What to do Over Summer-Before doing Maths at University

I will be going to university after the summer (Oxford if I get the grades) and was wondering if there was anything useful I could do over the summer. I plan to keep doing STEP questions daily (partly because I want to keep my maths skills sharp, but mostly because I think they are great fun to do) and have a couple of book I will read. Can anybody who is doing maths at unviersity give me any advice? What did you do/what would have been useful to do?

I plan to try to learn some basic programming, any recomendations for where to start with this and what languege would be most useful?

Reply 1

RichE

Original post by james22

(a) You could have a go at some of the more challenging problems at

https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/practice-problems

You may well be set these anyway as summer work by your tutor.

(b) You could read the Department's Study Guide available at

https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/system/files/study-guide/index.shtml

or look into some preparatory reading for the course:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introductory-Mathematics-Analysis-Springer-Undergraduate/dp/3540761780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340189048&sr=8-1

for the pure or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mathematical-Techniques-Introduction-Engineering-Physical/dp/0199282013/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340189085&sr=1-1-fkmr1

for the applied.

Reply 2

Dirac Spinor

Original post by RichE

...

Are there any particular areas that you feel are not taught properly/emphasised enough at a level?

Reply 3

RichE

Original post by ben-smith

Are there any particular areas that you feel are not taught properly/emphasised enough at a level?

The obvious choice is rigorous proof, but I think your future Cambridge tutors are best placed to say what will help with the step up to their course. More nebulously, the lack of coherence in the a-level syllabus, its bittiness and failure to present the "larger picture" of mathematics and inter-disciplinary connections is another big problem.

In fact the latter is more of a failure from an a-level point of view as proof has only ever really played a relatively small part of the syllabus, even going back some years.

Some Maths

I would advise that you don't overthink this and try to work out a perfect program or anything. Just read and do anything that you find fun. The best thing would just be to take a break from being in work mode and arrive fresh in September ready to crack on.

A summer really isn't that long - you don't need to keep fresh. I worked every summer during my undergrad and was working for a few months in between finishing my Masters and starting my PhD and did pretty much no maths and I don't think I suffered too badly for want of sharpness - that will always return pretty quickly after a break.

Reply 6

TheMagicMan

Original post by james22

I plan to try to learn some basic programming, any recomendations for where to start with this and what languege would be most useful?

Learn C++ (yes I'm biased because that's what I use). Some people may tell you it's too complicated for beginners but I don't think that's true

It may also be worth finding out whether oxford use a particular language and learning that/something similar

Reply 7

twig

Interesting thread. I was wondering similar things too. Have not done any proper maths outside a-levels in ages other than the casual question or so, which is a big shame. Might try the step 2012 papers timed.