Is the Aptitude Test for Computer Science important?
The Aptitude Test is useful to us in selecting the candidates with the best ability, but (especially for Computer Science) it is not the last word. Broadly speaking, a very good result on the test helps us to be sure that you have the mathematical ability you need to make a success of the Oxford course in Computer Science; a middle-ranking result doesn’t have much significance one way or the other; and a very poor result tends to confirm other evidence we will have that your Maths is weaker than other candidates. So in all cases, we use the Aptitude Test to confirm the conclusions we have reached from other sources. Although the Aptitude Test for Computer Science (sometimes called the Maths Test or MAT) covers only the common core of all Maths A level syllabuses, we recognise that different candidates will have covered different parts of their syllabus by the time they take the test, and that candidates studying only one Maths A level will be at a significant disadvantage compared to t
