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Just finished a degree at King's in Maths, ask me anything!

So as the title has said I've just finished my degree :smile: I was also a live at home student too :yep: If you have any question with regards to King's, maths (or physics/philosophy/political science) living at home or any general queries fire away! :biggrin:

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Original post by Slowbro93
So as the title has said I've just finished my degree :smile: I was also a live at home student too :yep: If you have any question with regards to King's, maths (or physics/philosophy/political science) living at home or any general queries fire away! :biggrin:


How interesting was it and how much work do you have to do compared to A level maths?

What are your career prospects and do you think it'll be easy to find a job?

What were your favourite topics?
Waterfront bar, King's College
King's College London
London
Reply 2
Original post by TheGuyReturns
Why did you decide to drop off the 4 year programme?

How lenient are the exam board on offering resits to first years?

Judging from yourself and your friends, do King's maths grads find good jobs easily? (Any of them becoming actuaries specifically)

Thanks for doing this. :biggrin:


Some profile stalking I see :tongue:

Dropped off primarily because I want to do a masters but not at this moment in time (personal reasons) however, I would have stuck to it if i could :tongue:

As it stands if you fail a module you have to retake it but you get capped at 40% (although there is a rumour this may change but nothing official). I know of people who retook first year because they failed however for higher years if you fail the year then you may end up getting kicked off the course :zomg:

Provided that you're on the ball then yes you can get a job :smile: it's really all down to organisation and knowing what you want to do :h:

Original post by Arithmeticae
How interesting was it and how much work do you have to do compared to A level maths?

What are your career prospects and do you think it'll be easy to find a job?

What were your favourite topics?


Doing a maths degree? It was fun for most parts, preferred the applied modules :smile: well I'm having my second interview tomorrow so we'll see how that goes :smile:

Favourite topic would have to be PDEs :love: Quantum and General are runners up :tongue:
whats it like compared to alevel maths?
I'm starting maths at KCL in 2014, what are your employment prospects like ? do many people get really good jobs ? is it well regarded among employers to have a math degree from kings ?
Original post by Slowbro93
So as the title has said I've just finished my degree :smile: I was also a live at home student too :yep: If you have any question with regards to King's, maths (or physics/philosophy/political science) living at home or any general queries fire away! :biggrin:


How did you find commuting to university? (I'm guessing you did if you lived at home). I'll be commuting in September and I'm worried about it/making friends etc. :redface:
Original post by boxed treasures
whats it like compared to alevel maths?


As the question was for OP but since it is related to maths therefore I think my views can help you to understand the difference between school level maths and university level maths. University level maths is abstract. A-levels' maths typically focuses on learning procedures to solve highly stereotyped problems. University level maths' students think a certain way to solve real problems, problems that can arise from the everyday world, or from science, or from within mathematics itself.*:smile:
Reply 7
How did you revise for exams and how where exams structured ie 4/8 lots of questions repeated from previous years but with different numbers
Are you just good with numbers? Or are you good with words too?
Reply 9
Original post by boxed treasures
whats it like compared to alevel maths?


Very different. At A Level (well under the current syllabus anyway) you can get away with not really understanding as to "why" things happen. At degree level this is completely different. You start questioning even the most basic of things and in addition you start to really gain a sense of logic about how you present mathematics in general.

Is there anything in particular you would like me to tell you about? :smile:

Original post by Light&Dark
I'm starting maths at KCL in 2014, what are your employment prospects like ? do many people get really good jobs ? is it well regarded among employers to have a math degree from kings ?


According to unistats: https://unistats.direct.gov.uk/Subjects/Overview/10003645FT-UBSH3CSMM/ReturnTo/Search

85% of students go onto either masters or full time work. So far in my interviews most people have been impressed with my degree :yep: I've not hit any reactions like "what the hell have you spent your years doing :lolwut: " at all :tongue:

Original post by Psyc_Girl
How did you find commuting to university? (I'm guessing you did if you lived at home). I'll be commuting in September and I'm worried about it/making friends etc. :redface:


Its wasn't too bad as I was about an hour away by bus/half an hour by train. The advice I give to everyone (and I'll be making a post about this some point in the next couple of weeks after I'm done with exams) about commuting from home and getting involved with uni life. It's what you make of it imo :yep:

Original post by James222
How did you revise for exams and how where exams structured ie 4/8 lots of questions repeated from previous years but with different numbers


I miss when I had exams like that. Some lecturers did that but a lot just created new sets of questions (one paper was a completely different structure but he heavily hinted what could come up :tongue: ) It was really understanding the concepts and doing the problem sheets, knowing my definitions, setting up proofs from definitions (which depending on the course it would vary) and then right at the very end looking at past papers just to get timing :yep:

Original post by Chukkeigh
Are you just good with numbers? Or are you good with words too?


Well I would hope I was good with both considering I also got a 2.1 in my philosophy module for the year :tongue:
Does Kings provide pastpaper solutions or solutions for tutorials ?

Its annoying when you get see an exam question that has nothing to do with tutorial or question or much much harder. I dont understand why the difficulty level of tutorial cant be the same as exam, why try and trick students or word the question in such a way that only students really good at doing questions the first time round succeed.
Reply 11
Original post by James222
Does Kings provide pastpaper solutions or solutions for tutorials ?

Its annoying when you get see an exam question that has nothing to do with tutorial or question or much much harder. I dont understand why the difficulty level of tutorial cant be the same as exam, why try and trick students or word the question in such a way that only students really good at doing questions the first time round succeed.


Not always, sometimes you can work out the solutions through set notes (especially when it comes to the construction of proofs). They really do it just to make you think and not just get a degree for being able to do tutorial questions :tongue:
Where else did you apply and why did you chose Kings? Considering it's less than stellar reputation for Maths, I'm very curious (I'm starting there in Sept for Maths - I hope).
Original post by Slowbro93
So as the title has said I've just finished my degree :smile: I was also a live at home student too :yep: If you have any question with regards to King's, maths (or physics/philosophy/political science) living at home or any general queries fire away! :biggrin:


In hindsight, do you think it was better to live at home vs in accommodation? (Judging cost of accommodation vs having your own place etc)

Also, do you have an intended career in mind as a maths graduate?

Finally, completely out of interest as I'm wondering about the difficulty, do you have any example questions that may/have occurred in a paper?

Cheers :biggrin:
Reply 14
Original post by Mathsz0r
Where else did you apply and why did you chose Kings? Considering it's less than stellar reputation for Maths, I'm very curious (I'm starting there in Sept for Maths - I hope).


I applied to Kings, Cambridge, York Nottingham and Durham (got offers from everywhere but Durham). For me, I had King's and Cambridge as my final choices as the options in 3rd and 4th year really did appeal to me at the time (I'm more applied then pure) :yep:
Original post by Slowbro93
I applied to Kings, Cambridge, York Nottingham and Durham (got offers from everywhere but Durham). For me, I had King's and Cambridge as my final choices as the options in 3rd and 4th year really did appeal to me at the time (I'm more applied then pure) :yep:


So you got in to your insurance - Kings? I'm currently holding an offer from Nottingham, but hoping to go to Kings in clearing as I really, really want London haha.
Any tips/advice you'd like to offer to other maths students?
Original post by Mathsz0r
Where else did you apply and why did you chose Kings? Considering it's less than stellar reputation for Maths, I'm very curious (I'm starting there in Sept for Maths - I hope).


You been reading too much into league tables I reckon. Being at King's is great, the mathematics department is fantastic. Living in London is great if you can get used to it. I had a better offer according to league tables but looking at it now I would never change back.
Reply 18
Original post by AdamCee
In hindsight, do you think it was better to live at home vs in accommodation? (Judging cost of accommodation vs having your own place etc)

Also, do you have an intended career in mind as a maths graduate?

Finally, completely out of interest as I'm wondering about the difficulty, do you have any example questions that may/have occurred in a paper?

Cheers :biggrin:


I think it's how you make it tbh, you can have just as much independence (well I did) living at home just so long as you and your parents are on the same page :tongue:

In terms of careers, I have a few in mind where the overall aim is to work with data in the education sector which would lead into the Marketing side :tongue:

Difficulty I think ranges from paper to paper. For me, analysis and linear algebra were my hardest courses but came quite simple to others. Apparently they also had to review the difficultly of a bunch of 3 year modules as they apparently were more difficult then they should be. This is what I heard from ear though :iiam:

Original post by Mathsz0r
So you got in to your insurance - Kings? I'm currently holding an offer from Nottingham, but hoping to go to Kings in clearing as I really, really want London haha.


Yep :tongue: They may be in clearing but they may not be :tongue:
Reply 19
Original post by rayquaza17
Any tips/advice you'd like to offer to other maths students?


This will sounds strange, but enjoy the thinking time when it comes to problems :tongue: Except when it's exam period I tend to enjoy the module for what it is as opposed to remembering a bunch of facts :yep:

And if yo do have an issue, see a lecturer :tongue: Most of them are very helpful although you can have the one of two that are an actual pain :erm:

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