Oxford MAT disruption today?

[reegee]

I've just received a message from DS's school to say that there was serious disruption to the Oxford MAT today due to issues at the Oxford IT side of things. DS not due home for a few hours so not sure exactly what happened. It sounds like they managed to eventually get through it but I don't know about the extent or implications of these disruptions.
Does anyone else know any more on this?

The PAT will be paper-based (20th) to avoid repetition of Thursday’s HUGE problems (for some).

My DS was the only one in his school who took the MAT (they are an ordinary comp, Oxbridge entry is rare and not annual). The person doing the Exams Officer role mainly does another role in the school. They have said to my DS they don't know the procedure for reporting the disruption. They can't find a phone number or an extenuating circumstances form and so have emailed Oxford. Does anyone know who/how they should officially report that my DS had an extremely disrupted 5 3/4 hour exam? The school didn't print it out for him and so he just had an exam that kept crashing mid question.

@mushroom3 I don't know the contact details myself sorry but I have asked my sons school to complain to Oxford admissions. The disruption itself was awful but there should have been some communication to students from Oxford on this ( that I have seen ).
Sorry to hear about your sons experience. My son is also at a large comp. 3 students sat the MAT and 2 were severely disrupted. I'm also wondering how the other unis that use the MAT ( eg imperial, Warwick) will treat this. 😢

Thanks @reegee

For those who had a mucked up MAT yesterday, It's the special consideration form on the Centre's portal that needs to be filled in by the school.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/20/oxford-university-online-admissions-tests-plagued-by-erratic-crashes?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

I wish Oxford would clarify what is happening with the MAT. They surely can't place usual weight on the scores as the issues were variable both within and between centres.

Thanks @ratiobiter . That’s the same info I got when I rang Oxford admissions. I emailed the school but no response, and it’s now half term!

@ratiobiter it's been done by school now. I wonder what will happen now with not only the IT failures but also the cheating discussed on the student room.

Cheating?

But they've been in touch with the ELAT people so it's all bizarre:

Makes sense. I also thought it's easier to request essays for English (as some Cambridge colleges do instead) than to do something similar for Maths
Really doesn't fill me with confidence for AQA's plan to go to computers for GCSE in the near future. And that's before we get to lack of hardware capacity in centres.

For the last three years, Oxford has run a Q1-only paper just before interviews for those who missed out on taking the MAT. One possibility might be for Imperial to ask Oxford whether that could be made available for their applicants too. I don't know whether that's normally been run offline, but Tata ought to cooperate on running it as part of their compensation for their failure, assuming they can sort out their issues in time for it to actually work.

Letters in the guardian on this:

www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/23/oxford-university-online-admissions-tests-were-shambolic

AQA are on the radio today insisting that we'll be ready to do digital GCSEs in three years! Nonsense.

DS hasn't heard from the college he replied to in relation to the MAT. Surely all colleges will consider it or all colleges won't?

I don't think there is time for a MAT replacement exam. Also, everyone had notice of the October date and now people are on half term and many schools seem to be holding Mocks through November.