Cambridge Computer Science (CompSci) Students and Applicants

So I'm planning to apply in September. I'm taking Maths, FM, Physics and CS but I don't know if I'll actually get a decent grade in FM after the latest assessment. I'm sure I've done terribly (I couldn't even answer some of the questions) and it's already half way through the year. Should I drop it and focus on my other 3 (CS is a guaranteed A*, it's my best subject by miles since I've been programming since primary school).

The maths in the CS course at Cambridge very quickly goes beyond FM. If you are struggling with FM now it will worry Cambridge, as would dropping it...

Reply 781

AmmarTa

18

Original post by Doonesbury

The maths in the CS course at Cambridge very quickly goes beyond FM. If you are struggling with FM now it will worry Cambridge, as would dropping it...

Hmm, I'll see how it goes for now with my test result. If I get less than a B at the end of the year I'll drop it.

Reply 782

sweeneyrod

15

Original post by AmmarTa

Hmm, I'll see how it goes for now with my test result. If I get less than a B at the end of the year I'll drop it.

Which parts are you struggling with? If it's the applied modules, don't worry too much. If it's the whole of the pure modules, that could be more concerning.

Reply 783

AmmarTa

18

Original post by sweeneyrod

Which parts are you struggling with? If it's the applied modules, don't worry too much. If it's the whole of the pure modules, that could be more concerning.

It's one of the pure modules, I'm fine with some of it but then there's some that I can do in class but then the specimen paper I got barely over half marks on the bits we've covered in class (56%).

Reply 784

AidAnonymous

5

Original post by AmmarTa

It's one of the pure modules, I'm fine with some of it but then there's some that I can do in class but then the specimen paper I got barely over half marks on the bits we've covered in class (56%).

Mate I'm in the exact same situation :smile:

I do Maths, FM CS and Politics, we sat a FM Mock in which I got an E (our FM class was 6 people, 3 got Es and 3 got Us, those who got Us have now voluntarily dropped out)
I got a C in the Pure (normal maths) partly due to bad textbooks (as its a new course) but most people in my year got Us, 2 got Bs (I was 3 marks off a B) and 5 got Cs.
Of course, i don't know about you but most schools have now dropped AS levels and teach a linear course: we're supposed to learn skills over the 2 years, so although we're covering new content, it should "train our brains" and we will get far higher grades than we are now. Even under the old system my teachers said they had people doing FM that went from Es to Bs etc. So I'd say don't stress it yet :smile:

*disclaimer I'm no expert*

Side note, does anyone know if Cambridge have plans to increase the uptake for the CS course? If its still 105 places then I estimate it'll be 20 applicants per place for 2019 entry.

Reply 785

CompSciCat

11

Original post by AidAnonymous

Side note, does anyone know if Cambridge have plans to increase the uptake for the CS course? If its still 105 places then I estimate it'll be 20 applicants per place for 2019 entry.

Just speculation, but considering they made 167 offers for 2018 entry and it's unlikely Cambridge makes offers expecting 60 people to miss them*, I think it's fair to say they' probably already increased the intake. Also, I think your estimation of 20 people per place is way too high.

*there are of course CS with maths STEP offers which are more likely to be missed. but even then people who miss the STEP part are often admitted for another CS option, and there aren't that many of them to explain the increase of offers.

Reply 786

AmmarTa

18

Original post by AidAnonymous

Mate I'm in the exact same situation :smile:

I do Maths, FM CS and Politics, we sat a FM Mock in which I got an E (our FM class was 6 people, 3 got Es and 3 got Us, those who got Us have now voluntarily dropped out)
I got a C in the Pure (normal maths) partly due to bad textbooks (as its a new course) but most people in my year got Us, 2 got Bs (I was 3 marks off a B) and 5 got Cs.
Of course, i don't know about you but most schools have now dropped AS levels and teach a linear course: we're supposed to learn skills over the 2 years, so although we're covering new content, it should "train our brains" and we will get far higher grades than we are now. Even under the old system my teachers said they had people doing FM that went from Es to Bs etc. So I'd say don't stress it yet :smile:

*disclaimer I'm no expert*

Side note, does anyone know if Cambridge have plans to increase the uptake for the CS course? If its still 105 places then I estimate it'll be 20 applicants per place for 2019 entry.

I improved a bunch and I'm not depressed as much anymore so my grades have shot up to 90%s :smile:

Reply 787

AidAnonymous

5

Original post by AmmarTa

I improved a bunch and I'm not depressed as much anymore so my grades have shot up to 90%s :smile:

Haha, same can't be said for me I'm afraid... but are you sitting a linear or modular course? I don't struggle to understand the actual maths, its just that the textbooks we're using were made before the exam board really knew what the questions would be like. There's a girl in my class who wants to do straight maths at Oxford who only got an E, same as me, so I'm not too worried.

Original post by CompSciCat

Just speculation, but considering they made 167 offers for 2018 entry and it's unlikely Cambridge makes offers expecting 60 people to miss them*, I think it's fair to say they' probably already increased the intake. Also, I think your estimation of 20 people per place is way too high.

Thank you, the teacher in charge of Oxbridge applications at our school had said that CS had a large increase in applicants for 2018 entry, as far as I knew they were still offering 105 (or maybe 135 I can't remember) places. for 2017 entry it was about 7-8 per place, for 2018 they said it was about 14, so I assumed that if the trend continued it would be around 20 for 2019 entry.
Thanks :smile:

Reply 788

CompSciCat

11

Original post by AidAnonymous

Haha, same can't be said for me I'm afraid... but are you sitting a linear or modular course? I don't struggle to understand the actual maths, its just that the textbooks we're using were made before the exam board really knew what the questions would be like. There's a girl in my class who wants to do straight maths at Oxford who only got an E, same as me, so I'm not too worried.

Thank you, the teacher in charge of Oxbridge applications at our school had said that CS had a large increase in applicants for 2018 entry, as far as I knew they were still offering 105 (or maybe 135 I can't remember) places. for 2017 entry it was about 7-8 per place, for 2018 they said it was about 14, so I assumed that if the trend continued it would be around 20 for 2019 entry.
Thanks :smile:

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics
This page has the exact numbers if you're interested, and even if you assume that there are still around 105 places for 2018 (which is not actually a fixed number, if you look at the years before it fluctuates) it would "only" be around 11 applicants per place, so your teacher's numbers aren't correct :smile:

Reply 789

Blue.Bird

5

How much of a disadvantage is in not having further maths? (A levels: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, French)
And is Linguistics an option for the 25% of the 50% CS course?

Reply 790

Doones

21

Original post by Blue.Bird

How much of a disadvantage is in not having further maths? (A levels: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, French)
And is Linguistics an option for the 25% of the 50% CS course?

I suggest you ask the Cambridge AT in their thread here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5440032

(No linguistics isn't a specific option afaik - the options are here...
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/computer-science#course-outline )

Reply 791

solark

15

The fact that it's the most competitive Cambridge course statistics wise makes me worry, I feel like I have no realistic chances :frown:

Reply 792

Doones

21

Original post by solark

The fact that it's the most competitive Cambridge course statistics wise makes me worry, I feel like I have no realistic chances :frown:

Nope, that honour is still held by Architecture :wink:

But the fact is, if you don't apply you definitely won't get an offer...

Reply 793

MariaDH

8

Hey! I wonder if there are any current Cambridge CompSci students here but I've been trying, in vain, to find out what the deal is with Saturday lectures/supervisions. How much of your weekend is timetabled and for how many years do you have a 6-day timetable? Cheers.

Reply 794

ImprobableCacti

15

Original post by MariaHD

Hey! I wonder if there are any current Cambridge CompSci students here but I've been trying, in vain, to find out what the deal is with Saturday lectures/supervisions. How much of your weekend is timetabled and for how many years do you have a 6-day timetable? Cheers.

First year you have NatSci maths at 9am on Saturday morning. The later years you don’t have Saturday lectures. Depending on your college/supervisors you might have weekend supervisions.

:smile:

Reply 795

MariaDH

8

Original post by ImprobableCacti

First year you have NatSci maths at 9am on Saturday morning. The later years you don’t have Saturday lectures. Depending on your college/supervisors you might have weekend supervisions.

:smile:

Thanks for the info. The idea of Saturday lectures sucks but isn't a deal breaker. How do you find the workload, if you don't mind me asking? 👍🙂

Reply 796

ImprobableCacti

15

Original post by MariaHD

Thanks for the info. The idea of Saturday lectures sucks but isn't a deal breaker. How do you find the workload, if you don't mind me asking? 👍🙂

Hi - sorry i thought I'd replied to this

The workload for compscis (as i have heard from a few natscis and mathmos) is one of the hardest.

We have (on average) 4 supervisions a week, 11 lectures, a ticking session, a practical and 2-3 ticks due in.

A supervision can be from 6-10 hours of work, depending on the supervisor. A tick usually takes me from 4-6 hours (I'm not great at Java please forgive me), a ticking session is like 10 mins but you have to go to the Computer Lab. A practical is set at 3.5 hours but we usually finish in 2, lectures are all 50mins and supervisions take 1hr.

tl;dr

The workload is very intense.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 797

sweeneyrod

15

Original post by ImprobableCacti

Hi - sorry i thought I'd replied to this

The workload for compscis (as i have heard from a few natscis and mathmos) is one of the hardest.

We have (on average) 4 supervisions a week, 11 lectures, a ticking session, a practical and 3 ticks due in.

A supervision can be from 6-10 hours of work, depending on the supervisor. A tick usually takes me from 4-6 hours (I'm not great at Java please forgive me), a ticking session is like 10 mins but you have to go to the Computer Lab. A practical is set at 3.5 hours but we usually finish in 2, lectures are all 50mins and supervisions take 1hr.

tl;dr

The workload is very intense.

I think that's an overestimate of the typical workload. Assuming in you're in first year (the workload decreases in subsequent years at least in terms of number of ticks and practicals), there are only around 20 non-practical-associated ticks (i.e. for ML, Java, Databases, Graphics, and algorithms), which averages out to 1.25 ticks per week across the first two terms. Likewise, a first year 75%er in Michaelmas should only have 2.125 supervisions/week from CompSci (plus around 1 per week I think for NatSci maths). But more importantly, I think most people spend fewer than 6-10 hours per supervision. Typically I spend 2-6 hours.

My estimates are reasonably in line with the department's guidelines, which say that at maximum you should be spend 5 hours preparing for each supervision (they break this into 2 hours lecture-related work and 3 hours supervision work) and do 3 hours of practical/tick work per course per week, which (with lectures added) gives 48 hour work weeks. But they claim that on average you should only be doing 37 hours per week.

As someone who did the maths option in first year, I think the CS workload is slightly lighter in terms of time than maths. But it's also easier to cope with in other ways as you have more frequent supervisions with less work for each one, so you don't have to be as organised.

Reply 798

ImprobableCacti

15

Original post by ImprobableCacti

Hi - sorry i thought I'd replied to this

The workload for compscis (as i have heard from a few natscis and mathmos) is one of the hardest.

We have (on average) 4 supervisions a week, 11 lectures, a ticking session, a practical and 2-3 ticks due in.

A supervision can be from 6-10 hours of work, depending on the supervisor. A tick usually takes me from 4-6 hours (I'm not great at Java please forgive me), a ticking session is like 10 mins but you have to go to the Computer Lab. A practical is set at 3.5 hours but we usually finish in 2, lectures are all 50mins and supervisions take 1hr.

tl;dr

The workload is very intense.

@MariaHD (I can't get this to link pls help)

I probably should've said that this is just from my experience of Michaelmas :biggrin:

I've had at least 3 supervisions every week this term, with 7 supervisions in the week after the course changeover :redface:

In terms of ticks, I think I subconsciously exaggerated that as I seem to spend way too much of my free time doing ticks 😅. I've had 1 tick per week for paper 1, a fornightly hardware practical (tick) and fortnightly paper 3 ticks - sorry about that haha

Supervision work I probably spend a little too much time on, but in my defense my supervisors give a lot of work and extra reading (it's not like I can get away with not doing the reading as they ask to see our notes :/). One of my supervisors regularly says that we should only attempt extension questions if we have spent less than 6 hours on the core questions, which is a little more than the department guidelines, and lets just say that I never reach any type of extension questions. My supervisors also say that there are 'no excuses for not at least attempting all of the questions' that they set which I find a little unfair considering how much work we are given :smile: