[brook12]

Hey, in recent weeks, thanks to TSR mainly, I've become very interested in taking an Electrical and Electronic Engineering course (or similar) at University. I plan to take Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry at AS, dropping Chemistry at A2 to maximise my potential for said course.

I'm just a bit unsure of which of the 12 required modules I should choose for Maths/F Maths; and which would be most to my advantage as a candidate for the EEE course.

I dislike Stats after my experience with GCSE Statistics -- seems a bit monotonous for me, and obviously I will take some mechanics modules, I just wondered whether taking any Decision Maths would be help me with the computer programming parts // general logic bits that this University Course has?

Originally I intended to take C1-4 FP1-3 M1-5. Now, I am considering against M5 and/or FP3 in favour of one of the Decision Maths Units?

My sixth form centre appears really flexible about what I take except the decision and possibly some of the further pure modules will be self-taught.

I just wondered what anyone who's taking Engineering or hopes to did//is doing Maths-wise and what they reckon would be the best for me to do?

Sorry if I appear a bit over-eager, perhaps I am thinking about this too much, too soon. I just want to be really organised with my A-Levels; I was less together with my GCSEs and believe my results will suffer slightly because of this.

[help please!]

Hi

I have just finsihed As maths and further maths and am considering engineering so I may be able to help:

At a Oxbridge day I was told to do as many pure and mechanics modules as possible and stay away from everything else.
I did D1 (OCR) and it didn't seem to have anything in that would be relevant to engineering. - I don't know this but it's my opinion

However you may get bored of mechanics/pure and just want a change so D1 might be better. Plus I think D1 would be easier than M5 or FP3.

As with anything you should probably do what you think would be the most interesting and enjoyable.

[Hibbleton34]

In terms of maths modules, take the ones you will enjoy. Unis wont discriminate between people because of their choice of modules cause a lot of people dont get to choose, at the end of the day the better mark you get in the whole subject the more likely youre gonna get into whatever uni youre looking at, and if anything is in your course that was not a compulsory part of the offer, like a module in decision cause theyll go over it once the course starts so everyone knows it.

Oh and take the easiest ones too, ask people you know who've done them before which were easiest cause then if you lose any marks in a compulsory modules you can make it up in one of your choices.

[shyopstv]

For EEE, neither Decision nor Mechanics are that helpful. I did D1 and D2 and have used nothing from either of them in two years of EEE. As an engineer in industry, mechanics is probably much more useful and for that reason, I would recommend you take at least some mechanics modules. As for the programming bits, software engineering is considerably different to what is contained in the decision modules I did but there can be no harm in taking maybe one decision module just because it is pretty easy and would be a change from mechanics.

Ultimately, the most beneficial thing would be to master the content in your pure units. If you are not set upon EEE and think that there is a possibility that you will be doing some other type of engineering then certainly do as many mechanics modules as possible as it will be so much more useful.

[brook12]

Thanks all three! Wow, TSR is so useful. Incredibly glad I stumbled upon it, better advice give than anyone where I live could offer.

On the advice so far, I think I will try and take C1 M1 in January, C2 FP1 M2 in June. Then, I'll take the rest of the pure stuff the next year, with M3 and M4, and most probably just do D1 as opposed to M5 to lift the pressure off the summer A2 exams. (It's recommended at my school to do this five module, seven module combination, for some reason, to ween into the heavier maths from GCSE level.)

I understand what's being said. Ensuring a decent A2 grade is a far better thing than forcing myself on all the mechanics units and ending up with some mediocre marks there..

Thanks again

[somewiseguy]

by doing m1-m5 you are just making more work for yourself- i've done m1, m2 and m3 (just finished) and even that is a bit much-my friend got into oxford comfortably to do engineering with the same combination as me:

C1-4
FP1-3
S1-2
M1-3
D1

(one extra cos further maths is hard!)
trust me, you will need modules like S1, S2 and D1 (aswell as M1 and M2) to make up for the difficulty of Fp2 and Fp3 (don't drop those, they are good units to keep), as even though they are annoying and dull-they can be really easy marks in the bag. You don't need M4 and M5, i find M3 just ridiculous so I can't imagine why anyone would want to to do 4 or 5. Also, D1 isn't useful at all-in ANY subject, let alone EEE-so if you think you are doing it for it's use then you are kidding yourself-it's just an easy A.

If i were you i would swap M4 and M5 for S1 and S2, even though you don't think much of it. Stats is not as bad as the rubbish at gcse, and is quite straight forward- the extra mechanics modules are not going to help you-will probably only drag you down.

Of course this is just my personal opinion, but all i can say is I prefer mechanics over stats any day (architecture involves some engineering after all) but at the end of the day, doing it all the way up to M3 pissed me off, and if i didn't have S1, S2 or D1- i probably would have no chance getting an A in further maths- despite it being my best subject.

[SusDev]

Where do you want to study EEE?

[Hibbleton34]

Youre welcome mate

[brook12]

Originally Posted by SusDev

Where do you want to study EEE?

Imperial would definitely be my first choice: department, location, campus, employment opportunities etc. But, I'm worried about the entry test they are introducing plus, knowing them, they might require three A*s by the time I get there (2010) as minimum entry criteria...

Bristol would be my second choice, excellent department from what I've heard, plus I lived there for a couple of years and my dad went there.

Possibly UCL as a third choice? I know the engineering is great, not sure about the EEE department. The buzz of London fascinates me after living on a remote island for six years.

I would have gone for Southampton as well but because it's so close to where I live, I imagine it wouldn't feel like leaving home and being at university, if you know what I mean?

Beyond these, I'm not really sure.

[SusDev]

Originally Posted by brook12

Imperial would definitely be my first choice: department, location, campus, employment opportunities etc. But, I'm worried about the entry test they are introducing plus, knowing them, they might require three A*s by the time I get there (2010) as minimum entry criteria...

Bristol would be my second choice, excellent department from what I've heard, plus I lived there for a couple of years and my dad went there.

Possibly UCL as a third choice? I know the engineering is great, not sure about the EEE department. The buzz of London fascinates me after living on a remote island for six years.

I would have gone for Southampton as well but because it's so close to where I live, I imagine it wouldn't feel like leaving home and being at university, if you know what I mean?

Beyond these, I'm not really sure.

I have a friend that got an offer from imperial for EEE this year with just Maths (C1-4,M1-2). He was also told by the interviewer that it was quite good that he was doing ICT. In the end my friend chose queens belfast over imperial.

[shyopstv]

Originally Posted by brook12

Imperial would definitely be my first choice: department, location, campus, employment opportunities etc. But, I'm worried about the entry test they are introducing plus, knowing them, they might require three A*s by the time I get there (2010) as minimum entry criteria...

In 2006, I got an offer with no A*s at GCSE and only doing an AS in Further Maths. I got the impression that back then at least, predicted A Level grades were more important. This isn't Law or Medicine so as long as your A Level grades are good, you should find it quite easy to get offers from some very good universities

As for the entrance test, it hasn't even been confirmed yet. Even if it does happen, by doing Further Maths, you will already be in a better position than some people taking it.