Shoot for the Stars 2- Crash course into uni Maths&Physics

Good luck this year, Warwick have a really friendly climbing club so you've picked a good hobby to start recently

Yay! I was hoping you might start another GYG!

When do you move in? I go tomorrow

I move in next Sunday, was hoping to go on the Saturday but the slots had all been booked by the time i had the chance to do it. Feeling a bit nervous because i've not really started thinking about what to pack yet.

Best of luck tomorrow, how are you feeling?

Good luck mate for the first year - hopefully the math isn't too bad and you have a good time

Thanks, with regards to the climbing i'm a bit confused how the club/gym memberships work. If you know do i need to pay for both the on-campus sports membership (plus the £6 to join the climbing club) and then the membership for the climbing facilities or does being part of the climbing club cover that?

Do you currently study at Warwick?

I can't say for sure (I only know climbing members socially, not through the club, so I don't know the technicalities), but the on-campus pass usually covers on-campus facility use, so I'd guess you'd only need the Warwick Sport membership too if you wanted to climb outside of club sessions.

And yep, I'm about to start my second year at Warwick doing maths

Probably something to look into during the fresher's week fairs.

Any advice on the maths side of my course, given i share roughly the same core courses as the maths students

Good luck this year

Just make sure to work out your priorities and get help when you get stuck, rather than letting things move on too far without you, and you'll be absolutely fine. Since there's usually a problem sheet or quiz due every few days, it can be hard to catch up if you fall behind! There's a Warwick maths discord server that was great for getting help quickly instead of waiting to ask tutors/supervisors/lecturers, so I'd recommend joining that sort of thing if you find them. A lot of people on the straight maths course also pick your core physics modules as optional modules, so there are usually lots of people around to discuss those too.

(I'm not sure on module specific advice, since it depends what you find easy/harder, and a lot of issues I found last year were mainly due to online learning, so advice on solving those wouldn't apply. If you want any advice on specific things as you go along I'll probably be around, I spend far too much time on TSR )

Start of Term 1



Moving in: Went very smoothly, took me about 1.5 hours to fully unpack and sort out everything. Only main complaint about my room is that it's on the ground floor and there is a big tree right outside my window, so there isn't that much natural light in my room. So far all of my flat mates have been really nice, and I've not had any problems so hopefully that continues.

Academic: Had a couple of introductory talks which weren't too useful to be honest, they mainly repeated what was on the course handbook. Also got to meet my personal tutor, he was very friendly but haven't spoken to him properly yet so can't say much more than that at the moment. One thing i have noticed is that a lot of the people on my course seem to only be on it because they got rejected by straight maths on results day (missing A* in fm seems to be the most common reason) and got given my course instead. That coupled with how the maths department gave their intro talk made me feel like my course was seen as purely a worse maths course, although it could just me reading into things too much.

Social: The last week has been pretty fun, went along to some different society taster sessions to try things out but i think i'm probably going to just join the climbing and chess ones for now. Unfortunately, 2 of the climbing societies club hours coincide with lecture so i'll only be able to do 4 hours a week instead of 8 but off-peak price of using the gym once a week on top of that still works out cheaper than buying the gym membership, with the added bonus of being able to talk to and meet new people.

I also played in the chess societies freshers week tournament and did ok, scored 4.5/7 which i was reasonably happy with. Although one of the games i lost was unfortunate as i was a pawn up with a better position and still managed to lose. The other game i lost came at the hands of a second year who was 700ish elo above me, surprised i managed to hold the position for as long as i did if i'm being honest.


Current dilemma: I'm not sure if i should take an additional module on top of my core ones, the one in question is the astronomy module offered by the physics department. It looks very interesting but doesn't seem to lead anywhere? None of the 2nd year options require it to take so not sure if it's worth going up to 140 cats to do (120 is the normal load, i have 130 core on my course).

Start of Term 1



Moving in: Went very smoothly, took me about 1.5 hours to fully unpack and sort out everything. Only main complaint about my room is that it's on the ground floor and there is a big tree right outside my window, so there isn't that much natural light in my room. So far all of my flat mates have been really nice, and I've not had any problems so hopefully that continues.

Academic: Had a couple of introductory talks which weren't too useful to be honest, they mainly repeated what was on the course handbook. Also got to meet my personal tutor, he was very friendly but haven't spoken to him properly yet so can't say much more than that at the moment. One thing i have noticed is that a lot of the people on my course seem to only be on it because they got rejected by straight maths on results day (missing A* in fm seems to be the most common reason) and got given my course instead. That coupled with how the maths department gave their intro talk made me feel like my course was seen as purely a worse maths course, although it could just me reading into things too much.

Social: The last week has been pretty fun, went along to some different society taster sessions to try things out but i think i'm probably going to just join the climbing and chess ones for now. Unfortunately, 2 of the climbing societies club hours coincide with lecture so i'll only be able to do 4 hours a week instead of 8 but off-peak price of using the gym once a week on top of that still works out cheaper than buying the gym membership, with the added bonus of being able to talk to and meet new people.

I also played in the chess societies freshers week tournament and did ok, scored 4.5/7 which i was reasonably happy with. Although one of the games i lost was unfortunate as i was a pawn up with a better position and still managed to lose. The other game i lost came at the hands of a second year who was 700ish elo above me, surprised i managed to hold the position for as long as i did if i'm being honest.


Current dilemma: I'm not sure if i should take an additional module on top of my core ones, the one in question is the astronomy module offered by the physics department. It looks very interesting but doesn't seem to lead anywhere? None of the 2nd year options require it to take so not sure if it's worth going up to 140 cats to do (120 is the normal load, i have 130 core on my course).

Start of Term 1



Moving in: Went very smoothly, took me about 1.5 hours to fully unpack and sort out everything. Only main complaint about my room is that it's on the ground floor and there is a big tree right outside my window, so there isn't that much natural light in my room. So far all of my flat mates have been really nice, and I've not had any problems so hopefully that continues.

Academic: Had a couple of introductory talks which weren't too useful to be honest, they mainly repeated what was on the course handbook. Also got to meet my personal tutor, he was very friendly but haven't spoken to him properly yet so can't say much more than that at the moment. One thing i have noticed is that a lot of the people on my course seem to only be on it because they got rejected by straight maths on results day (missing A* in fm seems to be the most common reason) and got given my course instead. That coupled with how the maths department gave their intro talk made me feel like my course was seen as purely a worse maths course, although it could just me reading into things too much.

Social: The last week has been pretty fun, went along to some different society taster sessions to try things out but i think i'm probably going to just join the climbing and chess ones for now. Unfortunately, 2 of the climbing societies club hours coincide with lecture so i'll only be able to do 4 hours a week instead of 8 but off-peak price of using the gym once a week on top of that still works out cheaper than buying the gym membership, with the added bonus of being able to talk to and meet new people.

I also played in the chess societies freshers week tournament and did ok, scored 4.5/7 which i was reasonably happy with. Although one of the games i lost was unfortunate as i was a pawn up with a better position and still managed to lose. The other game i lost came at the hands of a second year who was 700ish elo above me, surprised i managed to hold the position for as long as i did if i'm being honest.


Current dilemma: I'm not sure if i should take an additional module on top of my core ones, the one in question is the astronomy module offered by the physics department. It looks very interesting but doesn't seem to lead anywhere? None of the 2nd year options require it to take so not sure if it's worth going up to 140 cats to do (120 is the normal load, i have 130 core on my course).

It's good that your flatmates seem nice, some people I know are really struggling because of bad flatmates.

I've met sooooo many people just from trying out and joining a few different societies.

You could maybe take the extra module just for interest, then if you find the workload is too much drop it.

Glad you're settling in okay Induction talks do tend to be a bit dull if you actually read the information they give you! I think the assumption is that most people don't bother reading it, so they also need lectures highlighting the most important bits, as well as introducing you to a few important staff members and faces you should know.

There are definitely a few people in my year who also fall into that "missed the A* in FM so got put into mathsphys" and now are very glad to be on that course instead, it really is just personal preference on subjects. Some of the maths lecturers will sometimes joke about it, but at the end of the day it's only a "worse maths course" if you're looking to do as much maths as possible: if you want to get a proper mix of the two subjects then it's the right course for you.

With regards to extra modules, it really varies by person. I started last year on 144 CATs, with 24 of those just for my personal interest (like it sounds like astronomy would be for you), but I found that I really didn't have time for it alongside all my non-degree commitments so I dropped down to the minimum. Others started on 150 and stuck it out the whole way with no issues. If astronomy is term 2, it doesn't hurt to sign up now and drop it in the term 2 module registration period if you get through term 1 and find that you don't want to be spending any extra time on academics beyond the core.

(Actually, it looks like astronomy is 100% exam, so you might even be able to get away with dropping it around Easter, since you wouldn't have passed the 10% threshold yet.)

Love to hear it buddy! Hopefully you find your lectures more interesting than I’m finding them. The physics part of the course should keep things interesting. Good to hear your personal tutor is nice. How about your fellow tutees?

Societies are probably the best way of meeting other people, especially those who you’ll share common interests with.

If you think you have the time you might as well take the extra module as you seem interested in it, and you could always drop it afterwards if you wanted to.

Good idea about signing up and seeing how the workload goes in the first term ( i don't understand what you mean by the 10% threshold though, we haven't really been explained to how the registration system works so i'm probably missing a bit of info).