Oxford University Final Honours Schools 2007

Mathematics Part A

First Notice to Candidates

• Full particulars of the syllabus and the examination are contained in the Examination Decrees and Regulations together with the Supplement (Part A synopses) to the Handbook for the Undergraduate Mathematics Courses.
• You will be written to again later with information about the examination timetable and practical arrangements in the Schools, including information about examination numbers, handing in of scripts, and so on. I am expecting the examination to be held on Thursday and Friday of week 9 in Trinity Term, June 21st and 22nd June 2007, but this date should be regarded as provisional.
• A note about examination conventions relating to marking of papers in Part A is attached. Your marks will be reported to you in the University's standard format which consists of a mark in the range 0-100 for each paper.
• The examiners are planning to hold their final meeting on Friday 6th July 2007, and hope to distribute results to Colleges soon afterwards.

C Martin Edwards
Chairman of Examiners
Mathematical Institute
November 2006

Part A Mathematics and Related Schools:Marking of Papers

Standardized Marks

The University wishes all examiners to adopt a uniform system of reporting marks. This means that each candidate will receive a numerical mark on each paper in the range 0-100, such that

• a First Class performance (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 70 to 100;
• an Upper Second Class performance (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 60 to 69;
• a Lower Second Class performance (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 50 to 59;
• a Third Class performance (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 40 to 49;
• a Pass performance (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 30 to 39;
• a performance at the level of a Fail (on that paper) is indicated by a mark of 0 to 29.

In order to arrive at such University standardized marks (or USMs) for each paper, the examiners will mark and assess papers in the way described below.

Papers in Part A

There are four papers in Part A, all of 3 hours. In the order in which they will be taken, these are AC1, AC2, AO1 and AO2. Questions on AC1 and AO1 are shorter and will be marked out of 10, while questions on AC2 and AO2 are longer and will be marked out of 25. There will be nine questions on paper AC1 and candidates should attempt them all. There will be nine questions on paper AC2 and candidates may hand in answers to at most five, from which the best four answers will be counted towards the mark for this paper. There will be 19 questions on paper AO1, one for each 8 lecture course and two for each 16 lecture course, and candidates should hand in answers to 10. There will be 19 questions on paper AO2, distributed as in AO1, and candidates may hand in answers to at most five, from which the best four marks will be counted towards the mark for this paper. These details will be repeated on the individual examination papers.

Marking of Papers

Mark schemes for questions out of 10 will aim to ensure that the following qualitative criteria hold:

9-10 marks: a completely or almost completely correct answer, showing good understanding of the concepts and skill in carrying through arguments and calculations; minor slips or omissions only.

5-8 marks: a good though not complete answer, showing understanding of the concepts and competence in handling the arguments and calculations.

Mark schemes for questions out of 25 will aim to ensure that the following qualitative criteria hold:

20-25 marks: a completely or almost completely correct answer, showing very good understanding of the concepts and skill in carrying through the arguments and/or calculations; minor slips or omissions only.

13-19 marks: a good though not complete answer, showing understanding of the concepts and competence in handling the arguments and/or calculations. In this range, an answer might consist of a very good answer to a substantial part of the question, or a good answer to the whole question which nevertheless shows some flaws in calculation or in understanding or in both.

USMs

At the end of the Part A examination, a candidate will be awarded a University standardised mark (USM) for each of the four papers. The Examiners will recalibrate the raw marks to arrive at the USMs reported to candidates. In arriving at this recalibration, the examiners will principally take into account the total sum over all four papers of the marks for each question, subject to the rules above on numbers of questions answered.

The examiners aim to ensure that all papers and all subjects within a paper are fairly and equally rewarded, but if in any case a paper, or a subject within a paper, appears to have been problematical, then the examiners may take account of this in calculating USMs.

The USMs awarded to a candidate for papers in Part A will be carried forward into the final classification.