3. Part A Examination Papers

In Part A, there are three core papers A0, A1 and A2, ten papers A3-A13 relating to the long options and paper ASO relating to the short options. Paper A2 is of 3 hours' duration, whilst the remaining papers are of 1.5 hours' duration. 

In all papers, each question is worth 25 marks and candidates may submit answers to as many questions as they wish. Details are given below of which questions count towards a candidate's total mark.

Candidates are required to offer Papers A0, A1, A2 and ASO and five or six of Papers A3-A13.

Paper A0 Linear Algebra and A1 Differential Equations 1

These are core papers; each paper contains three questions with the best two questions counting towards a candidate's total mark for the paper.  

Paper A2 Metric Spaces and Complex Analysis

This core paper is divided into two sections; each section contains 3 questions and the best two questions of each section count towards a candidate’s total mark for the paper.

The Long Options

Papers A3-A13 examine the long options as below:

  • A3 Rings and Modules
  • A4 Integration
  • A5 Topology
  • A6 Differential Equations 2
  • A7 Numerical Analysis
  • A8 Probability
  • A9 Statistics
  • A10 Fluids and Waves
  • A11 Quantum Theory
  • A13 Geometry

Each paper contains three questions with the best two questions counting towards a candidate's total mark for the paper. If a candidate offers 5 long options then each paper's USM (see Section 6) will count as a single unit towards the candidate's weighted Part A average. If a candidate offers 6 long options, then the best 4 USMs will have the weight of a unit, and the worst 2 USMs will count half a unit each. Thus these 6 papers will overall still have the weight of 5 units. The results from all 6 papers will appear on the student's exam transcript. The aim of the above scoring system is to ensure that anyone taking on an extra option will not do so lightly (all marks will be reported and all count to some extent), but also that no-one will be disadvantaged with a lower weighted average USM for having taken on the extra workload.

Paper ASO Short Options
This paper contains a single question on each of the short options below:

  • Number Theory,
  • Group Theory,
  • Integral Transforms,
  • Calculus of Variations,
  • Graph Theory,
  • Mathematical Modelling in Biology.

The best two questions count towards a candidate's total mark for the paper.

In  all papers each question will be marked out of 25 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.