Ask me anything about the Cambridge undergrad maths degree

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Are students from low income families discriminated?
Is racism present?
Do you have prom/ball/dance?
Is it true that you regulary have black tie dinners?

It's for questions about (Cambridge) mathematics.

Reply 41

LOUDLOUD

okay it is very rare you meet some who has gone or is going to cambridge
Help us clear up some rumours and errors placed on the human mind leading to curiosity
Or are you sworn to secrecy????
please answer the questions
I have so many but I limited them to my top ones playing on my mind..so your lucky :smile:

Reply 42

cambio wechsel

Original post by LOUDLOUD

christ on a bike, there is a whole subforum for Cambridge questions here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=15

This is a thread in the maths forum intended to answer questions about a specific course.

Reply 43

Braniac101

Hi. i am an AS student at a midland grammar school adn study maths, further maths, economics and chemistry. i might take further additional AS
i want to go into fiannce, investment banking etc. however, i want to kno wether a maths course alone can get me a high paid job. also, is the course a step up from a level and is it like questions on the STEP paper. do you think i could get into oxford or cambride providing i am a sikh. finally, would you recoomend maths . thanks

Reply 44

cambio wechsel

Original post by Braniac101

i want to go into fiannce, investment banking etc. however, i want to kno wether a maths course alone can get me a high paid job.

It's a very great help.

also, is the course a step up from a level and is it like questions on the STEP paper.

is this a wind up? It is very much more difficult than either, though A levels and STEP and the recommended summer reading are appropriate preparation for the first year.

do you think i could get into oxford or cambride providing i am a sikh.

It is seldom a condition of the offers made that you should be. Usually A*A*A, with turban optional.

Reply 45

Nightingale

Wow thank you so much, I've been watching for a thread like this for so long! :love:

Why Cambridge and not Oxford?
Why Maths and not Physics?
Any tips on interviews? (in particular Girton college)

You don't have to answer all the questions as some are probably not so maths related, but please get back to me. :h:

Reply 46

DFranklin

Original post by kerily

But then I spoke to a guy who left Cambridge maths with a 2:1 this year and said that some people honestly work insanely hard, spend their lives in the library and still get a 2:2 or a third. It's not common, but in my experience this certainly happens. (And to be honest, it's not that uncommon if you're talking about 2:2's; I'd say about 1 in 10 from my college fell into this category when I was a Cambridge).

While I doubt they'd let anyone in who wasn't capable of excelling on their degree (that's the point of STEP, after all) I'd hate to end up there and then really struggle despite the work I put in :no:

It might be the intent of STEP, but that doesn't mean it always works out as planned.

Reply 47

TCW

I'm happy to answer these so you can get a possibly different perspective on things. Even personal questions won't be out of bounds, though you may not get answers you're looking for. Anyways,

Original post by LOUDLOUD

Are students from low income families discriminated?
Is racism present?
Do you have prom/ball/dance?
Is it true that you regulary have black tie dinners?

No discrimination, at least none I am aware of.

I have not encountered any racism. Interestingly, (and pardon my political incorrectness) the demographic in Cambridge is very different to what I had at school (in North West London). There are noticeably few blacks, fewer browns than what I was used to. A lot more asians (mainly internationals) and a lot more whites. Take that for what it's worth.

We have various balls, dinners, events throughout the year. We have formals almost every day, which require lounge suits and not black tie. But there are many black tie dinners too: college, sporting, societies, subjects. None of these are compulsory, they're just there for if you enjoy them. They are however more expensive to attend.

Original post by LOUDLOUD

My circle of friends back home happen to be fairly intelligent. Most of them go to Oxbridge. But outside of that close circle, at parties and everyday stuff, it is indeed rarer to meet Oxbridge people. That's just numbers though.

I shall try to help clear up any queries you guys have. If I'm taking some time to answer it's not cos I'm ignoring you, more that I'm actually busy. Unfortunately for you guys, I'm not quite the mathmo you have in mind who sits at his laptop constantly refreshing their TSR page :smile:

Nobody is sworn to secrecy. There is nothing like that here. Except maybe some of the drinking societies stuff, but that's all in the name of fun.

Reply 48

TCW

Original post by Braniac101

A maths degree is very versatile allowing you to enter a lot of industries. Employers generally like it a lot. Though not necessarily justified, the Cam maths degree seems to have a little bit of a wow factor with certain employers, so take that for what you will. It's allowed me to get a pretty high paying job, though this is not necessarily true for all the job-seeking mathmos in my year. My advice on the job front is to really prepare for applications/interviews. Have some interesting things you've done on your CV and be able to talk about those things naturally. Essentially, employers are looking for people they can work with, so if they like you, and your academics are OK (which if you get 2.1 from Cam, they will be) they'll probably take you.

The Cambridge maths degree imo is tough and a big step up from A levels. However this is true for uni maths in general, it's just very different to school maths. I recommend having a look through some first year (and possibly beyond for some other unis) lecture notes at a variety of universities and comparing them yourself. You being Sikh has no relevance on whether or not unis will accept you. You being good at maths on the other hand will.

I would recommend maths if you've looked into it and think you will like the course, and also provided you're competent at A level maths, cos it'll only get harder from here. Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds as though you view the maths degree as a means to an end, i.e. get a high paying job at the end of it. This is doable (and to an extent it's turned out that way for me) but be prepared to work very hard on something you may not enjoy. You may want to consider Economics, as Cambridge Econ seems to be something of a feeder system into banking. But then again it depends what area of banking you're interested in. If IBD, econ is fine. In fact anything is probably fine. For Sales, it probably doesn't really matter what subject as long as you're someone who can sell their own brother a dildo. For trading, something quantitative might be useful. For trading shops, hedge funds, computer science would be useful. For structuring, quant, you'll need maths, engineering, physics probably. For research, science/econ would probably be best. All the above is by no means definitive, just my thoughts.

Reply 49

Webbykun

Original post by TCW

I would recommend maths if you've looked into it and think you will like the course, and also provided you're competent at A level maths, cos it'll only get harder from here. Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds as though you view the maths degree as a means to an end, i.e. get a high paying job at the end of it. This is doable (and to an extent it's turned out that way for me) but be prepared to work very hard on something you may not enjoy. You may want to consider Economics, as Cambridge Econ seems to be something of a feeder system into banking. But then again it depends what area of banking you're interested in. If IBD, econ is fine. In fact anything is probably fine. For Sales, it probably doesn't really matter what subject as long as you're someone who can sell their own brother a dildo. For trading, something quantitative might be useful. For trading shops, hedge funds, computer science would be useful. For structuring, quant, you'll need maths, engineering, physics probably. For research, science/econ would probably be best. All the above is by no means definitive, just my thoughts.

No addition to the thread but I lol'ed :biggrin:

. + rep

Reply 50

GCFB

Hi there, a slightly different question from me. I've just finished IA with a distinctly average 2.1. I was just wondering how you found IB, the courses etc., and in particular are there any books you found particularly helpful, anything you wished you'd realised before you started and so on. Thanks a ton, this is a good idea for a thread.

Reply 51

Zuzuzu

How do the tripos exams compare with STEP? I'm talking mainly in terms of intuition and the relative difficulty of questions rather than the content really.

Also, how do the people who get through the pool without 1,1 generally compare to the other undergrads when it comes to exam time? Obviously the top 10 or so percent of STEP candidates will be getting strong firsts, but from there in is there a correlation between STEP performance and exam marks?

Reply 52

snow leopard

Original post by TCW

I have not encountered any racism. Interestingly, (and pardon my political incorrectness) the demographic in Cambridge is very different to what I had at school (in North West London). There are noticeably few blacks, fewer browns than what I was used to. A lot more asians (mainly internationals) and a lot more whites. Take that for what it's worth.

I'm from the same part of London :biggrin:

Would you mind telling me the number of A's B's etc you got at GCSE ?

Reply 53

Extricated

Original post by snow leopard

I'm from the same part of London :biggrin:

Would you mind telling me the number of A's B's etc you got at GCSE ?

I asked him this earlier, he got 11A*s at gcse and 100 UMS in 12 maths modules, his lowest maths score being 91/100.

If this guy thinks he is 'average' at cambridge with those kind of scores ( i mean, 100 UMS IN 12 MODULES), i seriously doubt my ability to go there. Cambridge maths just seems out of reach when guys like this are 'average' ffs

Reply 54

snow leopard

Original post by Extricated

My god

Lol I agree, got that out of reach feeling just reading that, sounds impossible and not human. That many 100UMS's?!?!?! I mean, I could do that, but I have 3 other subjects to deal with simultaneously.

Reply 55

qgujxj39

Original post by Extricated

For what it's worth, those module scores and GCSEs are well, well above average for Cambridge. However, they're probably not a very good indicator of how well you'll do once you're here.

Original post by Zuzuzu

How do the tripos exams compare with STEP? I'm talking mainly in terms of intuition and the relative difficulty of questions rather than the content really.

They're quite similar. If anything, Tripos questions are possibly easier with respect to the stuff you're talking about, although the topics are difficult to master and you get less choice of questions.

Reply 56

Extricated

Original post by tommm

For what it's worth, those module scores and GCSEs are well, well above average for Cambridge. However, they're probably not a very good indicator of how well you'll do once you're here.

They're quite similar. If anything, Tripos questions are possibly easier with respect to the stuff you're talking about, although the topics are difficult to master and you get less choice of questions.

Hi Tommm,

I've seen you around a lot and I know you're a ridiculously good mathematician. What were your GCSEs like???

Reply 57

qgujxj39

Original post by Extricated

Hi Tommm,

I've seen you around a lot and I know you're a ridiculously good mathematician. What were your GCSEs like???

I'm OK.

I got 9 A*s, 2 As. I wouldn't worry, this is quite a bit better than average compared to those at Cambridge I've talked to.

Reply 58

Zuzuzu

Original post by tommm

Cheers Tommm.

2 other things - are you the Tom from Sidney that i'm friends with on facebook? And do you know how often (if ever) the college takes people in who've not managed to get 1,1? :moon:

Reply 59

SimonM

Original post by Zuzuzu

Cheers Tommm.

2 other things - are you the Tom from Sidney that i'm friends with on facebook? And do you know how often (if ever) the college takes people in who've not managed to get 1,1? :moon:

Very frequently.