Comparing maths degrees specifically year 1

Can some people post some examples of the year 1 work you do from different universities, I'd be interested to see the difference between them, particularly from Cambridge which is supposed to be insane, ty :biggrin:

Reply 1

username839699

You lazy bum. Do it yourself.

Both MIT and Cambridge have psets or exam papers on the appropriate websites.

Reply 2

alibee

Tbh I'd imagine 1st year maths is much of a muchness. Everywhere wants to give you a solid grounding for future study. Someone posted some Cambridge exam papers a few weeks ago and tbh they're very similar to my past papers.

Reply 3

Sollytear

First years are not the same because unis put different amounts of importants on areas (i.e. cambridge lays off analysis in yr1 where as warwick rams it down ur through, though cambridge has the best analysis PhD department in the uk) and try to use relavent staff (though at yr1 most lecturers will know the material inside out, its a case of finding lecturers that can be bothered with yr1).

Reply 4

problemsolver

There are cambridge past papers:

http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/undergrad/pastpapers/

Reply 5

IrrationalNumber

Original post by Sollytear

(i.e. cambridge lays off analysis in yr1 where as warwick rams it down ur through, though cambridge has the best analysis PhD department in the uk)

What?

Reply 6

Sollytear

Cambridge maths course does not do much analysis (a field of maths) in yr1
Warwick does lots in yr1
Cambridge Analysis unit for research is particularly good and often quoted as the best in UK.

Reply 7

qgujxj39

I'm curious, how much more analysis does Warwick do than Cambridge in the first year?

We (Cambridge) do sequences, series, continuity (not uniform, though) and differentiability on R, and integration.

Reply 8

IrrationalNumber

Original post by Sollytear

Cambridge maths course does not do much analysis (a field of maths) in yr1

Nonsense.

Warwick does lots in yr1

We do 24 credits worth, IE about 1/6th ish of a year. We cover everything in Cambridge's course except the riemann integral (which is delayed until the second year and defined by the regulated integral). How can you say Cambridge doesn't do much and then argue that Warwick does loads? At best we have the option to do a course on the calculus of variations (but not for interesting function spaces, only for C^2 functions and even then only derivations of the euler lagrange equations). At worst you can say we do a significant amount less because the Riemann integral isn't covered

Cambridge Analysis unit for research is particularly good and often quoted as the best in UK.

Any evidence? Oxford has a very strong PDE group and Warwick's analysis group is excellent too.

Reply 9

QuantumOverlord

Original post by tommm

Sounds similar to what we do here. Hmm, Maybe the difference is smaller than I thought.

Reply 10

IrrationalNumber

I've heard that different universities will prove different collections of results. So both universities can say they've covered differentiation but maybe one will not cover the mean value theorem.

Reply 11

Sollytear

Reasoning from ex-Warwick student (master, supervisor etc) with close friends at Cambridge and some now at Cambridge doing their analysis and cancer research PhDs.

Reply 12

anonanon123123

Original post by tommm

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/undergrad/ughandbook/year1/ma131/ma131_syllabus.pdf

Analysis I is taught from October to Christmas, and examined in January.
Analysis II is taught from January to Easter, and examined in June.

We do integration in the 1st term of 2nd year instead of 1st year like you guys.

Reply 13

qgujxj39

Original post by ziedj

As far as I can see, we do everything in there in our first year (most of it is in Analysis I, but some is in Numbers + Sets). It's almost exactly the same, except without integration.

Reply 14

anonanon123123

Original post by tommm

As far as I can see, we do everything in there in our first year (most of it is in Analysis I, but some is in Numbers + Sets). It's almost exactly the same, except without integration.

Pretty much yeah. Do you also do any complex stuff? Since we don't do any until 1st term 2nd year in Vector Analysis.

Reply 15

qgujxj39

Original post by ziedj

Pretty much yeah. Do you also do any complex stuff? Since we don't do any until 1st term 2nd year in Vector Analysis.

There is no compulsory complex analysis course. In the second term of year 2, there are two courses called Complex Analysis and Complex Methods, which cover all the complex stuff from a pure and an applied perspective respectively, and you can take either (I'm doing Methods because I'm not a proper mathematician :frown: