Parents of oxbridge mathematicians

[Coco8439]

Hi,

I am interested to hear from parents who's children studied maths at oxbridge (or other elite institutions). Were they freakishly good at maths from an early age or just reasonably able children with an interest in maths?

I'm Oxbridge maths graduate myself.

No I wasn't some child prodigy who was obsessed with numbers, but I was all-round top in class without obvious destiny for maths. I've actually struggled with Olympiad-style questions, believe or not.

I do think cultural differences play - Russian education seems to be a better environment for children to acquire what one'd call growth mindset and where maths used to be seen as a golden ticket to prestigious jobs.

Here in UK it can seem like you are either a prodigy or 'aww how relatable' totally hate maths. Preparation and acquiring good exam techniques is useful skill. Even in maths. Don't knock graft and interest over innate genius.

I did Oxbridge Maths also - never struggled with anything in maths at school and was in the top 2/3 in the year at a selective school but was not a genius (didn’t do especially well at Olympiads etc). However, at uni I was below average and had to work very hard.

I did Oxbridge maths, never struggled with anything at school and was top of my year in all subjects except foreign languages at a mildly selective independent school. Went to Olympiads but didn't do particularly well, did some additional maths at university in final two years. I found I topped out at pure maths midway through third year of university and got a 2:1. I would agree that graft and interest is important: I always loved maths, and didn't massively care about being called names for enjoying studying at school.

Maths teacher here, highly selective school. One pupil was an absolute standout genius from year 7, no other interests really. The others have been fairly sparky, but not exceptionally so (top set from year 7, but not obviously a clear "top of the class") but where most of their peers plateaued at the start of Further Maths, these kids just grew and grew.

My dd went to Warwick. By age 8 she had overtook me in maths capabilities and had lessons with the older children. She was average at all other subjects. She's now a secondary deputy head of maths.

DS is reading maths and philosophy at Oxford. He was always a stand out mathematician even within a pretty selective school. Did very well in Olympiads. He was also good at other subjects. But he worked hard and had good teachers.
Not sure how you define “reasonably able”. I think every student at Oxford falls into the exceptionally able category - top marks across the board at both GCSE and A level/IB.

From a family with a number of members and friends who ended up at Oxbridge, Imperial etc studying maths or near maths subjects like engineering and physics, here is our anecdotal experience. In the past many of the Cambridge mathematicians were incredibly bright but also logical to the point that many were clearly somewhere on the autistic spectrum. In latter years however several of the people I would put into that category didn’t get into Cambridge and went then to Imperial. Interestingly, recently all the brightest maths people we know (all A*s in everything they ever sat, amazing Challenge results and passed both STEP exams) have ended up at Oxford doing post grads there (not in maths but related subjects) having done their first degree in maths at Imperial.

I read maths at Cambridge (trinity) including part iii. I was a perfectly normal kid. always aced maths at school but not in a freaky way. That said I wouldn't say it was just a casual interest at any point - was always pretty passionate and more than just 'reasonably avle'. My school (top London school) always encouraged me to enter competitions etc but I never had any interest in competing with others in anything but football or tennis.

Fun anecdote, I still can't do mental arithmetic.

For reference I did a levels in maths, further maths, physics, philosophy and history. I did well in the essay based subjects too. When I applied to uni it was almost a toss up as to whether to read philosophy or mathematics. I knew I wanted a job in quantitative finance so maths won in the end. I now do nothing related to maths or finance.

30+ years ago I did Maths at Cambridge.

I was clearly the best at maths in my year at school, never really had to work at it at all, but not 'freakish'. Always liked mathematical puzzles etc. Story of me being knocked over in the playground age ~5 and asking to 'do sums' to recover rather than read a book.

Got to Cambridge and I was distinctly mediocre, only really surviving because my 3rd year options didn't build on years 1 & 2.

In a lot of ways it would have helped if
a) I'd had to work a bit harder at A level and learned how to 'learn' maths
b) I hadn't taken a year out, I believe these days it is strongly discouraged for maths

My DB is Oxbridge maths graduate. Yes he was freakishly good at maths from the start, bright all round but lazy, and maths just came so easily to him he focused on that.

He loves puzzles, and can whizz through a cryptic crossword without missing a beat.

He was also very talented at art as a child but never bothered really so it fizzled out.

In primary school he started taking apart computers and rebuilding them, got good at electronics. He loved computer games.

In secondary school his maths and coding skills just rocketed, he was lucky to go to a school with a strong maths department (but nothing much in IT, which he did all by himself at home).

He swanned into Oxford and was very comfortable, again didnt work very hard. He was brilliant at statistics but didnt even really like it. The laziness did him no favours, he got a 2:1 overall and then fell into an IT career. He now does a very complicated and highly mathematical job in IT software engineering, where he is handsomely paid for being utterly brilliant... and still doesnt work very hard. Because he is so bright and can visualise numbers and logic in a way normal people cannot, his managers don't realise he can do perfectly in a few hours what would take someone else days to figure through.

I wish I were as brilliant as him. I am a worker bee, so I've done ok for myself but I'd have really loved to have his smarts!

Thank you for all your replies, they have been interesting to read.

Re "reasonably able" i was trying to describe a "normal", but able child, who, with a positive home environment and who is motivated at school, tends to be top of the class. But who isnt "on the spectrum" teaching themselves multiplication in nursery.

I would say my ds (year 13) falls into that category. He's definitely bright and doesn't struggle with maths overall, they had him in a maths extension group at primary school. He had a moment at the start of both Gcse and A level where Further Maths was a bit of a shock, then he moved forward again each time. Gold in the Maths Challenge this year and tried the Kangaroo, don't know how that went. Not in any way a freakish genius, doesn't do maths for fun, quite likes chess and is practising it sometimes, prefers athletics and mucking about playing volleyball. He's applying for Computer Science not pure maths.

DH did Maths at Cambridge about 40 yrs ago. Got a 2.1 but then a Distinction at
Part III followed by a good academic career culminating in a Russell Group professorship. Has won awards and distinctions. And is a normal person. That 2.1 was down to an active social life.

Premature post. My impression is that DH was the best maths student in his selective school but by no means obsessed with it. He was sporty and into games

I was top of the class all the way through school, further maths at college etc. And I struggled with maths at imperial. But I have a good maths based job now, so definitely worth it.

DS has a masters with distinction from Oxford. Very able across the board, all exams at A*, always top in maths in a moderately selective school, gifted at languages and essay subjects but most interested in in Maths. A real talker and "people person"

two girls from my secondary school class did maths at Cambridge in the same year, they were polls apart, one a "freakish genius" (who polished off maths A level in a lunch break or something when she was about 14 and thereafter didn't do maths with the rest of us plebs, though she did other subjects & would only finish top by a mark or two, maybe sometimes not even quite top in a couple of artsier subjects. the other girl was just a regular clever girl, would pretty much always come top in maths (once the other girl had left) but was merely very good at other subjects.

My friend has 2 DS’s who both did maths at Cambridge. Grammar school educated. Completely stand out at primary school. Ditto at grammar school. Parents are Cambridge educated too. Mum in maths. Not sure about dad but he’s super bright. You can just tell.

Another friend has a DS who didn’t get into Oxford for maths. He definitely was very good but not like the other two boys. He was one of the best at his fee paying school. He went to Warwick for maths so still a great achievement.

None of these young men earn very much now though. Not high flyers in the workplace.

- poles* apart.

DS approaching 2nd year mathematics at Cambridge. Village primary - difficult years as I remember, village secondary he didn't look back and pressed on to impressive GCSEs that got him to a highly selective grammar about 20+ miles away. He was in the top 2/3 in maths at school and got into Cambridge with 4 A* and curiously in STEP 1&2 achieved a 3 and STEP 3 a very good 1. He wasn't particularly interested in MO competition and preferred his tennis or working out abstruse maths on his blackboard at home. He takes that with him to college. Sensibly, from his parent's viewpoint, Cambridge is one of our closest universities so logistics aren't problematic. Career interests? Uncertain but probably quantitative finance/ analysis although he may need to work towards a Masters for that. Mathematics interest is down to his mother.

DS is Oxbridge engineer, so basically maths.
Never found anything hard at school, all top grades for all subjects. His whole (top) set maths took GCSE 18 months early and all got A*s.

Grade 8 at music, and sporty too. People like him can do whatever they want to do. Annoying really.
Luckily DD is more creative, so easy not to compare academically.
AT Oxbridge, he finds the amount of work he has to do can be a lot at times, but is on course for a 1st.

Fun anecdote, I still can't do mental arithmetic.

This made me smile. I lecture undergrad Maths and I am rubbish at arithmetic, okay not completely rubbish, but I regularly make mistakes, I tell my students I am checking if they are still awake.

My ex-colleague did Part iii in Cambridge with distinction. I think she used to love maths since childhood but somehow in the end she didn't like it anymore after college and ended up doing a project manager role.