Cambridge Mathematics Grade 9
Princesex Voskamp
Pembroke has a rich tradition in Mathematics having had mathematicians as eminent as William Hodge and George Stokes as Fellows. Recent years have seen the flourishing of a vibrant mathematics community within the College along with the development of close academic and social interaction between students of the various year groups and Fellows.
Although Pembroke is a medium sized College, the number of mathematicians, at all levels, is comparable with those in much larger Colleges. Most supervising in the first and second year is undertaken by Fellows of the College. In the third year, because of the broad range of options available to students, like every other College we join with a group of ten colleges in the organisation of supervisions.
Mathematics at Cambridge has a particularly high reputation world-wide. At Pembroke we seek to admit around eight mathematicians each year from a very wide range of school backgrounds, from both the UK and abroad. Moreover we also admit students from other non A-level backgrounds and have had successful applicants from several countries across the world.
Pembroke College is also very well situated in Cambridge for those who wish to study mathematics. All lectures for the first two years are held in lecture theatres close to the College, and the University bus service, that links the Centre of Mathematical Sciences (www.maths.cam.ac.uk) with the city, has a stop directly outside the College. Many students also travel to their third-year lectures at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences by bike or on foot.
In order to keep up with the pace of the first year course, it is essential that A-level students are fluent with the content of the Further Mathematics A-level syllabus before arriving at Cambridge. If this is not offered at your school then there is help available from the AMSP (Advanced Mathematics Support Programme). You can get free help for studying independently to prepare for A-level Further Maths at Resources for A level Further Mathematics students - AMSP, and see also Resources for A level Mathematics students - AMSP for A-level Maths.
There are two main reasons why we ask you to do the STEP. We are trying to reach a fair and accurate assessment of your ability and aptitude for the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. This is much easier if all of the candidates have taken at least one common paper, even if we do still have to make allowances for the different backgrounds from which they approach it. It is also the case that in Mathematics an A* or A grade can cover a wide range of abilities. A great advantage of the STEP, and the major reason for their introduction, is that we have access to your scripts which is denied to us in the case of the public examinations. This is particularly important if you do not quite get the grades required.
The Faculty offers a number of free online resources to help potential Mathematics applicants prepare for sitting STEP. These include online resources for individual additional study, starting in Y12 (first year of A-level), and a new online discussion forum. Further details are given below. All the resources can be accessed via a new portal at The free online resources include:
Professor Berloff is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Jesus. Her research lies in the area of quantum physics. Dr Schnlieb works in the general area of applied and computational analysis, with a focus on the mathematics of inverse problems and imaging. Dr Wilkes specialises in profinite groups and geometric group theory.
In addition to our Fellows, Mr Paul Fannon teaches first year applied mathematics and directs studies for our first years, and Dr Gareth Taylor teaches first and second year algebra and analysis courses.
To be offered a place at Jesus you'll need to be very good at mathematics, passionate about the subject, and willing to work hard. It doesn't matter at all what background, school, or college you come from, or whether you play tennis or the violin.
If you have a choice of modules on your Mathematics course we recommend doing as much Pure Mathematics and Mechanics as possible, as these are the most useful as preparation for the Cambridge Mathematics degree. Statistics and Decision Mathematics are much less relevant.
Our course has a significant component of theoretical physics, but it's studied from a very mathematical point of view. It won't matter if you aren't taking A-Level Physics, because our courses don't assume any prior knowledge. However, if you've also not taken Mechanics in your Mathematics course we recommend doing some preparation before arriving in Cambridge.
Depending on individual circumstances we may make an A-Level applicant an offer which will be met if they achieve either A* A* A with at least grade 1 in two STEP papers or A* A* A* with at least grade 1 in one of the two STEP papers taken.
We like STEP for two reasons: first, because it's a much better indicator of success in our course than any other form of assessment, and second, because preparation for STEP is very useful preparation for the course. For help with STEP, you should visit the Millennium Mathematics Project.
Many of our applicants find that little or no help with STEP is available from their school or college. We take this into account when deciding what offer to make and also whether to offer you a place even if you don't make these grades. In fact, across all the Cambridge Colleges, only about 170 out of our 250 students have two grade 1s or better in STEP.
If you're taking Scottish examinations, the International Baccalaureate, or another qualification, our conditional offer will be tailored to your particular course, and may involve STEP papers I and II instead of II and III.
The interview process aims to assess your intellectual ability, potential, and commitment to the subject. Candidates are typically interviewed by at least three subject specialists, including the Director of Studies, and total contact time will be between 35-50 minutes in total. This could be in a single interview, or in two separate interviews. Further details will be made available to candidates closer to the time.
The interviews help us find out if you have the potential to cope with and succeed on our rather difficult course - nothing else. So we won't ask you why you want to study Mathematics or why you want to come to Jesus - we're just glad that you do. You might find the STEP Support Programme useful preparation.
For your interview, your interviewers will expect you to have access to a device that will enable you to annotate shared documents online. This is because the interview involves real-time problem solving, where you will need to show your working as you tackle problems. In our experience, something simple like a tablet and stylus works well. We strongly recommend that you practise using your device in advance, to ensure you can write clearly, legibly and quickly using it.
If you do not own a tablet and stylus, we encourage you to speak to your school/college to see if a suitable device is available to borrow. If you are having difficulty sourcing a suitable device, please contact the Admissions Office.
We mostly refer to A-Levels and the International Baccalaureate for our entry requirements, but we accept a wide variety of qualifications from all over the world. The University website lists the international qualifications we accept. We expect students to be on track to achieve the highest grades in whichever qualification system they are studying. See our dedicated page for international students for more information.
Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. She is also Director of the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics Of Information (CCIMI) and a Director of Studies in Mathematics at Jesus College. Her research specialises in the mathematics of digital image and video processing using partial differential equations and variational methods.
Studying Maths at Cambridge is demanding, but very interesting. The first year of the course builds a solid foundation of knowledge, and then the many optional modules available in later years allow you to specialise in the topics you really enjoy. One of the main benefits of our shorter, fast paced terms is the amount of progress you make in such a short time. Jesus is one of the friendliest Colleges. It has a medium sized cohort, which means you get to interact with a huge variety of people while...
Admission to the Engineering course at Cambridge is highly competitive, both in terms of the numbers and quality of applicants. In considering applicants, Colleges look for evidence both of academic ability and of motivation towards Engineering. There are no absolute standards required of A Level achievement, but it should be noted that the average entrant to the Department has three A* grades.
The standard minimum A Level offer for engineering is A*A*A but Colleges can and will make different offers, occasionally including offers on 4 A-Levels depending on an applicant's individual circumstances.
Although academic requirements are expressed here in terms of A Levels, equivalent qualifications in other school, national and international examinations are acceptable to all Colleges and offers of places are regularly made to applicants sitting such examinations. Some equivalences are given in the Other Examination Systems section below.
If you are taking examinations other than A Levels or the ones detailed in the Other Examination Systems section below, you should check our Country-specific Information to establish whether the qualifications you are taking are acceptable. If you have further questions about the acceptability of your qualifications, contact the Cambridge Admissions Office.
The only absolute requirements to study Engineering in Cambridge are Maths and Physics at A Level (or equivalent in other systems). If you have a choice of topics within your Maths (and/or Further Maths) course, you will find mechanics and pure mathematics most immediately relevant to our Engineering course.
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