How to prepare for Imperial EE entrance exam?

[magda33]

Does anyone know what exam papers are similar to the Imperial College electrical engineering entrance exam? The Imperial exam is multiple choice, super hard apparently (with negative marking) and only 2 specimen papers are currently available online. The exam is 2 weeks away.....

Hi, OP -

To a great extent, Maths is Maths. Although the formats vary, practise with the TMUA and the MAT (as well as the two specimen papers, of course) as well as the old STEP 1 paper may help. However the last is more difficult than the others, so I would make it a lower priority. All involve very creative problems using concepts from A Level Maths, like the Imperial EEE exam.

The MAT and TMUA papers are freely available in various places online. One I recommend is the Advanced Mathematics Support Network, which also contains other (free) useful resources for pupils. The old (discontinued) STEP 1 papers and solutions are available through the Cambridge Maths site (I don’t know about the AMSN, though it has resources for the current STEP papers). Other places too, I am sure.

I've no idea if they're similar or not but possibly the Cambridge ESAT? From what dd told me it was applying maths and physics to novel problems requiring some lateral, out of the box thinking so maybe probing the engineering aptitude not just the maths ability alone iyswim. (There should be quite a few past papers, there was only one sample when she took it which probably made it more enjoyable).

The one thing that has been missing from the other comments is that students are VERY tight for time on the test. I taught a student this and I would 100% brush up on integration/differentiation at the very least as well as sequences and series, functions including logarithmic + exponentials etc. Knowing how to spot tricks and strategising by doing the easiest qs first to maximise the score. I would say a 15 out of 40 would mean solid chances of an interview. Looking out for obvious wrong answers and process of elimination helps. Sometimes it's not even worth evaluating the value in a q if it means you can rule out answers. Hope that helps.

By brushing up, I mean, e.g. for integration, knowing which technique to use off the bat. Trig functions are a must too. Also, numerical methods might pop up. TMUA and MAT MCQs will help indeed. MAT is harder though.

thank you so much for the replies and for reminding me yet again that the world is full of lovely people ready to lend a stranger a hand and rooting for other people's children as if they were your own. I am grateful to you all! Hope DS will take this wonderful advise on board.

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Thank you

A pleasure, OP.

DS could also join the online forum The Student Room. Lots of useful information from current students. For the moment he could ask Imperial EEE students for sny exam hints.

Wish I’d remembered to say that earlier