University Maths Anyone???

Hi

Im thinking of reading either Chemistry or Maths at Uni.
Ill probably end up doing chemistry, but I still really like maths and may do this instead.

I was wondering if anyone out there could shed any light on what university-level maths is actually like.

i know its probably hard - but to be honest so too are all 'proper' degrees.

- What Im saying is how long do you take to adjust to it after A level?
- How much do courses at different unis differ (some unis maths courses harder than others? biases towards different topics? etc)?
- How does it generally compare to other degrees? - some people i know say its the hardest subject - others say physics and medicine are - although peoples opinions and personal experiences do differ somewhat.

Advice relating to these questions or other info gained via personal or second-hand experience would be much appreciated.

Reply 1

bubbalicious_28

this isnt helpful @ all-but do chemistry!it rules!

Reply 2

Neapolitan

ProfessorFitBoy

i know its probably hard - but to be honest so too are all 'proper' degrees.

- What Im saying is how long do you take to adjust to it after A level?
- How much do courses at different unis differ (some unis maths courses harder than others? biases towards different topics? etc)?
- How does it generally compare to other degrees? - some people i know say its the hardest subject - others say physics and medicine are - although peoples opinions and personal experiences do differ somewhat.

I'd say the vast majority of people at university ending up enjoying maths more than they did at A-level though the first year of the degree can be a bit of a shock. Maths can be applied to all sorts of things, whether it's cryptography or biology or quantum physics or computer science, and there are strong links with philosophy and logic, but even on the pure side, with number theory, non-Euclidean geometry, topology there are many different topics you haven't touched on at school.

Where the problem can be, is that university maths will teach you a different and more rigorous mindset towards maths, especially in the focus to prove things carefully. The strong maths univesities, Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, ICL etc. throw you in at the deep-end straight away and you may well find the analysis courses pretty boring in your first year (I did pretty much).

Maths is never, I think, a soft option at university, but I don't think the workload is anywhere near as high as for medicine say. The main differences between maths and chemistry seem to me to be the lab work (do you enjoy that? in which case you'd obviously miss it in a maths degree) and i think there is a lot less to actually learn/memorise in maths - rather you have to get to a stage, by practising questions, where complicated ideas become much more familiar. There are no or few essays to write, but there is quite a bit of banging-head-against-wall moment trying to get into the right mindset, but looking back at the previous years' work you usually can't remember what all the fuss was about now that they've become clear.

PM me if you have more questions.