maths essays at uni?

Ive heard people who study maths at uni have to do quite a lot of essays which i thought was quite strange compared to a level lol

Is this true?
What do they mean by essays? I assume its not like an analysis in english.. could somebody enlighten me to what they usually encompass?

many thanks

Ive heard people who study maths at uni have to do quite a lot of essays which i thought was quite strange compared to a level lol

Is this true?
What do they mean by essays? I assume its not like an analysis in english.. could somebody enlighten me to what they usually encompass?

many thanks

One of the reasons I want to do maths is because you don't have to do essays so if this or true then my future is shattered.

First year undergrad at St Andrews here. All the maths modules have coursework, but no essays (at least not in first year). Coursework is two of the following: assessed homeworks throughout the semester, a class test at some point in the semester, a computer project (programming). The closest thing to an essay would be the computing projects, which sometimes require comments of what's going on with the code, for clarity. No actual essays though.

Thanks mate -
would you happen to mind answering a few questions bugging me?

Is it good at st andrews?...

In terms of teaching?, ''academic-ness''

In terms of student life?, is St-Andrews a good student town? (Or is it a bit empty and boring)

Is it always cold and raining up north? (even in summer?)

Are the gym facilities good? (i.e local/ uni gym?)
Are there good places to ride a bike (i.e mountain roads ext that id imagine up north...)
Any decent running clubs?

and most importantly are there any hawt girls that do maths?

Yes.





Yes. The staff here are amazing, and the course is challenging, but you get a lot of support from the staff. While tutorial group sizes are bigger than in some other universities (Typically 10), you can go and visit your tutors/other staff at any time during the day, and they will usually help you. Though they prefer it if you email them instead.

One of my friends got into Cambridge for maths, but put it as his insurance in favour of St Andrews.

One major difference from other UK universities is that the winter exams come before Christmas, so instead of revising over the holiday you are completely free to do what you want. The downside of this is that the first semester is incredibly long (15 weeks), so you'll be exhausted by the end.



There are tons of societies around St Andrews, and it has 3 beaches. It's a place of architectural beauty, and gets a lot of tourists. However, St Andrews is only a small town - it doesn't have any "big city" attractions, and only has one permanent nightclub. Most of the student life revolves around drinking (in October there's an event called Raisin Weekend, where most people get drunk over the weekend, and there's a foam fight in fancy dress on the Monday). If you really want a big city experience while living in St Andrews, there are buses every 10 mins that travel to Dundee. It takes about 40 mins though, so it's not ideal, and if it's important to you you'd be better in a city university.



The weather is relatively mild as it's a coastal town, although it does get cold and rainy rather often, and there's sometimes snow. I haven't been at St Andrews for a whole year yet, so I don't really know what the summer is like. The summer holiday starts in May though, so you get to spend most of the summer relaxing. You'd be wise to bring warm clothes for the winter though, if you went there.



I don't use any of the sports facilities (I play for the Quidditch team - yes you heard me right - which isn't affiliated with the sports department). The university is a member of the Wallace Group (7 top sporting universities in the UK), so I'd imagine the facilities and opportunities are very good. There's also StAAG (St Andrews Adventure Group), which organises more extreme activities around the world.



I don't really know many of the people in the department, but there are a lot of girls who study maths, so there's a good chance that a few will meet your fancy.

thanks thats really helpful

one final thing - are there good places to ride a bike (like mountain/ hillside roads in good condition that go on for miles?)

Ive heard people who study maths at uni have to do quite a lot of essays which i thought was quite strange compared to a level lol

Is this true?
What do they mean by essays? I assume its not like an analysis in english.. could somebody enlighten me to what they usually encompass?

many thanks

One of my friends got into Cambridge for maths, but put it as his insurance in favour of St Andrews.

Not sure how that's relevant, at all.

Not sure why you only picked out that part of my response, most of it isn't relevant to the original question anyway. I was responding to the questions I was asked later. The point I was trying to get across was that it's not just a uni of Cambridge rejects, but people actually choose to come here because they feel it's better than the rest. Sorry if I was a little vague.

Fair point, I only picked this part out because the rest of your post was super helpful. It's just that your friend might have firmed St. Andrews for other reasons than course quality over Cambridge or so, it might be worth clarifying that point.

You're right, I probably should have explained that better. My friend turned down Cambridge as he didn't like the idea of having Saturday morning lectures, so settled for St Andrews which has a similar feel to it, but is slightly lower in course quality. Some people will be more comfortable with half a day-off less per week and having to do Christmas revision, for a slightly shorter term and better teaching, so for those people my point doesn't really apply.