Bristol suddenly expect further maths work to be done before I start!?

Hi all, I've been accepted for Mathematics and Physics and I did not do Further Maths, but I was given a work booklet to do and I have to learn trig substitution and calculus with inverse trig.. not to mention messing with graphs of ellipses and maclaurin and taylor expansions too.. and I think I have to remember many standard results too? There's also a test on this..

Why was I given this now?!

One possibility -- and I'm just guessing here -- it's so they can establish what level you're at when you first start so they can put in your lecture/seminar groups suitable to your current ability level, or provide additional support.

Well I've done most of this, but there does seem to be a fair amount which I haven't done.. through no my fault of my own. Hopefully it means nothing bad?

I also got the workbook. It specifically said it is not a test so don't worry. Though you might like to read up on the stuff you missed for your own benefit.

Didn't it say that we'll have a test when we go there, though?

Hi all, I've been accepted for Mathematics and Physics and I did not do Further Maths, but I was given a work booklet to do and I have to learn trig substitution and calculus with inverse trig.. not to mention messing with graphs of ellipses and maclaurin and taylor expansions too.. and I think I have to remember many standard results too? There's also a test on this..

Why was I given this now?!

Welcome to uni life.

In all seriousness, bit strange they gave you summer work. I have a few mates that do Maths, and they do get a lot of little tests, and had a couple exams early in November as opposed to January when everyone else has them (they also have Jan exams, it might just be to spread them out a bit more). What I can think of is that, firstly, you will have to know this stuff during your first year so it will benefit you to start practicing it now…and secondly they might mean that tests and exams will come around fast so if you don't start now you won't do very well - could be that they're just planning the first test quite early on and want to warn you…and they've just badly worded the e-mail they sent you.

A few of the more intense courses get work on the first day of freshers, so I guess it doesn't surprise me that much.

Thanks.

I'm not so bothered about having many tests or anything or that I have to know my stuff, just that there's some stuff which I don't really know but I'm expected to learn in these final few weeks. I can remember most of the stuff from my A-level courses but there is some new topics that I am supposed to learn and there will be a test straight away I think

You do enjoy Maths right?!

Should just be a bit of fun

Thanks.

I'm not so bothered about having many tests or anything or that I have to know my stuff, just that there's some stuff which I don't really know but I'm expected to learn in these final few weeks. I can remember most of the stuff from my A-level courses but there is some new topics that I am supposed to learn and there will be a test straight away I think

I do, I'm more worried about getting something wrong and feeling like an idiot most of the booklet stuff is on the stuff that I knew, there's just some bits that I don't know.

A test straight away is a bit daunting

Yeahhh…Can I ask how you got accepted onto the course without FM? Not to be taken in a rude way, please, I just thought it was a requirement but I'm obviously wrong. Perhaps not for joint honours courses?

If I am, then that means it's perfectly possible to do the course without it, and you'll probably recap on a lot of the FM stuff in the first few months, but be warned that it's most likely going to be very fast-paced and you'll be doing a lot more extra own-time work than fellow mathematicians who did FM will be doing as it'll be recaps for them.

As long as you know enough to get even half of it right, that'd be considered a good score for a first test. Honestly.

I think the main difference for Maths at Uni (generally, not just Bristol) is that most people probably won't be getting full marks anymore.

Just give it a go, they can't ask for any more

You probably do get a few people that do score 100% marks but they just adjust the marks and say the paper was too easy to compensate. If they continually let people score 100%, the degree would lose credibility.

They very very rarely adjust raw marks. There has to be some kind of exceptional circumstances for them to edit the marks (such as a question about something that wasn't on the syllabus). For example, one of the physics papers for 2nd year mechanics had an average mark of less than 40%, but they still didn't adjust it up.

You're also overestimating how many people get good marks, lemme give you an example of a fairly average mark distribution from a second year exam (it's a core module exam so this tends to have slightly lower marks than non-core modules):

As you can see, only one person got above 80, let alone multiple people getting 100.