Chair of the Faculty of Mathematics

May 2016
To Students of Part IA of the Mathematical Tripos

Advice on Short Questions

At its meeting of 18/11/10, the Faculty Board of Mathematics requested that the Chair of the
Faculty Board write to students and Director of Studies about Section I short questions.
The Faculty's Schedules state:
Section I contains questions that are intended to be accessible to any student who has
studied the material conscientiously. They should not contain any significant problem
element. Section II questions are intended to be more challenging.
The Faculty Board has emphasised to Examiners that short questions should be accessible to
any student who has studied the material conscientiously, and should not contain any significant
problem element. The Faculty Board hopes that students will take note of this when considering
their examination strategies and that Director of Studies will take note when advising students.

Advice on the Examination Rubric

The undergraduate Mathematical Tripos involves over 600 students each taking four papers.
Examiners have to deal with about 20,000 attempts at questions. Every script goes through at
least two sorting procedures and at least three checking procedures.
Every page of every script is marked by an examiner and checked by another person. The
rubric given on the front of each examination paper includes a number of instructions that are
designed to eliminate mistakes from this process. If you get any of these instructions wrong, the
examiners will not penalise you; but you will have thrown a small spanner in the system and
introduced a very small possibility that some of your work will not receive the appropriate credit.
There are no restrictions on what you may write with, but you should avoid red and green, which
are used for marking and checking.
You should be aware of the rubric regarding the number of questions you may attempt. As
indicated in the Schedules:
Candidates may attempt all the questions in Section I and at most five questions from
Section II, of which no more than three may be on the same lecture course.
More details can be found in the introduction to the Schedules booklet: see
www.maths.cam.ac.uk/undergrad/schedules
Please note that every year the examiners observe that candidates waste time by attempting
more questions than allowed.
The rubric also instructs candidates to write legibly. Examiners will make every effort to read poor
handwriting, and almost always succeed, but if an answer, or part of an answer, is completely
indecipherable then it will not be awarded the relevant marks. Exceptions will be made, where
appropriate, for candidates with disabilities or diagnosed specific learning difficulties.
The instructions in the rubric are listed at the end of this document, together with comments and
an explanation of the purpose.
If you have any questions about the exams you should consult your director of studies or contact
feedback@maths.cam.ac.uk.
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Wilberforce Road
Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
Tel :
+44 (0)1223 337968
Fax:
+44 (0)1223 765590
E-mail: undergrad-office@maths.cam.ac.uk

The Examination Rubric

Before you begin read these instructions carefully.
The examination paper is divided into two sections. Each question in Section II carries twice the
number of marks of each question in Section I. Candidates may attempt all four questions from
Section I and at most five questions from Section II. In Section II, no more than three questions
on each course may be attempted.
Complete answers are preferred to fragments.
Write on one side of the paper only and begin each answer on a separate sheet.
Write legibly; otherwise you place yourself at a grave disadvantage.

At the end of the examination:

Tie up your answers in separate bundles, marked A, B, C, D, E and F according to the code letter
affixed to each question. Include in the same bundle all questions from Section I and II with the
same code letter.
Attach a completed gold cover sheet to each bundle.
You must also complete a green master cover sheet listing all the questions you have attempted.
Every cover sheet must bear your examination number and desk number.

Comments on the Examination Rubric and its purpose

As well as just writing on one side of the paper, please write on the side with the hole in the top
left corner.
The comments on how to tie up your cover sheets are to ensure that no work is overlooked.
Remember to attach a GOLD cover sheet to each bundle comprised of questions with the same
code letter. This is because different bundles are sent to different examiners: a question labelled,
say, 7A was set by examiner A and will by marked by examiner A. Answers sent to the wrong
examiner can cause delays in the (already tight) marking timetable.
You need to write in the designated boxes on each GOLD cover sheet:
(a) your examination number, e.g. 7079B;
(b) your desk number.
You then need to circle the number of any question attempted.
This information helps ensure that credit for your work is assigned to you (although there are failsafes so that even if you enter, say, your candidate number incorrectly, your work can still be
identified).
The GREEN master cover sheet is part of this fail-safe mechanism; it acts as an additional check
on the information you give on the gold cover sheets and also shows if a bundle has been
mislaid. Failing to fill this sheet in correctly could result in marks being lost or incorrectly credited.
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Wilberforce Road
Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
Tel :
+44 (0)1223 337968
Fax:
+44 (0)1223 765590
E-mail: undergrad-office@maths.cam.ac.uk

Information from the GREEN cover sheet is checked against your marks awarded and has
proven beneficial to candidates in the past.
You need to list on the GREEN master cover sheet your examination number, your desk number,
the paper number and all the questions you have attempted; these are printed on the back of the
GREEN sheet. The coversheet is designed to be machine readable so you need to fully fill in the
appropriate circles, e.g. as here:

Please do not tick, cross out, strike a line through, or place a small dot within, the circle, or circle
the circle.
Please note that it is helpful (although this is not part of the rubric) to tie up the questions you
have attempted in NUMERICAL ORDER.
Attached are copies of the rubric, the GREEN master cover sheet and the GOLD cover sheet.

Centre for Mathematical Sciences

Wilberforce Road
Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
Tel :
+44 (0)1223 337968
Fax:
+44 (0)1223 765590
E-mail: undergrad-office@maths.cam.ac.uk

MATHEMATICAL TRIPOS
Thursday, 26 May, 2016

Part IA

9:00 am to 12:00 pm

PAPER 1

Before you begin read these instructions carefully.

The examination paper is divided into two sections. Each question in Section II
carries twice the number of marks of each question in Section I. Candidates may
attempt all four questions from Section I and at most five questions from Section
II. In Section II, no more than three questions on each course may be attempted.
Complete answers are preferred to fragments.
Write on one side of the paper only and begin each answer on a separate sheet.
Write legibly; otherwise you place yourself at a grave disadvantage.

At the end of the examination:

Tie up your answers in separate bundles, marked A, B, C, D, E and F according
to the code letter affixed to each question. Include in the same bundle all questions
from Section I and II with the same code letter.
Attach a completed gold cover sheet to each bundle.
You must also complete a green master cover sheet listing all the questions you have
attempted.
Every cover sheet must bear your examination number and desk number.

STATIONERY REQUIREMENTS
Gold cover sheets
Green master cover sheet

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
None

You may not start to read the questions

printed on the subsequent pages until
instructed to do so by the Invigilator.