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?

Lots of us are on half term at the moment. And do they really want to be inundated with that many special consideration forms? After the BMAT it's the one we have the most sitting. Whole thing has been ridiculous.
I suspect the English was easier to sort as if needed they can just require essays to be sent. Not sure how they would replace another pre-interview selection for Maths. Do they have the capacity to interview all candidates with appropriate UCAS profiles?

Doubt it as maths usually interview around 31% (average 2020-22) being 1,732 candidates. I imagine that the MAT was the key factor in rejecting such a large proportion of candidates.

The ELAT question error was such low performance - they didn't update the wording of the rubric from the mock version they provided using last year's test, and so referenced an incorrect theme for the selection of texts. If a candidate had done the mock the source of the error was clear, so they could ignore it, (as my son did) but any who hadn't done it would likely have been confused. You can just imagine the scene at the provider "right, take the mock and just bung in the new texts". The sort of error the office junior makes and is told off for when it is instantly spotted by their manager. In a properly run office, that is.

Oh dear. This is going to be a VERY stressful experience all round I think. Thanks for the update, a couple of students in my form were affected.

https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/maths-admissions-test

update this morning

DS will do it, his MAT was very disrupted (double normal length of time in the exam room due to crashes). The issue will be for him, the extra MAT will be during his mocks.

I guess this is a reasonable solution given the dire ( and avoidable) circumstances, though no solution will be fair as we can't turn back time!

I think my DS will have no option but to take this second test, although it is just before his mocks. Avoidable extra pressure for them.

For those juggling MAT replacements and mocks, I would suggest prioritising MAT as the mocks have no permanent impact barring another unexpected Covid scenario.

I agree @OccasionalHope but it's a little difficult when there is a mock the day before the 2nd MAT and exhausting when there is an exam the afternoon after MAT and the following morning!

My daughter has been told by the Exams Officer that she has to register for the MAT retake herself, the school can't do it, and she should be receiving an email imminently. The deadline is tomorrow. So - sometime between now & presumably close of business tomorrow 🙄

Anyone else heard anything about the retake??

@BrokenButNotFinished my DS's school are dealing with this and so schools can do it! I think the deadline is the 10th?

@mushroom3 I thought the school were dealing with it, until the Exams Officer came to find her today! I'm wondering if it's something to do with consenting to a retake, rather than it being an automatic re-entry... A candidate might feel that they want to stick with their first attempt (assuming they had reasonable access to the paper).

@BrokenButNotFinished that is dreadful. It's not a retake, but an additional exam for those candidates who suffered severe disruption due to the failure of Oxford's service provider.

But different candidates have suffered different levels of disruption. The one candidate at a school up the road didn't get to sit the paper at all really, bar the first half hour (.pdf not received until after 3pm, when the candidate had been sent home). My daughter did complete the paper (the only candidate at her school), with some delay, but lost a small amount of time because the timer kept running when it should have been locked. Both will have submitted forms for consideration.

It also is not clear to me whether the results of both sittings will be taken for reference (obviously the first one's not much use, in the case of the first chap, above), or whether the revisit will supersede the first sitting. 🤷‍♀️

My daughter has received an email from Bath, asking her to get the Exams Officer to email them with details of the extent of her problems, if she has submitted a form for consideration.

Ok. So my daughter has found this on the MAT website, so it seems that the Exams Officer has misunderstood. But with an element of truth... 🤔

DS can't get motivated at all for MAT V2. I think it's because he feels pressurised by coursework deadlines for 2 subjects that were neglected due to MAT and the Mocks (even though he knows that they aren't important for him, he is driven to doing well in these exams, probably due to competition with his peers!). Also he prepared for the October date and so it's a weird anticlimax for him to do another exam. Anyone else's DC the same? He thinks due to the disruption he performed around 10% lower that he usually would on MAT V1. He did the MAT prep himself and from videos etc, no school support.