hellisonwright

This is spot on. These days the pressure of achieving A* grades in maths and further maths for maths applicants definitely reduces pupils' capacity for taking additional modules 'for fun'. The standard offer for top universities has become A* A* A, often with the proviso of passing an additional entrance exam (STEP / AEA)... I have seen the offer go as high as A* A* A* without the entrance exam, and achieving this is is a feat in itself, requiring both breadth and depth in several subjects, and consistently strong performances in 6 - 10 exams.

As someone going through this process at the moment, I find it unlikely that a candidate who could naturally cope with the Oxbridge courses would struggle with the further maths content in isolation. For all its flaws, the course is largely a disjointed collection of fundamental problem solving methods and concepts which are reintroduced at University level anyway.

The exams themselves however are an entirely different matter, and I know of several capable students who have had their university prospects diminished by poor performance in the exam room - whether due to anxiety, poor 'exam technique' (less relevant for maths of course), or other factors.

Notably, Cambridge interviews a high proportion of candidates who apply for maths, which presumably enables them to take some of the emphasis away from the exam results on paper, and give much more consideration towards the logical thinking and problem solving skills useful for the Tripos.

I would love to get an internship somewhere but I'm not sure I know the right people to find one that will accept me.

I don't normally upload my projects to Github as I'm never quite happy with them...

Thanks for your advice, I agree completely that it's important to look cross-discipline. Also, I find that generally Java for web development has a pretty bad image here on HN but maybe I'll take a look.

Thanks for the ambitious words ;) I'll see what I can do!

I do understand the difference between design and development and I would be the first to admit that design isn't my strongest point. Thanks for the feedback.

I know the basics of JS but have never done a serious project with it. The advice was really helpful by the way.

Yes, I do quite a lot of music as well. (I play the cello / electric cello!)

Thanks for this advice. It's probably the best I've seen in these comments.

I developed that case study for a client when I was 12 and so many of the techniques used were very immature. The site was done in the Joomla CMS.

Also, I have already taken the dev-tools course and it was very useful.