PRE-ARRIVAL EXERCISES IN MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

The following exercises are to help you prepare for your studies in Cambridge. You
should complete them before lectures start on 8 October. Answers will be provided in a
few weeks’ time and we will meet to discuss any remaining issues at the start of term.

You may not have covered all of the topics mentioned below. Please refer to the read-
ing list (sent separately) for references and resources to help you complete these exercises.

You should give these exercises your best shot, but we will discuss any issues that you
cannot work through independently.

Mathematics topics
A. Algebra (functions, laws of indices, fractions, re-arranging equations, solving uni-
and bi-variate equations, pairs of simultaneous linear equations, quadratic equa-
tions, quadratic and linear inequalities, set notation and basic facts, definition of
integers/rational numbers/real numbers);
B. Lines and graphs (graphs of linear and quadratic equations, simple coordinate ge-
ometry, equation and gradient of a straight line, natural logarithm and exponential
functions, absolute value/modulus function, definition of a function, domain and
range of function, inverse of function, composite functions, limits and continuity);
C. Sequences and series (arithmetic and geometric progressions);
D. Differentiation of univariate functions (differentiating polynomials, 1/x, exponential
and natural logarithm functions; geometric interpretation of derivative [gradient of
tangent]; rate of change interpretation of derivative; stationary points and their clas-
sification [minima/maxima/saddle points]; product, chain and quotient rules);
E. Integration (integrating polynomials, 1/x, f 0 (x)/f (x), exponential function, f (ax +
b); geometric interpretation of integral [area under graph]; definite and indefinite
integrals; integrals as antiderivatives [the reverse of differentiation]; integration by
parts and by substitution, separable first-order ordinary differential equations).
F. Vectors and matrices (vector magnitude and distance, matrix addition and multipli-
cation, matrices as linear transformations)

Statistics topics
I. Sample statistics (definition of a statistic, mean, variance, correlation, etc);
II. Sampling issues;
III. Probability theory (probabilities of events, conditional probability, Bayes theo-
rem, probability distributions/densities/mass functions, how to calculate expected
value/variance/etc from a probability density/mass function);
IV. The normal distribution (how to use the tables, how to standardise, etc);
V. Hypothesis testing (especially the logic behind hypothesis testing).

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 Mathematics

A1. Simplify and factorise as much as possible z(2 − 3z + 5z 2 ) + 3(z 2 − z 3 − 4).

A2. Simplify

(a) 6a4 b × 4b ÷ 8ab3 c

p √
(b) 3x3 y ÷ 27xy
(c) (2x3 )3 × (xz 2 )4 .

A3. Solve

(a) 5(2x − 9) = 2(5 − 3x)

6
(b) 1 + y−8
= −1
(c) z 0.4 = 7
(d) 32t−1 = 4.
q
a
A4. Make Q the subject of P = Q2 +b
.

A5. Solve

(a) 2y − 7 ≤ 3
(b) 3 − z > 4 + 2z
(c) 3x2 < 5x + 2.
(d) a3 < 2a2 + 3a.

A6. Simplify
6
x−1/5 × x2/3
√
2
√5
.
x × x5 × x2
A7. Factorise

(a) x2 − 1
(b) a2 − 4ab + 4b2
(c) x3 − 1
(d) x3 + 5x2 − 2x − 24 (hint: x = −4 is a root of x3 + 5x2 − 2x − 24 = 0).

A8. Find the roots of (i) x2 + 2x = 0, (ii) x2 − x − 1 = 0, (iii) x4 − 3x2 + 2 = 0.

A9. By completing the square, find the minimum values of (i) x2 − 2x + 6 and (ii)
x4 + 2x2 + 2. What is the minimum value of (i) in the domain 2 ≤ x ≤ 3? Justify
your answer.

A10. (a) If 3 = 9−x , find x.

logd b
(b) If loga b = c, show that c = logd a
for any base d.
(c) Find y if 16 logy 3 = log3 y.

A11. If f (x) = x2 and g(x) = −2x, what is (f ◦ g)(x)?

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B1. Find the gradient of the line AB if A is the point (5, 7) and B the point (−4, 1).

B2. (a) With x on the horizontal axis and y on the vertical axis, sketch the straight line
given by 2x + y = 4.
√
3/4
(b) On a separate graph, sketch both x1/2 y 1/2 = 2 and x3/4 y 1/4 = 32 .
(c) What does it mean for a curve to be tangent to a straight line at a given point?
(d) At which points are two curves from (b) tangent to the straight line from (a)?

B3. Find the tangent to the curve f (x) = x4 + 2x3 + 3x2 + x at x = 1.

B4. Sketch the following curves: (i) y = |x|, (ii) y = 2 − |x|, (iii) y = |2 − |x||, (iv)
y = (2 − |x|)(3 + |x|).

B5. Let f (x) = ln(x). Sketch the following curves: (i) y = f (x), (ii) y = 2f (x), (iii)
y=2f (x) + 3, (iv) y = f (x − 2), (v) y = f (2x + 1) + 3.

C1. If you invest £500 at a fixed interest rate of 3% per annum, how much will you have
after 4 years if interest is paid annually?

C2. Suppose an arithmetic progression has a third term of α and a ninth term of β.
What is the sum of the first 30 terms?

C3. Evaluate: (i) the sum of the odd integers between 10 and 100, (ii) N
P
PN n=0 (an + b) and
2n
(iii) n=0 ab . a and b are constants in (ii) and (iii).

C4. The sequence un satisifies un+1 = kun for n = 0, 1, 2, . . . where k is a fixed number
and u0 = 1. Express un in terms of k. Describe the behaviour of un for large n in
the different cases that arise according to the value of k.

C5. If an+1 = 3an + 4 for n = 1, 2, 3, . . . and a1 = 1, then deduce a formula for an for any
n ≥ 1.

D1. Differentiate and find the stationary points of

(a) y = 9x3 − 7x2 + 15

3
(b) f (x) = 4x2
(c) Y (t) = 100t1.3
1
(d) P (Q) = Q2 − 4Q 2 .

Classify the stationary points in each case (local maximum/minimum or point of

inflection).

D2. Find the derivatives of

(a) f (x) = (2x + 1)(x + 3)

y 2 +1
(b) g(y) = 2−y

(c) h(z) = (6z + 1)5 .

D3. Differentiate

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 (a) e3x
(b) ln(2x2 + 1)
3
(c) ex
(d) e2x (x + x1 ).
(ln x)x
D4. By taking logs or otherwise, differentiate y = 2(3x+1)
.
4x
D5. Graph, using first and second order derivatives, f (x) = x2 +1
.
dy
D6. If y + ey = x3 + x + 1, find dx
in terms of y and x.
t+1 2t+1 dy
D7. If y = t−2
and x = t−3
, find dx
when t = 1.

E1. Evaluate the following integrals.

R
(a) (x − 3)(x + 1)dx
R1
(b) 0 e−5y dy
(c) 2z+3
R
z2
dz

E2. Evaluate the following integrals, using a substitution if necessary.

R
(a) (3x + 1)9 dx
R y−3
(b) y2 −6y+1 dy
R1 3
(c) 0 √zz2 +1 dz
6−x 6−x
R
E3. By expressing (x−3)(2x+5)
as the sum of two fractions or otherwise, find (x−3)(2x+5)
dx.
R 2 +x−6
E4. Integrate x x+3 dx.
R1
E5. Find 0 e2x−1 dx.
R
E6. Using integreation by parts, or otherwise, find ln(x)dx.

E7. Use mathematical induction to prove that, for a non-negative integer n,

Z ∞
xn e−x dx = n!
0

If you have not seen inductive reasoning before:

ˆ First, show the statement is true for the initial case (n = 0 here). Hint: 0! = 1.
ˆ Then, show that the statement is true for n = k + 1 (for some integer k ≥ 0)
on the assumption that the statement is true for n = k. I.e. show that the
statement being true for n = k (k is an arbitrary non-negative integer) implies
the statement is also true for n = k + 1.
ˆ You can then conclude that the statement is true for all non-negative integer
values of n. (True for n = 0 implies true for n = 1 implies true for n = 2 etc).

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E8. Given that y = 0 when x = 1, solve the following differential equation
dy
x + (1 − y 2 ) = 0.
dx

E9. Suppose a company produces goods at rate a while selling goods at rate pX(t) where
X(t) is the company’s stock at time t and 0 < p < 1. That is, the company’s stock
can be represented by the differential equation

Ẋ(t) = a − pX(t).

Supposing that the company has zero initial stock, write an equation for X(t) in
terms of a and p only. What is the steady state stock level? What happens to the
stock level X(t) in the long-run (as t → ∞)? Does the stock fluctuate around this
level?

F1. Consider the four vectors

       
16 4 −15 12
a = −6 , b = 14 , c =
     7  , d = 12 .

1 −9 4 1

(a) Order the vectors by magnitude.

(b) Calculate the distance between vectors a and b.

F2. Calulate A + B, AB and BA for

   
1 2 −2 −1
A= ,B = .
3 4 4 2

F3. Find two matrices C and D such that CD = 0 but DC 6= 0.

F4. A linear transformation is described by the matrix

 
1 −1
.
1 1

Show that this transformation is the composition of a rotation and a scaling.

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Statistics

III1. Suppose you draw 3 cards consecutively and without replacement from a standard
deck of cards. Compute the following probabilities.

(a) All cards the same suit.

(b) A 2, a 3 and a 4 are drawn.
(c) The cards show consecutive numbers (Ace counts as 1, Jack as 11, Queen as
12 and King as 13 and loops are allowed so that King, Ace, 2 counts as three
consecutive cards).
(d) The cards show consecutive numbers of the same suit.

III2. A supermarket knows that 70% of its customers have a loyalty card. Of the cus-
tomers that have a loyalty card, 70% regularly use discount vouchers. It also knows
that 60% of customers regularly use discount vouchers.

(a) What percentage of customers do not have a loyalty card but do regularly use
discount vouchers?
(b) What percentage of customers neither have a loyalty card nor regularly use
discount vouchers?
(c) Given that a certain customer regularly uses discount vouchers, what is the
probability that they have a loyalty card?

You may find it helpful to draw a Venn diagram.

III3. Suppose that, at a given time, 5% of the population has coronavirus. Suppose
further that the coronavirus test has a false negative rate of 30% (i.e. if someone
has the disease, the probability they test negative for it is 30%) and the false
positive rate is 2% (i.e. if someone does not have the disease, the probability they
test positive for it is 2%). What proportion of the negative tests is made up by
people who do have coronavirus? How does is compare to the false negative rate?
Explain. (Hint: If you haven’t seen this kind of problem before at school, consider
that the population is 1000 people and draw a probability tree with the numbers of
people in each category.)

III4. Suppose that X is a random variable that can take values 1, 8 or c. If Pr(X =
1) = 31 , Pr(X = 8) = 12 and E(X) = 9. Find c. Compute the variance, standard
deviation and mode of X.

III5. If workers’ (hourly) wages are uniformly distributed between £10 and £20, find:
(i) the average wage, (ii) the variance of wages, (iii) the cumulative distribution
function of wages.

III6. A random variable has a probability mass function described by f (y) = Ky(1 − y)2
for 0 ≤ y ≤ 1. Find: (i) K, (ii) E(Y ), (iii) Var(Y ), (iv) the cumulative distribution
function of Y , (v) Pr(0.5 ≤ Y ≤ 0.8), (vi) median of Y (ỹ where Pr(Y ≤ ỹ) = 0.5),
(vii) the interquartile range of Y and (viii) the mode of Y .

III7. True/false/it depends. Explain.

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 (a) Half of the students taking a test score less than the average mark.
(b) Nobody scores higher than the average mark in a test.
(c) Suppose that in a game you can only score an even number of points: 0, 2, 10,
50. So, the average score over a series of games is an even number.
(d) A random process is defined by a certain (unknown) probability distribution.
The standard deviation of the random process is not larger than the range of
the observed data.
(e) The chance of observing an outcome more than three standard deviations from
the mean is less than 1 in 100.
(f) I repeat an experiment with a random numerical outcome many times. Even-
tually the average of my outcomes will be within 1% of the theoretical average
outcome.
(g) If two statistical processes are uncorrelated then they must be independent.

IV1. Suppose the average adult is 175cm tall with a standard deviation of 8cm and that
heights are normally distributed. What is the probability that: (i) an adult is
shorter than 180cm, (ii) an adult is shorter than 160cm, (iii) an adult is taller than
195cm, (iv) an adult is between 150 and 185cm?

IV2. In the example above, what is the height which 20% of adults are taller than? And
the height that 30% of adults are shorter than?

V1. Read https://nrich.maths.org/13722.

V2. True/false/it depends. Explain.

(a) A significance level of 5% means that there is a 5% probability of getting a test

statistic in the critical region if the null hypothesis is true.
(b) A significance level of 5% means that there is a 5% probability of the null
hypothesis being true if the test statistic lies in the critical region.
(c) The p-value of an experiment gives the probability of the null hypothesis being
true.
(d) If the p-value is less than 0.05, then the alternative hypothesis is true.
(e) If the p-value is less than 0.05, then the alternative hypothesis is more likely to
be true than the null hypothesis.
(f) The closer the p-value is to 1, the greater the probability that the null hypothesis
is true.
(g) If we have a larger sample size, we will get a more reliable result from the
hypothesis test.
(h) If we repeat an experiment and we get a p-value less than 0.05 in either exper-
iment, then we must reject the null hypothesis.
(i) If we do not get a significant result from our experiment, we should go on
increasing our sample size until we do.

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V3. There are two machines in a factory producing crisps, A and B. A produces bags
weighing 25g on average, with a standard deviation of 3g. B produces bags weighing
30g on average with a variance of 9g. A bag of crisps weighs 26.5g. Test the
hypothesis that the bag came from machine A. Test also the hypothesis that the
bag came from machine B. Comment.

V4. At a certain roundabout in Cambridge, there are 10 accidents a year. The council
puts traffic lights at the junction. In the year following the introduction of the traffic
lights there are 6 accidents at the junction. What is the smallest significance level at
which you would reject the null that the traffic lights have not reduced the number
of accidents at the junction?