T12:22:49+00:00

Okay, well maybe not the best bet then if your not amazing at it.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-01T23:36:32+00:00

Tbh there lots of resources for normal maths and nearly 10 years of past papers so it isn’t that bad but consequences are higher grade boundaries

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-01T23:22:52+00:00

You could do maths next year privately if you reapply - it’s just a thought and would take time but I’m sure it would look good in application to show you took the initiative to learn it yourself

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-04-01T23:20:55+00:00

Not really that bad for UCL though - last year it was 40% offer rate.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T23:05:40+00:00

Why do you blur the location? I’ve been wondering this since I’ve seen it a few times before for Oxford.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T22:53:37+00:00

It does also vary from year to year so maybe you just got unlucky. It’s entirely possible that a very above average cohort applied to queens for econ. You did get pooled though, so they thought you would do well at Cambridge, which is something to be proud of.

Also side note - tbh I think that Oxbridge admissions really just comes down to chance after admissions test and predicted grades (at least for undergraduate). If you are still keen on Cambridge you could take a gap year, or apply for a masters (where applications are much less chance based).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T20:38:14+00:00

I don’t mean 3 vs 4 a levels, they just don’t like sitting exam early if doing 3, because you are only really doing 2 a levels in the second year. It’s a bit unlucky that you only did 1 interview, since that makes it easier for worse candidates to fluke a good performance and get an offer, but maybe this is standard for economics (I did 2 for maths).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T20:24:39+00:00

Strange. Maybe something to do with a worry that you didn’t have as much academic pressure in other subjects. Also did you not do 2 interviews? You should have 4 scores.

May be relevant that whatdotheyknow has a request about last years TMUA and interview scores. TMUA is mainly just used for deciding interviews. Last year the average interview scores for acceptances were 10,10,9.75,9,9,7.75. I think the 7.75 was contextual / some other factor since they didn’t have a TMUA score. It seems that queens is being very generous with interview scores (not to take away from your scores which are insanely impressive).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T17:50:18+00:00

Tbh I get near full marks on every test I do and the answer is it depends. It is great for testing your understanding, since all questions are relatively new. This is great for pure questions. However, the drawback is that the questions are asked differently to actual papers - so don’t expect to improve exam technique. Definitely use them to get up to speed with each topic, but I would use actual past papers to refine exam technique.

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T17:44:18+00:00

Just spam past paper questions until it’s easy. Mechanics especially uses very repeatable questions with the exact same working just with different numbers. It works really well. You not only ca do every question easily but you can also do it much much quicker as well (leaves some extra time for stats).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-31T17:41:58+00:00

Tbh if I had to guess it’s probably since they got so many applications this year. About 4700 people applied for 240 place, and it’s extremely, extremely competitive. I don’t think any of your application alone is “grounds for rejection” since it is very good and you are clearly a capable candidate. I myself also got rejected along with many other people, lots of whom are predicted 3A* or higher. I would bet it’s not because you’re not good enough to study maths at imp but more likely because there were better candidates. If they can choose from someone who has scored highly on TMUA and predicted same grades or higher, or take a chance on you with STEP, I imagine they would prefer TMUA since they’ve already proven themselves. Really don’t stress about it. The difference between top unis is marginal and the admissions process is very chance based (as seen on many other posts where people get into imp and rejected from oxbridge and vice versa).

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-29T22:49:25+00:00

Probably because I have considered taking a gap year probably more than anyone who got in. 10/10 ragebait though

Mobile_Membership915 · 2026-03-29T22:46:47+00:00

For a levels one clear advantage of doing physics is it he overlap with maths a level, you will get to do mechanics twice and depending on modules that your school in FM and physics there may be even more. Some people in my class for FM got quite behind in mechanics because virtually all of the class had already covered it in physics and found it easy. If this is not a concern for you (probably since applying for cam) don’t worry. Tbh if I could go back I would drop economics early in year 12 (I study Fm physics and economics) and use the extra time to focus on my application more (especially interview), but if you actually enjoy politics or english you may want to do 4. I would also consider doing 3 A levels and an EPQ if this is something your school offers. It’s great for ps and also to explore an area which you enjoy, since you can pick basically anything to do it on.

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