2025-26 Preliminary Examination in Mathematics

A-D

A. Chair of Examiners

Regulations for the conduct of examinations, Part 6, in the Examination Regulations covers the appointment of the Chair. The Committee for the Nomination of Examiners will usually appoint a Chair in Trinity Term of the preceding year.

B. Examiners

Moderators should ensure that they are equipped with the following
documents which will be provided by the Maths Institute's
administration, in electronic copy.

• The Examination Regulations.
• The Examinations and Assessment Framework.
• The Aims and Objectives of the mathematics courses, as agreed by the Teaching Committee.
• The Course Handbook and the Lecture Synopses.
• The examination papers from the preceding two years.
• The Examiners' Reports on these examinations.
• Reports to the Teaching Committee on individual papers where appropriate.
• The published tables of Class Percentage Figures for both Prelims and Finals for the last two years (as published in the Examiners' Reports) referring to guidelines from Education Committee.

C. Form of Questions

Each question will be marked out of 20 and should be divided into two to four parts. An indication of the raw marks available for each part of each question should be given on the question paper. There should be sufficient elementary straightforward material to make the question inviting and aid in the assessment of weaker students.

D. Checklist for Setters and Checkers

The moderators should provide those asked to supply draft questions with a checklist of important considerations.

1. Is the question on the syllabus (as in the Exam Regulations or Course Handbook (including the Lecture Synopses))?
2. Is the mathematics correct?
3. Is the notation and terminology standard/obvious/defined? (Standard usage from the course is acceptable without explanation but phrases such as ‘as in the lectures' should be avoided.)
4. Is it unambiguous?
5. Is it clear what may be assumed, what detail is required, and what would constitute a complete answer?
6. Is the form of presentation familiar/inviting/readable?
7. Does each question have an easy start, worth around 8 marks, which might be readily and routinely completed? This should not wholly be testing memory of previous material explicitly seen.
8. Is there material designed to differentiate at the class borderlines?
   1. For the II(i)/II(ii) borderline is there a part that tests understanding of standard concepts/techniques (whilst still being rather straightforward) which tests whether a candidate can do any more than  merely memorise the bookwork?
   2. For the I/II(i) borderline is there a part for which a full solution requires truly excellent understanding and skill?
9. Would a II(i)/II(ii) borderline candidate on average achieve around 11/20 marks for the question?   Is a mark of 16+ unlikely to be achieved by a significant number of candidates who are not of first-class standard?
10. Is it the case that only exceptional first-class students are capable of gaining full marks?
11. Is each question overall of a straightforward character?
12. Are the questions as a whole fairly spread across the syllabus?
13. Are the questions of comparable difficulty to one another?
14. Are the questions sufficiently different from those set in recent years?
15. Is the question formatted using the oxmathexam.cls file?
16. Does the question, adequately spaced, fit on a single page?

Setters should aim to make at least 6 marks accessible to candidates with some basic knowledge of the topic examined in that question and to make a further 4-6 marks  available for straightforward material. However, the hardest part of the question should be sufficiently demanding  only to be accessible to those candidates who meet the descriptors for a First. Setters are reminded that candidates on the borderline for a Pass should typically obtain about 8 marks per question.  The median mark per question should be around 13. As a guide, moderators should note that a complete answer should take approximately 30 minutes to produce under examination conditions.

Moderators and assessors are asked to note that all comment lines should be removed from examination questions submitted to prepare the camera ready copy. This is important as examination papers are supplied in various formats to candidates with special needs. We recommend that macros are not used.