[wanderlust.xx]

I made a few points for a bloke a while back who asked me about doing well on a maths degree. None of the points below are purely for a maths degree and can be applied to subjects like Chem, Physics, Comp Sci etc, and probably some other humanities subjects, but since I did maths and the difficulty is a major concern to many A level students, I thought I'd post this up here for any future students to read.

People who do really well and reach their potential:

• Always think ‘what if this changes’. That is the single most important thing I can ever tell you. Always question what you are given. Don’t just accept whatever a lecturer has put on the board... think. Is it correct? If you think it isn’t, put your hand up, and ask them. “I have a feeling there’s something wrong there” will either make you look ridiculously clever in front of everyone, or an idiot if you’re wrong. The idiot thing wears off after a few minutes. The genius thing sticks.
• Have drive. Need to do each and every question. It’s not a compulsion, it’s a need, much like drinking water.
• Don’t let people distract them. They go out, have fun, but when it comes to the material they need to understand it before they go out.
• Go and see their lecturers whenever they have a problem, or put their hand up in lectures. 99% of the time, if you ask a question, you will increase your chance of getting an additional mark on a paper by 10%. True story. But seriously, in my final year I went to see my lecturer every time I could whenever I had a problem. I tried to make excuses to go and see them. Like, I’d look at my work and think, do I really understand this? Then go and see the lecturer, just to talk to them. Subconsciously they’ll find no problem
• Never pass up an opportunity to learn. Even if you don’t have a clue what’s going on in a module, go to the lectures. Just go. You’ll take something in subconsciously. Even if you think they’re utterly worthless, you’ll pick up on what a lecturer in emphasising, and that is invaluable for exams. Most people miss out on a 2:1 because they focused on the wrong material, or didn’t fully understand what the lecturer was trying to teach them.
• Go out once or twice a week, and get involved in societies. Get a job during the summer and don’t waste it. Even if you’re on for a first. To be a truly exceptional candidate, you’d need a first, relevant experience and the ability to speak confidently. Never lose sight of this.
• Just don’t take no for an answer. There will be parts of the course that you just cannot be arsed to learn. That proof, or that question. It will completely stump you, and you’ll have no idea where to begin, even with the solutions. Instead of burying your head in the exam and panicking two days before the exam, just go see the lecturer. Even if you think you’ll look like an idiot. It doesn’t matter, their job is to teach you. Doesn’t matter if you’re thick as a plank, they have to tell you what’s going on. The one truly remarkable person on my course who does this has a fantastic ability to be so pissed off by a question that she will bug her lecturer tenaciously until she understands it.
• Realise that it does get easier. If for example, I had tried harder in first year (not that anyone really tries that hard in first year), I think I could have understood a lot more maths and done better in second year. It’s a ripple effect. It gets easier to learn the more practice you do and the more you ask, but you need to have the motivation to do so.

People who don’t reach their potential:

• Focus on the wrong topic. People often don’t pick the ‘feel’ of the lecturer up from lectures (mainly because they didn’t go to them). Then they complain when this topic didn’t come up in the exam. I’m often extremely bewildered by this. I find it second nature to know what the lecturers are trying to test us on. This is important; it means you know what you need to get out of the course, and what stuff is just ‘fodder’ and background/preliminary/additional information.
• Choose the wrong module. I can’t emphasise this one enough. Half of getting a first is basically choosing the correct modules for you. I hate number theory and pure maths. I love mechanics and mathematical physics. I chose those, I did better. Others chose them and found that they hated the modules and couldn’t bring themselves to bother revising.
• Forget why they’re there. Why are you doing a degree? For 3 years of sex and partying? You could have done that without paying £9000 a year in tuition fees. You’re there for the end result, and you’re there to learn. Yes, enjoy yourself, but don’t lose sight of that target.
• Think it’s rude to put your hand up in lectures. It isn’t. There were a group of girls in my lectures who I was once talking to. I used to put my hand up in lectures a lot. You know that idiot who keeps asking questions? Me. They subtly said that, “I really hate it when people put their hand up and interrupt the lecturer. You can ask afterwards, why then?” Well... you’ll forget afterwards, the lecturer will slip out of that frame of thought, and more importantly, there might be a mistake in your notes. You know, the ones you revise from?
• Just stop trying. The amount of people that literally stopped trying by their third year astounds me. It really does.

A few tips that I can't stress enough... seriously, read the next few bullet points carefully. They're things that people often miss and look back on their degree and think, 'OH CRAP, I wish I did that!'

• Find work experience. Wherever you can. Try not to graduate without one decent non-academic reference. Think of a career early on (second year) because you're not going to magically know once you finish third year. Doesn't work like that!
• You can talk to your PA if you're not a finalist to talk about your results before they're officially published if you're impatient. (in most unis)
• Use TSR. I'd never have managed my degree without it. Thank you to everyone, especially DFranklin, Nuodai and Ghostwalker who were ridiculously quick in answering my difficulties, and ruthlessly efficient.
• Don't just sit in your room and do maths. That's really not productive. You need to become a well rounded person! You need to learn to talk to people. There's no use having a first and having ludicrously depressing views and making people uncomfortable in conversations. (I know a guy like this, he's good at maths but you can't hold a convo with him if your life depended on it)

Once again, thanks TSR. Since I've finally graduated I'll probably be on here less and less, but I can't leave without giving something back, even if it will piss people off! (and why won't it, it's TSR!)

[SimonM]

Fantastic post. Thanks!

[boromir9111]

[pinkcherrytart]

+1