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Cambridge Maths Students and Applicants

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Original post by IGU
Another thing I noticed missing is model theory. I suppose with logic not taught until Part II there really isn't any place for it. Do you see it anywhere? Do any of the maths profs at Cambridge do work in that area?


Cambridge (the UK in general) don't really do much logic. There isn't a model theory course in Part III (at least, not when I did it), and LST in Part II barely touches on model theory. You can always request a non-lectured course in model theory (probably from Hodges) in Part III, but you'd have to find someone to examine it, which might be tricky.

The logic that is in Cambridge tends to be very heavily biased towards the categorical side and, strangely enough, New Foundations.
Original post by Pyoro
II Geometry & Groups, which was cancelled for some reason this year.

I'm really disappointed by this - it was cancelled because of its approximately six-person uptake last year.
Original post by shamika
...


Thanks for this - much appreciated.

Can you please also check Fluid Dynamics and Partial Differential Equatons? For PDE, alot of people from the above years tell me it's a poorly done course - too pure to be applied but also far too sloppy to be pure; I am interested in what the examiners report make of it. Thanks!
Original post by fkhan100
Thanks for this - much appreciated.

Can you please also check Fluid Dynamics and Partial Differential Equatons? For PDE, alot of people from the above years tell me it's a poorly done course - too pure to be applied but also far too sloppy to be pure; I am interested in what the examiners report make of it. Thanks!


FD: about 25 takers per question, typically well done

PDE: It used to be exceptionally unpopular (with 2-3 attempts per question), but the 10 or so who attempted it in 2013 did exceptionally well (nearly all getting alphas. It's got a reputation for being very hard (and there is some noise about moving it to Part III).
Original post by Smaug123
I'm really disappointed by this - it was cancelled because of its approximately six-person uptake last year.


I took G&G and wasn't sure what to make of it. It was interesting, but it wasn't helped by the fact it started off very very very easy (Euclidean geometry angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees easy), and then rapidly got a lot harder, the fact that it was a C course and so lots of people took it less seriously, and the fact that it was lectured on Saturdays.

It also doesn't help that it doesn't tie in that well with ANY other course in the Tripos, really - there's not much overlap between it and, say, Differential Geometry, or any of the other geometry courses. It's a shame, because a course about the Erlangen programme ought to be interesting, but it's a bit of an odd duckling.
G&G notes in case you want to see what you're missing out on: https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~tkc/GeometryandGroups/GeometryandGroups.pdf
Original post by shamika
G&G notes in case you want to see what you're missing out on: https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~tkc/GeometryandGroups/GeometryandGroups.pdf

Thanks very much for this!
Original post by Lord of the Flies
On a side note - and this probably will come off as rude - don't you have better things to do than collect exam reports, miscellaneous stats, and advise people on a course offered by a university you did not actually attend?


Original post by Lord of the Flies

On a side note - and this probably will come off as rude - don't you have better things to do than collect exam reports, miscellaneous stats, and advise people on a course offered by a university you did not actually attend?


Original post by Khallil


Truly the best set of TSR posts ever!!
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Original post by IGU
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Mechanics is also non-examinable. Do you know if it has supervisions or is it strictly a "fix your ignorance on your own" sort of deal?


Surprisingly (largely because it's news to me, despite my, err, being there), there seem to be examples sheets for this course (random example attached). I've never heard of anyone getting supervised in it, though it's presumably possible to ask for supervisions.

Original post by newblood
Truly the best set of TSR posts ever!!
Ey, be nice! I'm sure the majority of TSR's STEP-preppers (including me) are grateful to have dedicated people supporting them with great advice.

That said...

Spoiler

examples9.pdf72.0KB
Anyone got any good advice for getting into Cambridge for maths? And did you all compete in the BMO?
Original post by DomStaff
Anyone got any good advice for getting into Cambridge for maths? And did you all compete in the BMO?


No. Many of us have never touched a BMO paper in our lives.
Original post by DJMayes
No. Many of us have never touched a BMO paper in our lives.


Really? I was under the impression a lot had (despite many students telling me the opposite) because it appeared every Oxbridge PS for maths that I read seemed to have mentioned it.

Now I'm having second thoughts about whether to prepare for it properly or just do loads of STEP I prep so I can move on to STEP II earlier. Decisions.
Original post by DJMayes
No. Many of us have never touched a BMO paper in our lives.


did your interviews include stuff that would have been helpful if you had been involved in the IMO/UKMT kinds of stuff. I heard from my friend that the AM-GM inequality and stuff like pigeon-hole principle is really drilled into them. But ive never done anything like BMO before
Original post by newblood
did your interviews include stuff that would have been helpful if you had been involved in the IMO/UKMT kinds of stuff. I heard from my friend that the AM-GM inequality and stuff like pigeon-hole principle is really drilled into them. But ive never done anything like BMO before


I wouldn't worry about it, they want to try to test you on stuff you haven't seen before so if they think you know it already they'll just move on to something else.
Original post by DomStaff
Really? I was under the impression a lot had (despite many students telling me the opposite) because it appeared every Oxbridge PS for maths that I read seemed to have mentioned it.

Now I'm having second thoughts about whether to prepare for it properly or just do loads of STEP I prep so I can move on to STEP II earlier. Decisions.


There are plenty who have and plenty who haven't. The important thing to take away is that it is in no way a prerequisite for a competitive application.
Original post by shamika
Here you go :smile:

Topics in analysis: what a random course! I don't see the point of it, and judging by the marks on the long questions, plenty of those who took it don't either. Short questions were done very well though

Linear analysis: at least 59 people sat in this course. Amazed; you would never get that level of uptake in another university. Questions were variable but the easiest were done very well. If you can hack it I would take this course; functional analysis is hugely important.

Rep Theory: not popular, and apart from the first question, not done well either. Surprised by the unpopularity.

Number fields: incredibly easy course (I remember revising for my course at Imperial by using old tripos questions because I ran out of different imperial ones... Until I realised it's just not possible to ask much in this course). Very popular except for one question with an average less than 10. One question had an average of 17.8 marks

Number Theory: why isn't this a Part IB course? (I guess to give people something to do at Part II). Incredibly popular but the short questions were surprisingly not done well (with average marks less than 7 for all 4 questions in 2013). Very very popular. Beautiful material too.

Galois theory; popular, but found hard last year. Again, highly recommended for the material if not easy marks in the exam.


Hi,

Would it be possible for you to comment on the Part II courses Stochastic Financial Models, Principles of Statistics, Applied Probability and Statistical Modelling too?

And to anybody who knows: does Stochastic Financial Models rely on a lot of measure theory? I like the sound of the material that is presented in SFM, but I really don't like the look of Probability and Measure, so I was thinking of teaching myself the essentials of measure theory for SFM (should I bother?).

Many thanks in advance.
Original post by RacingPro97
Hi,

Would it be possible for you to comment on the Part II courses Stochastic Financial Models, Principles of Statistics, Applied Probability and Statistical Modelling too?

And to anybody who knows: does Stochastic Financial Models rely on a lot of measure theory? I like the sound of the material that is presented in SFM, but I really don't like the look of Probability and Measure, so I was thinking of teaching myself the essentials of measure theory for SFM (should I bother?).

Many thanks in advance.


You don't need P&M for SFM. You don't really need to teach yourself measure theory either, but it can be helpful.

The main thing is to get your head intuitively around the idea of a filtration (this link - read the bit on mathematical finance and stopping times). It also pops up in Radon-Nikodym. However exam questions are never going to require any real exposition of measure theory.

Oh and I'd be interested in seeing how people did in the above courses too - just out of curiosity rather than it having any practical impact on me :tongue:.
I'm trying to decide between Emmanuel and Queens' (if results go well next week at least), and one of the draws of Queens' is that I heard it has extra classes in which the mathmos go over things they didn't quite understand. Can anyone tell me if Emmanuel have anything similar, or which other colleges do? Thanks.
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Original post by CluffyUno
I'm trying to decide between Emmanuel and Queens' (if results go well next week at least), and one of the draws of Queens' is that I heard it has extra classes in which the mathmos go over things they didn't quite understand. Can anyone tell me if Emmanuel have anything similar, or which other colleges do? Thanks.


I hold an offer from Queens' - feel free to ask me anything about the interview process and whatever.

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