Higher Level Problem Solving Programme

For a student in Year 12 who is just starting out on their problem-solving journey and who does not know what they want to do after leaving school, Setting Out in Problem Solving is a good place to begin. It covers some key problem-solving techniques that are useful across the board and provides information about admissions tests that students may find useful when they are deciding what to do next.

For a student nearing the end of Year 12 who has decided that they would like to apply for a course that requires a mathematics admissions test, Problem Solving Matters is the ideal course. It covers the key techniques and skills that are essential for the MAT and TMUA papers and is a good starting point for STEP.

For a student who is entering Year 13 and who has discovered that they will need to take either the MAT or the TMUA, our online tutored courses provide an essential grounding in the key topics and techniques they will need.

For students who will need to take the MAT or TMUA, but who want to work at their own pace, our on-demand courses provide the techniques, skills and practice essential for success.

For students in Year 13 who are holding offers from a university that requires success in one or two of the STEP papers, our tutored STEP course is designed specifically to help, with modules covering key topics, ideas and the in-depth problem-solving skills required for these challenging examinations.

Students are welcome to apply for more than one of our courses, although, for students who gain places on the Problem Solving Matters course, we will not accept them on one of our tutored online MAT or TMUA courses. This is to allow us to provide support for as many students who need to sit the MAT and TMUA as possible. Students following the Problem Solving Matters course will already receive comprehensive preparation for the examinations and have their own online sessions in the weeks running up to the papers.

All eligible students are welcome to complete the on-demand courses alongside any other course we offer.

Our courses are designed to cover the content for the admissions test that a student will be taking, but the materials for each course are unique to that course. Many of the problems that the students will see on a course will have been written especially for that course. The only repetition of problems that occurs is where specific past paper questions have been used for a particular topic. There are not that many past MAT and TMUA papers to work from, so some repetition of problems is unavoidable.

Our courses are generally open to any student who attends a state-funded school or college. For the Problem Solving Matters course, where we work with university partners, we use postcode data to identify students from areas that have traditionally had low participation in higher education. Students from these areas have priority. This is common practice amongst university widening participation departments. Students who are not successful in gaining a place at one of the university venues are offered a place on an online version of the course that includes a forum where they can ask for help.