You will be in the waiting pool until a place becomes available. There are three points in the year when this is most likely to happen:
We try to keep the waiting pool small enough so that students within it have a realistic prospect of a place at EMS. At the time of initially offering places, the waiting pool is likely to have less than ten students in it, often fewer. All the students in the waiting pool are those who have demonstrated that EMS is a good fit for them, it’s just that we don’t have enough space. If you’re in the waiting pool and are subsequently offered a place, rest assured that we believe EMS is a good fit for you.
Applicants from outside our catchment area will be placed in the waiting pool but will not be prioritised over those from within the catchment area who applied on time. Late applicants will also be added to the waiting pool, provided they perform at a high enough level.
We have up to 75 places each year. Typically we receive twice as many applications as places but don’t let this put you off – some applicants turn down a place at the school and others do not decide to complete the entrance test or interview. Chances are, if this is the right place for you, you’ll have a better than 50% chance of securing a place.
The large majority of our applicants do not come from selective schools. Most students who come to EMS do so from their local state school. That’s not to say that students from other schools are not welcome. We’re an inclusive community and take pride in the fact that students from all walks of life are able to come together and support one another through a shared love of mathematics-related subjects.
Try not to think about the admissions process being about you being good enough or not. We have a limited number of places and it may be that all applicants could cope well with our courses, we just don’t have room for them. You could be a very strong mathematician who is likely to go on to achieve high grades and have a fantastic STEM career. Not getting into the maths school does not mean that you are incapable of great things – it’s important you understand and believe that to be the case; don’t be put off studying the subjects you love just because we you were not selected for EMS.
This is an understandable concern and we recognise that for many applicants this will be their first ever interview. We hope you will be reassured by knowing that we are not selecting students based on their interview technique, we’re just interested in getting to know you and making sure that we’re the right fit for you.
There are things you can do to make the interview a little less nerve-inducing:
If you have discovered techniques which help make communication easier for you, apply them at the interview. You can also let us know if there are things we can do to make the experience easier for you. We want to be able to get to know you and will do all we can to support you to be able to be your wonderful, lovely self!
Year 11 is a pressurised enough year without needing to dedicate additional hours to preparing for our test. We’re designing a paper which tests potential and problem solving rather than one which expects you to have crammed for a lot of information. So our first piece of advice is not to over-prepare. We deliberately tell you little about the content and don’t share past papers to reduce the pressure on you to study for long hours in the lead up to our test.
You probably want to warm up a little, just to put your nerves at rest. We recommend that you have a go at the questions on this page which will give you a taster of what to expect.
More generally, the best way to be prepared is to develop your mathematical thinking and problem solving. You can do this by always seeking to understand how and why mathematics works when you learn it in school. Asking teachers questions and playing around to see how things fit together is always beneficial. Be curious and always asking why? what if? If you have the opportunity to take part in maths challenges and enrichment activities, grasp it with both hands and embrace getting stuck from time to time. There are some lovely websites such as nrich, the UKMT and brilliant which have a wealth of materials for you to play with. You might also like to have a go at our own “snackable maths” problems.
None of the above suggestions are designed for last-minute cramming, just ideas to help foster your joy and ability in mathematics which, over time, will develop the type of thinking and problem solving which are likely to serve you well in our admissions test or any other mathematics you do.
If you would like to study a subject at Exeter College you need to indicate this on your application form to EMS. We then work directly with the college to secure you a place on the course – there is no need for you to complete an additional application form with the college in most cases.
The only exceptions to this are:
There are also some departments at Exeter College, such as music or languages, who may want to meet or interview you for their subject. If in doubt, it is a good idea to get in touch with the College department directly to check if there’s anything you need to do to satisfy them that you and their course are a suitable match.
It’s common for applicants to change their mind about the subjects they wish to study. If you decide to switch courses you can let us know when you come to an interview or by simply emailing us at admissions@exeterms.ac.uk. We’ll do our best to accommodate all changes and in most cases manage this.
Occasionally students pick subjects which are difficult to timetable. This is usually because there is only one class running at the college for the chosen subject. When this happens we work with our colleagues at Exeter College to adapt the timetable to try to make your option work. If it is not possible to do this we will get in touch with you as soon as possible to let you know and discuss alternative options.
Exeter Mathematics School is in place to serve students in the South West of England. This includes the city of Bristol and the geographic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
Students living outside of this region will often find that there is another maths school they can apply to that is nearer to their home. You can see this on the U-Maths website here: Maths Schools Map.
We will only consider applicants from outside our catchment area if the applicant’s family has firm plans to move into the area, for reasons other than wanting to attend Exeter Maths School. These applicants would be treated the same as other applicants in most respects. The exception to this is that if they received an offer of a place, there would be an additional condition to their offer, that their move into catchment takes place by the start of September.
If you have plans to move into the catchment area and would like to apply, please get in touch by emailing admissions@exeterms.ac.uk.
The applications deadline (and other key dates) for our current admissions cycle can be seen on this page.
If you apply by the deadline (and live in our catchment area) you will guarantee that you will be invited to the planned Admissions Test day and considered alongside other applicants.
We will consider applications received after the deadline so it is well worth applying after this time, even very late on in the process. The later you apply the more likely it is you would have to go into our Waiting Pool initially, especially if you are applying after we have made conditional offers to other students. If you apply late, please email admissions@exeterms.ac.uk to make sure we see your application as soon as possible.
Complete the online application form.
You can find a link to the application form for the current admissions cycle on this page. This page also includes a list of key dates for the process.
The application form should be started by the student. Parent/Carer details can be added two or three sections into the form, and at this point there is the option to create a Parent/Carer login to access the form.
If you wish to apply for future years where the admissions cycle has not yet started, please complete our Expression of Interest form instead.
Applicants with SEND should make this clear on their application form and indicate the support that they feel they need. We will then make reasonable adjustments to enable such applicants are able to fully participate in the admissions process. The precise nature of those adjustments will depend on the needs and normal ways of working of each applicant. Examples include, but are not limited to:
If you indicate that you have SEND on your application form, it will be reviewed by our SEND staff and if your needs are complex or significant we may invite you and your parents to meet with us to ensure we are prepared to meet your needs.