How good do you have to be at MATH to do well in a PHYSICS degree?

Im considering a physics degree and im rly aiming for 'top'unis. I have to put in quite a bit of effort to get good grades in maths and further maths a level. Is this an indication that I shouldn't be considering physics and do engineering or something else instead?
Also, how much maths is in the physics course?? I hope its not a lot lol. Is it less than the maths in an engineering course?
Thank you.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

username2825764

17

In my opinion, you should be on track to get at minimum AA in Maths/Further Maths to even consider doing a physics degree. It is arguably the most conceptually difficult degree as you will be learning high-level mathematics and applying it to solve physics problems.

Reply 2

username3477548

OP

20

Original post by MalcolmX

In my opinion, you should be on track to get at minimum AA in Maths/Further Maths to even consider doing a physics degree. It is arguably the most conceptually difficult degree as you will be learning high-level mathematics and applying it to solve physics problems.

thank you for your reply!
I quite sure I'll get an Astar in maths and an A/Astar in FM, but will alot of work

Reply 3

tmmv

7

Original post by vix.xvi

thank you for your reply!
I quite sure I'll get an Astar in maths and an A/Astar in FM, but will alot of work

yea most unis put the requirements for their courses on their websites. both physics and engineering will use lots of maths just physics is more theoretical so that means its more mathsy. i decided to apply for engineering courses because although i like maths and am quite good at it, engineering means i can still do hard maths but not as hard as that in physics courses (i’ve heard physics is like taking an applied maths degree). one thing to consider is that engineering courses sometimes have higher grade requirements than physics: for example for oxford engineering it is a*a*a and for physics there it is a*aa. lmk if you wanna know anything else i’m happy to answer any more questions.

Reply 4

username3477548

OP

20

Original post by tmmv

yea most unis put the requirements for their courses on their websites. both physics and engineering will use lots of maths just physics is more theoretical so that means its more mathsy. i decided to apply for engineering courses because although i like maths and am quite good at it, engineering means i can still do hard maths but not as hard as that in physics courses (i’ve heard physics is like taking an applied maths degree). one thing to consider is that engineering courses sometimes have higher grade requirements than physics: for example for oxford engineering it is a*a*a and for physics there it is a*aa. lmk if you wanna know anything else i’m happy to answer any more questions.

Thank you very much. This is quite useful :smile:

Do you think the grade requirements for engineering are higher as there is more competition? Or is just because?

btw are you in yr 13 then?

Reply 5

Uni of Southampton Students

Official Rep

15

Original post by vix.xvi

Im considering a physics degree and im rly aiming for 'top'unis. I have to put in quite a bit of effort to get good grades in maths and further maths a level. Is this an indication that I shouldn't be considering physics and do engineering or something else instead?
Also, how much maths is in the physics course?? I hope its not a lot lol. Is it less than the maths in an engineering course?
Thank you.

Hi @vix.xvi

With any degree I feel like how much effort you're willing to put in is the most important part. Yes, a physics degree can be very challenging and maths is definitely an important part of the course but that doesn't mean it should scare you off if you're really interested. Which degree do you think you will find the most fun and engaging? There are plenty of physics students who got lower A-level maths grades than A* and who didn't do further maths at all and they are still thriving on the physics course because they dedicate the time necessary to understanding the maths enough.

If this is something you are really worried about it might be worth looking at the uni's you want to apply to / have applied to and checking out the modules they offer. At the University of Southampton, for example, there are compulsory maths modules in the first year to get everyone up to the same level of maths that the uni think is needed to understand the phyiscs. And then as you progress through the years you may be able to choose option modules with differing levels of maths to suit you.

If you have any other questions about studying physics, feel free to ask. And definitely check out some of the online open days coming up for various unis as you can ask current physics and engineering students about their own experiences.

Good luck in deciding which degree you're going to go for,

Megan
4th year physics student

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Having to put work in isn't really indicative of anything; you will need to put work in to do well at anything in uni. If anything consistent commitment to doing the work and making sure you understand the material is indicative you'll probably cope well with degree level study in anything. The main issue is, if you don't want to do maths literally every day for your degree, don't pick a physics (or engineering) degree.

To put things in perspective, you need to realise that in a physics degree "maths" as you've covered in A-level Maths will not be separate from the "physics" you are doing in the main course. You will be using A-level Maths and beyond in almost all of your modules in physics, every day. So if doing maths constantly is not appealing, then a physics degree might not be such a great idea.

You do similar amounts of mathematical work in both engineering and physics degrees (i.e. a lot), although the exact type of maths you do will not necessarily be the same. Physics makes a bit more use of some slightly more abstract concepts in maths than engineering, although some of the mathematical methods in engineering can be quite involved in going through the computation.

Either way though you'll be using calculus, vector analysis, and matrices/linear algebra constantly in both degrees, plus all the preliminaries that support those (all the basic algebra and trigonometry for example). You'll also have to make some use of complex numbers in either, although generally they're somewhat less prevalent in engineering disciplines other than EE to my knowledge.

Reply 7

Sinnoh

22

Pretty good. You don't want to be stuck not knowing how to integrate trig identities when you're having to work out the terms in a Fourier series, for instance. However they should teach you all the maths you need 'from the ground-up' so there will be a fair bit of A-level recap. So it's fine if you got a bit rusty on your maths over the summer.
A lot of the topics for me have been like a continuation of A-level maths, but there are topics that are conceptually difficult for other reasons - e.g. there isn't really any new maths in thermodynamics, but there's a lot to remember and it takes a lot of practice figuring out which 'tools' to use to answer the question.

I had physics in mind when writing that, but come to think of it, this could apply to physics and the various engineerings.

How good do you have to be at MATH to do well in a PHYSICS degree?

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