Profile Subject 1 (first elective discipline)
Profile Subject 1 is the first of the two elective papers tied to the specialty you apply for - Mathematics for engineering and IT pairs, Biology for medicine, World History for humanities pairs. It carries a large share of the final score, and its tasks run from basic recall to multi-step problems, so the early items must be won fast and cleanly to leave time for the last ones.
Method for profile items
- Work from the published topic list for your subject: every item comes from a named section
- Each task carries one score, so a perfect solution with the wrong final answer earns nothing
- Classify before solving: 'this is a domain-restriction question', 'this is a limiting-reagent question'
- Write the working in lines so a sign error is visible, then check the answer against the exact question
Worked example (Mathematics - swap in your own subject)
Find the largest integer x such that 3(x − 2) < 2x + 5. 3x − 6 < 2x + 5 3x − 2x < 5 + 6 x < 11 The largest integer strictly below 11 is 10. Two checks: the inequality is strict, so 11 is excluded, and the question asks for an integer, not for an interval.
Traps
- Ignoring qualifiers: largest, integer, positive, exact
- Forgetting domain restrictions - denominator ≠ 0, expression under a root ≥ 0, log argument > 0
- Reversing the inequality sign when multiplying or dividing by a negative
- Leaving the answer in the wrong unit or unsimplified form
- Spending six minutes on one hard item and losing three easy ones