Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Stuff good for mathematics personal statement

I really want to apply for Maths, and I've looked around abit and people say that work experiance and jobs in that area can help for your personal statement. I'm really not sure what to put in it, I dont do loads of stuff so can anyone give me any ideas that look good on applications?

Reply 1

Cephalus

To be honest maths is a hard subject to get work experience for. Ive got an offer from Cam and I havent got any. Having said that, you want to be reading alot of books. Stuff that is extracurricular

Reply 2

HypErTwisT

Original post by Cephalus

To be honest maths is a hard subject to get work experience for. Ive got an offer from Cam and I havent got any. Having said that, you want to be reading alot of books. Stuff that is extracurricular

What? Just reading alot in general, or reading in depth into the subect? stupid question, but oh well.

Reply 3

I got pooled!!!!

Personally, for a personal statement the most important thing is to just read 1 or 2 really stand out books.

There isn't much room on your personal statement so there is no point in reading 10 quite good maths books because there just isn't room to write about them all.

What i did is found a book that i might be reading in my first year at university and read that, then wrote about what i learned, what was interesting...etc.

Reply 4

justanotherposter

Are you applying to a top 20 (if you believe league tables) university? I got told they usually don't care about that sort of stuff as long as you have good predicted grades. I didn't write much about work experience from what I remember, just make it sound like you're enthusiastic about maths (ie don't say you want to do maths to get a good job.) And then fill the rest up with examples and attributes that show you would be an asset to the course (focused, will revise as much as neccessary, etc.) If you have read books on maths then write about that, but if you haven't don't read one for the sake of it, it'll sound fake when you write about it in the statement.

Reply 5

Cephalus

Original post by HypErTwisT

What? Just reading alot in general, or reading in depth into the subect? stupid question, but oh well.

I would recommend reading more around the maths that you study at AS/A2.

Reply 6

Slumpy

Wouldn't bother with work experience. If you've done stuff like maths challenges, they'd be worth mentioning.

Reply 7

HypErTwisT

Original post by Cephalus

I would recommend reading more around the maths that you study at AS/A2.

so...basically just learn what I have to learn?
I appear to be getting conflicting statements from people, I do obviously have an interest in maths so reading more into it does appeal to me abit. Or would I be better just getting the best grades I can?
Now I have all summer, I'm sure I could read a couple of books, but would that be better time spend learning our course?

Reply 8

Cephalus

ok I would say: learn what you have to learn. Then look at some STEP papers which will give you alot more depth at A2 maths than A level.

Reply 9

HypErTwisT

Original post by Cephalus

ok I would say: learn what you have to learn. Then look at some STEP papers which will give you alot more depth at A2 maths than A level.

Ah, ok cool, thats good becasue one of my teachers is running some step challenge type thing after summer, was considering doing that and this has confirmed it.

Reply 10

Rachael

Maths personal statements are tricky - a lot of the general advice doesn't really apply very well. For maths, most places really are only going to care about whether you're good at it - but they'll care about the thinking logically and problem solving skills more than A level type following a method you learnt off by heart. I'm doing Maths at Cambridge - applied with no work experience, no particular books, but I'd done a lot of the maths challenges and olympiads and talked about that sort of thing.