申請指南｜牛津劍橋數學專業

2. 劍橋大學對獲得計算機專業錄取的學生的描述

In selecting mathematics undergraduates, we seek three qualities:
1. Mathematical knowledge and skills
Students should have suitable background knowledge in mathematics, on track to start our course. Students must also have good general skills in mathematics to be able to apply their knowledge in solving problems.
2. Mathematical ability and talent
Students should have the ability to think mathematically. This includes having the creativity to make connections between different mathematical ideas, and the flexibility to understand new concepts quickly and use them to solve challenging problems.
3. Motivation for studying mathematics
Students should have the commitment to study mathematics at university level, and be ready to work hard and persevere. Considerable interest in and enthusiasm for the subject are important, and can be expressed in many ways.

We look for evidence of these qualities using many sources of information. These include existing and predicted grades, school reference, personal statement, and what we learn at time of interview. We do not simply grade and sum these sources separately. Instead we use all available information together, taking individual context into account, to form a picture of each applicant.

STEP is an important part of our conditional offer; it enables us to compare applicants directly, and addresses all three qualities above to some extent. All Colleges use STEP for mathematics, and a typical offer is grades 1 in both papers 2 and 3. However, only about two-thirds of our places are filled by those who achieved these grades. For the remaining one-third of our places, Colleges review the full applications (now including STEP marks and scripts) of those who missed their STEP grades.

大致解讀一下，劍橋主要看三個面向：

第一，數學知識和技能。要有足夠的數學知識儲備和解決數學問題的能力，才有可能完成大學課程。

第二，數學能力和天賦。 要具備數學思考能力，包括把不同的數學思想創造性的關聯起來，以及能快速理解新的概念並將其應用於解決具有挑戰性的問題。

第三，學習數學的動機。要對數學有相當強烈的興趣和內在驅力，從而能在大學期間持續努力的學習數學知識。

招生官會通過預估成績、學校推薦信、申請文書、面試表現等多個維度考查候選人上述三方面的品質。 在評估候選人的時候並不是給上述維度評分再求總分，而是把所有資訊綜合在一起、結合候選人的個人情況對其畫像。

STEP成績是錄取條件的重要組成部分。 通常各學院都會要求STEP 2和3的成績達到等級1，但實際上每年正式錄取的學生中只有2/3左右真正符合STEP成績要求。 還有1/3左右不符合STEP成績要求的候選人，是在各學院重新評估他們的申請資料（包括STEP分數和試卷）之後才決定正式錄取的。

劍橋大學數學系給出的一組關鍵數據如下

Typical Mathematics entrants
(A Level and IB)
For 2017, 2018 and 2019 entry, the majority of entrants from an A Level background achieved at least A*A*A* (85% of entrants). All of these successful applicants took Mathematics and Further Mathematics, 91% took Physics and 53% took Chemistry. For the same period, the majority of IB entrants achieved at least 44 points overall and/or grades 777 at Higher Level. The majority of entrants achieved grades of at least 1, 1 in STEP II and III.
This information is intended to give you a sense of the academic standard of our typical A Level entrants. We welcome applicants from a range of qualification backgrounds.

上述關鍵數據翻譯如下：學習A Level的學生85%都是A*A*A*以上的成績，而且全部學了數學和進階數學課程，91%學了物理，53%學了化學。 而同期IB學生大部分都是總分44分(HL 777)以上的成績。 大部分被錄取的學生的STEP II和III的成績至少是等級1以上。

所以，常規錄取要求只是作為參考，真正想要拿到數學專業錄取，而參考劍橋官方給的這組數據更有實際意義。

牛津劍橋數學專業歷來都是中國學生申請的大熱門專業，哪個比較容易申請？ 來分析一下往年的錄取數據就知道~