TMUA Results - Scores

[vaux777]

Hi,
Just trying to ascertain what the TMUA scores are this year. DC got 3.7 and is really disappointed. DC attends a grammar school and the majority of the cohort seemed to score between 3 - 4.5.

Curious to know what others have scored? Have results/scores been that low this year?

Also, what was Imperial cut off last year? Does anybody know from historical data what the cut off at Warwick was?

Tks.

That's a decent score for this year I think. The marks are looking very strange.
My DD was disappointed, her friend was so devastated she won't even say her mark. Another friend had got a tutor and done intensive prep and I think got 3.0.

When my DS applied 2 yrs ago, Warwick (for Maths) had a cut off of 6.5 to get the reduced offer for Maths and my DS did make that quite easily.

My son got 7.6. I’m not sure of the Imperial cut offs. Warwick have a very high offer rate so take less notice of TMUA I think - but their offers are tough.

Son says he thinks the Imperial cut off was previously 6 - 6.5. Like I said Warwick have a v high offer rate so must cover a range of TMUA scores. They filter out by using high a-level offers.

Sounds about right - my DS got 6.8 two years ago and is currently in Y2 at Imperial.

DD also got 3.7. She was pretty disappointed, but she wants econ, not maths; so hoping it won’t be too much of a disadvantage. She is not applying for oxbridge.

DD attends a state school. Only one other in her cohort sat and got a 1.5.

We hoped it would help her narrow down uni choices, which it has.

It is important to remember that the score profile is different under the new style TMUA (ie a former 6.5 cut-off is now equivalent to a score in the '5's'.

In addition, a wider range of candidates are now taking the test eg for a widening range of top Econ as well as top Maths courses, so it is not necessarily clear cut whether a lower score is automatically bad news for the specific course(s) in mind.

The main thing is to try and encourage students to reflect as positively as they can on their results. To even be considered capable if sitting the TMUA is pretty impressive.

As @PerpetualOptimist says, the scoring changed last year (as did other things related to the process) so definitely don’t compare this year’s score with two years ago. 3.7 is not a disaster and would for example not completely rule out maths at Warwick. DD has just started at Warwick doing maths. She got 4.6 last year. She assumed she basically got the lowest you could get to get in but since being there several of her new friends got lower, including 3.7. She was doing 4 a-levels and predicted 4Astars. I don’t know how much this factored into the decision. And she attended a normal state school.

Do you think some of these students might be contextual? My DS got 4.3 this year. He is not contextual but from a state school. Thanks

Hello @Cratos apparently they were not contextual. And my daughter was not contextual either.

My DD got 7.1, worse than her score for past papers she said. State comp, applying for Maths at Oxford, Imperial, Durham among others.

I see on TSR that there are parents who feel that their DC’s marks may have been wrongly allocated as there are some very disappointing scores going round.

It’s been appallingly managed this year which doesn’t inspire confidence; and the lack of transparency/ability to dispute the mark seems really unfair.

This is what Imperial say about scores for maths in their FAQ

@Ttmmuuaa 7.1 is a absolutely outstanding.
It has been an utter shambles. I would not be at all surprised if some scores were mixed up. My DD thankfully did it last year which was also utterly chaotic but not as bad as this year I don’t think.

The grading scale has changed since then.

The purpose of TMUA is to discriminate as finely as possible between applicants who all have excellent predicted grades (As and A stars). This of course means that lots of applicants will get low marks on TMUA and this can be a horrible shock for students who have consistently performed at the top of their year group and usually get extremely high marks at school.

It's also worth bearing in mind that TMUA is taken by applicants from all over the world, many of whom will be in systems that hold students to higher standards than do A-levels. Certainly there have been Oxford and Cambridge admissions reports in the past that have highlighted that top scores on entrance tests were rarely Home applicants.

Thank you that is helpful. I didn't know about international applicants. Do you know how many students took the test this October ?

This is a very good point. In addition, the old style TMUA was a gateway to lower offers from a wide range of maths courses across the UK (eg Nottingham, Lancaster, Southampton) as well as a hurdle to pass to be considered for hyper-competitive maths courses.

The new style TMUA is now, essentially, a test for a much smaller number of elite universities but applied across a broader range of subjects eg econ and engineering and compsci.

This means UK maths applicants are competing for that prized above-average score with a wider range of domestic and overseas applicants, many of whom may have very strong problem solving skills even if a degree in mathematics is not their goal.

TMUA is not needed for the Oxbridge maths applicants.

UK universities must recruit a reasonable number of UK students - they are not in direct competition with international students. UK universities are, however, under no obligation to recruit any eg French or US or Korean or whatever students ie all international students are in competition with one another. The pool of UK applicants could conceivably be judged/made offers on a different (and lower) TMUA range to the pool of international applicants

Agreed @Ceramiq. Durham originally introduced the TMUA because they felt Astar in FM was not a sufficiently accurate predictor of future success on their maths courses; there was also the deliberate 'sit the test and only reveal the results if you want to' dimension, which has largely been lost in the new regime.

There is a discussion to be had around the ethics of a university admissions test that is far harder than national school leaving examinations: this is a return to something akin to the Oxbridge seventh term which was abolished because it was unfair to applicants from state schools/less well off homes. There are also ethical issues around the disruption to the UCAS principle of applicants being required to gather enough information to properly target their five choices: a poor TMUA result only known once UCAS has been submitted scuppers an applicant's chances of being made an offer by perhaps several of his or her choices.

That is the case for my DS. Due to the early application deadline he put his options down before he knew his TMUA result and now they cannot be changed. This doesnt feel right. Yes he may do Step now. He was lucky to be invited to Cambridge interview but spending time on Step may now make achieving A level requirements tricky. Understanding the implications of every decision is not easy. I guess if he attended a private school we would be better informed.

Some schools understand the implications of all these new admissions criteria better than others but there are difficult trade-offs to be made IMO that are not compatible with the UCAS five course choice philosophy that puts the onus on the applicant to do the ground work as to which universities he/she is best matched.

DS is currently 1st year maths at Warwick. He got 5.9 last year which is equivalent to 6.9 under the old scoring system. He's doing really well so far, getting 100% frequently in assignments.

He says there are people with scores as low as 3.7 who are struggling and getting very low marks.

Warwick maths is very rigorous and they go at a very fast pace so I would think carefully about whether it's the best place for DC who are getting lower scores in TMUA. TMUA sounds like a shambles this year as it was last year though so maybe the scores aren't a true reflection.

@Ceramiq you don't have to submit all 5 choices at once. You can apply for Oxbridge and then wait until your TMUA result before adding more choices. It's clearly stated on UCAS website.

@Woollyguru my DD is first year Warwick maths too. She’s also loving it. It is v intense. She got 4.6. I think she could have done better with more prep but also, she sat it in Oct of Yr13 and by the end of year 13 she had developed so much as a mathematical thinker if you see what I mean. She’s getting v high marks now at uni (though not 100%). Her two closest friends both also got similar TMUA scores to her but she says they are naturally better than her. I think TMUA is in some ways a good test of mathematical thinking potential but also a very blunt instrument so scores are not necessarily reflecting ability or potential.