A basic maths competence test would consist in trying to find out what the person thinks mathematics actually is. Inexperienced people would mostly think of com

A basic maths competence test would consist in trying to find out what the person thinks mathematics actually is. Inexperienced people would mostly think of computations, such as evaluating integrals or computing eigenvalues. People who understand maths know that it chiefly deals with definitions, theorems, proofs, conjectures and problem solving (that last one is sometimes forgotten even by very theoretical mathematicians, but it's key to some areas such as graph theory, combinatorics, etc.).