Adam

Hi! My name’s Adam and I’ve recently graduated from the Maths Master’s programme at Cambridge. I’m speciailising in Quantum Computing Research and will be starting a PhD in Vancouver in January. Like most people, I found the application to Cambridge fairly stressful. The interview process is then even worse because you don’t know what sort of questions you’re going to get and then if you’re lucky enough to get an offer, you have to deal with the dreaded STEP exams. I can personally say I went through all of this not too long ago and ended up getting the highest mark in Applied Maths in Cambridge at the Master’s level. I think I would find it very rewarding to serve as a guide for others going through this process (and similar processes, such as related degrees and other UK Universities). I’d therefore love to help with preparation for interviews, admissions advice and then potentially preparation for STEP next year for those that get offers.

Tutoring Experience

I supervised 9 students on the third year course Statistical Physics in my Master’s year. I really enjoyed the opportunity to further elevate those who were finding it easy and to offer a hand to those who were finding it hard.

Tutoring Approach

Oxbridge Maths interviews are ultimately run like mock supervisions, where supervisions are the small scale lessons that take place at Cambridge and Oxford. These supervisions are very fresh in my mind and the interview itself is not so long ago either. I can run interview preparation and mock interviews in the style of these supervisions to best prepare students. This is helped by the fact that I have access to quite a large number of actual past Cambridge Maths interview questions (not publicly available) with which I can run these lessons. I would propose starting easy - letting the student know that they are okay to be completing the question in 15 minutes or so with my help along the way, while aiming to be doing the questions in 5 minutes un-aided by the end, but ultimately just doing my best to boost their confidence in the run-up to the interview. I can also draw on connections/insider knowledge in Cambridge where appropriate, to the extent that I can determine the interview format based on the College being applied to and tailor sessions around that.