The PAT Test (Physics Aptitude Test) is one of the common admissions tests that are usually used to assess the enrollee’s knowledge in certain areas of science – and for PAT, for example, these are Physics with a bit of Maths. There is wide use of the PAT test in Oxford, where it is used to weed out only the best students for the following courses – Engineering Science, Materials Science, Physics, and Physics and Philosophy joint course.

Indeed, due to the prestige of these specialties and harsh requirements of Oxford PAT exams, there is high demand for preparatory PAT courses. We at Oxbridgemind.co.uk are glad to offer them, yet during our practice we have taken notice that a lot of our clients simply do not have the proper understanding of what PAT actually is. Therefore, this article was written by an Oxbridge tutor to explain PAT – you can consider it as the demo of our paid courses.

The General Comments regarding the PAT

The PAT is pretty hard – no nonsense

The PAT is really, really hard – and it is self-explanatory why. After all, if everybody got a hundred percent result on this test, it would be of no use – since the point of the test is to distinguish between the practical abilities of various students with similar GCSE diplomas.

Less than 1% percent of students score absolute top results

Consequently, less than one percent of the students get between ninety and a hundred (maximum possible) marks, so do not be discouraged if you don’t succeed at first, and if you see hard questions. That is what you should, in fact, expect.

Develop the strategy on how to beat the PAT

You should, however, develop a strategy on how to tackle the paper. You know you are going to try questions first and then come back to others later, or alternatively, just going to start the question one and work through to the end – so you do need to decide on your own, to have a bit of a strategy.

The Format of the PAT

The Physics Aptitude Test is two hours long and consists of a mixture of Maths and Physics, in which the marks are split equally between the subjects (50 marks for Maths and 50 – for Physics).

The rubric – the actual layout of the paper – has changed massively over the last 12 years. For example, if you would have taken a look at the past papers, you would have seen that some of them had multiple-choice questions, and some of them did not. The current format is that there are six maths multiple-choice questions, and each of the questions is worth two marks. Correspondingly, there are six Physics multiple-choice questions and each of those is also worth two marks.

And then there is a selection of higher mark questions on physics and maths – the marks for those could range between three marks up to ten marks, but the questions are mixed up, so you might get a maths question followed by a physics question, and then another physics question, and then a maths question. This is mainly because people used to do the maths and not get onto the physics – but it is primarily a physics test, and examiners want to see students doing physics questions.

How should one prepare for PAT

Derived from our past experience and the comments of our previous clients, we think these tips for the PAT preparation are effective:

Do some past papers (The most useful thing)

The most useful thing is to go through the past papers. The past papers will allow you to learn the patterns of the usual PAT exam, and not to become confused upon your exam encounter. The past papers can be found on University of Oxford’s official website.

Also, for every year, there is a report, and the report will give you the mark needed to get an interview for that year in Physics. Note that this is applicable mainly to Physics, while Engineer Science and Material Science use the PAT in a slightly different way – they combine the PAT results with what you’ve said on your UCAS form.

There is no specific pass mark that should be reached – the mark that serves as a threshold for the interview is variable each year, because the rule is that there is the same amount of people invited to interview each year. This way, if the paper was exceptionally hard, you might only need to get 50 marks to secure your place in the interview.

Check the syllabus

It is important to check your high school syllabus while you prepare for PAT, as overall the PAt questions are derived from the knowledge that was mentioned in the curriculum. PAT also certainly covers the first year of the A-level Maths and Physics, but it’s important for you to recheck the syllabus of your own school since some schools might teach things in different order.

Do some other problem solving type questions

It is quite useful to do some other problem-solving type questions like Physics Olympiad questions, or Isaac Physics Questions, because these are a bit more like the kind of questions that are set on the PAT, and they are more useful than just simply doing lots of A Level questions that probably will not prepare you very well.

Do some questions under timed conditions

It’s also important to do some questions under timed conditions, because it is consistently noted that the most difficult thing about the test is the timing – you’ve got a lot of things to do, and just two hours of time, so it is really important that you plan your time. 

Get used to the style of the questions

The style of the questions is also an obstacle – it is a bit different to the style of A-level qualification test questions and so that can also be a little confusing for some people. Be sure to remember that questions are designed to test not your theoretical knowledge, but rather the practical ability to apply it.