statistics 3 (edexcel) help

Original post by DylanJ42

i remember you said about MMath/MathSci and how its good to swap to MathSci, is this because of the more application based maths you'll learn? i know you said you do some finance type stuff these days. but if i wanted to basically study the most (and not to be one of those kids,the "oh when will i ever use this" type) seemingly useless but enjoyable maths by the third year would I be best sticking to the MMath?

the third year looks so good for choice, the main module I want to study is topology, based on a few videos I watched :laugh:

, I can imagine the maths being crazy

will they tell us which modules are recommended, either bc of general easiness ,good lecturers, or easier to get high scores etc

yea i know it may only be because im still young and quite immature that i want to study pure until my eyes bleed :curious:

, maybe once I get older ill appreciate applications of maths a little more

You can do a Masters or BSc (you can swap this in the first year). Masters just involves 1 extra year.

Here is the list for Maths MMath. The first 3 years (though no course gets any choice in the first year) are more limited in choice than MathSci, but MathSci doesn't have a 4th year :sadnod:

so you can see if a Masters is for you. If you pick your options correctly I believe you can switch from the 3rd year of MathSci to the 4th year of normal Maths.

But anyway, MathSci is exactly the same as Mathematics except that you have much more choice on MathSci, but you can choose any option that Mathematics students can so there's no real advantage to being on the Mathematics course. Handy if you change your mind about all of the pure stuff.

:s-smilie:

I don't know much about topology (apart from what it means) but it doesn't sound very nice :tongue:

They have presentations every April for your year and for the options. Lecturers can (but don't necessarily) change from year to year. There are also unit statistics up on the course page (like saying how many people took this module, what the average score was, what % of people failed and the variance of marks) but they say take it with a pinch of salt - maybe only really smart people took a module so the mean is high and fail rate is low, or loads of lazy people took something so the fail rate is high :lol:

) and there are also questionnares every year and you can see the results of that (how many people liked the course, whether it was easy/difficult, stuff like that) so a few things to make your decisions from, but also choose what you enjoy really.

:puke:

I just want a good grade :lol:

and for me, studying pure maths would mean that I'll get a very low grade.

Reply 82

Original post by SeanFM

You can do a Masters or BSc (you can swap this in the first year). Masters just involves 1 extra year.

Here is the list for Maths MMath. The first 3 years (though no course gets any choice in the first year) are more limited in choice than MathSci, but MathSci doesn't have a 4th year :sadnod:

so you can see if a Masters is for you. If you pick your options correctly I believe you can switch from the 3rd year of MathSci to the 4th year of normal Maths.

But anyway, MathSci is exactly the same as Mathematics except that you have much more choice on MathSci, but you can choose any option that Mathematics students can so there's no real advantage to being on the Mathematics course. Handy if you change your mind about all of the pure stuff.

:s-smilie:

I don't know much about topology (apart from what it means) but it doesn't sound very nice :tongue:

They have presentations every April for your year and for the options. Lecturers can (but don't necessarily) change from year to year. There are also unit statistics up on the course page (like saying how many people took this module, what the average score was, what % of people failed and the variance of marks) but they say take it with a pinch of salt - maybe only really smart people took a module so the mean is high and fail rate is low, or loads of lazy people took something so the fail rate is high :lol:

) and there are also questionnares every year and you can see the results of that (how many people liked the course, whether it was easy/difficult, stuff like that) so a few things to make your decisions from, but also choose what you enjoy really.

:puke:

I just want a good grade :lol:

and for me, studying pure maths would mean that I'll get a very low grade.

once again it may be due to my relatively young age but i'd prefer a masters to getting a job :laugh:

ah okay I see what you mean, we are talking through all this in september/october though right?

yea after the first year ill know whether I want to pursue pure or whether ill do more applied, at least maths and mathsci have the same 1st year modules, so im in no rush to decide

:cry2:

you know more about it than me, it seems terrific though haha

oh wow nice :biggrin:

i will probably spend ages looking at those, as sad as it sounds i love things like that. exam reports for alevels and the step grade distributions etc are all great reads :tongue:

, that sort of stuff sounds really good

well yea the grade is definitely important too, if i find im seriously struggling with the pure stuff for example then i wouldnt do it, no matter how fun it was

Reply 83

Original post by DylanJ42

once again it may be due to my relatively young age but i'd prefer a masters to getting a job :laugh:

ah okay I see what you mean, we are talking through all this in september/october though right?

yea after the first year ill know whether I want to pursue pure or whether ill do more applied, at least maths and mathsci have the same 1st year modules, so im in no rush to decide

:cry2:

you know more about it than me, it seems terrific though haha

oh wow nice :biggrin:

i will probably spend ages looking at those, as sad as it sounds i love things like that. exam reports for alevels and the step grade distributions etc are all great reads :tongue:

, that sort of stuff sounds really good

well yea the grade is definitely important too, if i find im seriously struggling with the pure stuff for example then i wouldnt do it, no matter how fun it was

you should look at the placements course in that case, or maybe you shouldn't...? I am not sure. Anyway, you get the chance to do 1 year in industry in most places as long as you are qualified enough. You get proper interviews and assessments and everything. (By most places, I mean it'd be pointless for you to apply to Kew Gardens as a botanist but somewhere like finance or possibly something engineering related, stats for the government or pharmaceutical companies etc, or even investment banking.. Maths opens up a lot of things!)

Hmmm. You get a few introduction type things during freshers week (as well as your first problem sheet, during Freshers!!!11one). I can't remember what they explain though, must have been all of the drinking from Freshers(!). Then the next big explanation (after housing talks in Novemberish) is April for all of these option things.

Yeah, that's right :tongue:

(I would imagine you can swap to Maths and Physics or Maths and Compsci or Maths and Econ towards the start or before you arrive if you want, maybe - someone dropped out of Maths after the first week and swapped to Economics at the same uni).

:lol:

there is not a huge amount to read to be fair, interesting to a certain extent I guess. One of the modules I want to do in the third year has a 20% fail rate :s-smilie:

and one of the lecturers that I had in the first year was one of the 3 lecturers in the whole department who 'failed' their questionnares (the ones that students fill out and rate the course). :rofl:

play it by ear I suppose.

Reply 84

Original post by SeanFM

you should look at the placements course in that case, or maybe you shouldn't...? I am not sure. Anyway, you get the chance to do 1 year in industry in most places as long as you are qualified enough. You get proper interviews and assessments and everything. (By most places, I mean it'd be pointless for you to apply to Kew Gardens as a botanist but somewhere like finance or possibly something engineering related, stats for the government or pharmaceutical companies etc, or even investment banking.. Maths opens up a lot of things!)

Hmmm. You get a few introduction type things during freshers week (as well as your first problem sheet, during Freshers!!!11one). I can't remember what they explain though, must have been all of the drinking from Freshers(!). Then the next big explanation (after housing talks in Novemberish) is April for all of these option things.

Yeah, that's right :tongue:

(I would imagine you can swap to Maths and Physics or Maths and Compsci or Maths and Econ towards the start or before you arrive if you want, maybe - someone dropped out of Maths after the first week and swapped to Economics at the same uni).

:lol:

there is not a huge amount to read to be fair, interesting to a certain extent I guess. One of the modules I want to do in the third year has a 20% fail rate :s-smilie:

and one of the lecturers that I had in the first year was one of the 3 lecturers in the whole department who 'failed' their questionnares (the ones that students fill out and rate the course). :rofl:

play it by ear I suppose.

it is in between the 2nd and 3rd year right? I suppose I will look into it over summer (assuming its not too late to change in september) because I've read that the year in industry is very good for getting jobs once you leave etc

its a difficult problem sheet right? sort of as a "youre not as good as you think you are at maths" kind of thing. oh god i know, how will I even be in a fit state to do maths on that week :laugh:

thats grand then, no pressure to decide early

oh wow, what module is that? by failing does that just mean they were a little sh*t or can that mean things like boring as well?

Reply 85

Original post by DylanJ42

it is in between the 2nd and 3rd year right? I suppose I will look into it over summer (assuming its not too late to change in september) because I've read that the year in industry is very good for getting jobs once you leave etc

its a difficult problem sheet right? sort of as a "youre not as good as you think you are at maths" kind of thing. oh god i know, how will I even be in a fit state to do maths on that week :laugh:

thats grand then, no pressure to decide early

oh wow, what module is that? by failing does that just mean they were a little sh*t or can that mean things like boring as well?

Correct, between second and third year. Mine is with Sainsbury's and I start this July, and it runs until next July. It's not too late to change even in second year, and they even recommend that you don't change courses until you have secured a place. It's great experience apparently and nice pay depending on where you go, especially if you can live with your parents :tongue:

Yesss! Believe me, it is misleadingly difficult and meant to scare you. The exam is nowhere near as hard as any of the problem sheets make it out to be, and Algebra 1A (that module with the problem sheet) is definitely the hardest module in Year 1. You just need to study key theorems with the names, be confident in doing the first 5 or so questions of each problem sheet and do all of the past papers and hopefully you should be okay by then. I bought the books for the first year but I didn't use them much as they didn't seem that useful, so you can save some money there if you want.

:rofl:

I see.

'optimisation of operational research', no idea about what it's about but apparently it is also a unit in MORSE at Warwick and sounds good for Actuarial stuff.

Yeah, so there's a whole bunch of criteria. Boring, too difficult, poor teaching quality, materials/notes weren't good, you feel like you haven't learned anything from the module ( :rofl:

I said this for one of my modules last semester) but all of these things are broken down in the reports so you can look at each criteria seperately.

Reply 86

Original post by SeanFM

Correct, between second and third year. Mine is with Sainsbury's and I start this July, and it runs until next July. It's not too late to change even in second year, and they even recommend that you don't change courses until you have secured a place. It's great experience apparently and nice pay depending on where you go, especially if you can live with your parents :tongue:

Yesss! Believe me, it is misleadingly difficult and meant to scare you. The exam is nowhere near as hard as any of the problem sheets make it out to be, and Algebra 1A (that module with the problem sheet) is definitely the hardest module in Year 1. You just need to study key theorems with the names, be confident in doing the first 5 or so questions of each problem sheet and do all of the past papers and hopefully you should be okay by then. I bought the books for the first year but I didn't use them much as they didn't seem that useful, so you can save some money there if you want.

:rofl:

I see.

'optimisation of operational research', no idea about what it's about but apparently it is also a unit in MORSE at Warwick and sounds good for Actuarial stuff.

Yeah, so there's a whole bunch of criteria. Boring, too difficult, poor teaching quality, materials/notes weren't good, you feel like you haven't learned anything from the module ( :rofl:

I said this for one of my modules last semester) but all of these things are broken down in the reports so you can look at each criteria seperately.

ah thats super cool :biggrin:

are you doing admin work there? ive always thought working in an open 24 hour a day supermarket on night shifts would be really good, apparently the pay is really good due to unsociable hours and the calm supermarket would be a nice working environment i think

yea i assumed that was the case, does anyone completely finish it? So the last 20%-30% of problem sheets are for the high achievers, as in 85/90%+ in their degrees? is it a sensible approach to buy no books and only borrow from libraries and/or get notes online?

i see i see, bad teacher, hard course or lazy students?

too difficult :eek:

thats a little unfair on the lecturer haha he/she cant help if the content is hard

Reply 87

Original post by DylanJ42

ah thats super cool :biggrin:

are you doing admin work there? ive always thought working in an open 24 hour a day supermarket on night shifts would be really good, apparently the pay is really good due to unsociable hours and the calm supermarket would be a nice working environment i think

yea i assumed that was the case, does anyone completely finish it? So the last 20%-30% of problem sheets are for the high achievers, as in 85/90%+ in their degrees? is it a sensible approach to buy no books and only borrow from libraries and/or get notes online?

i see i see, bad teacher, hard course or lazy students?

too difficult :eek:

thats a little unfair on the lecturer haha he/she cant help if the content is hard

I can't tell if you're joking :tongue:

that is usually my joke, that my placement year at Sainsbury's will just be stacking shelves for 12 months and sitting in a store's office. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, just not the idea of a placement year!) It's stuff like looking at potential offers that can be made, what kind of deals customers like at the moment, how you can optimise the layout of stores, those kinds of ideas.

Some people do put a lot of effort into problem sheets and those are the guys that you see getting 80/90s in the exams at the end. In the first year I could do the first few questions on the problem sheets but would give up pretty easily at the hard ones, and I guess I fall into the middle group of students (that get 60-70 with some work but could always do more work), and then there's people who get less than 40 (there are a few, we started at like 350-360 maths students and now we're under 300 or something).

Maths is one of those subjects where you don't really need any external reading or books for that matter to be honest. The lecture notes, the problem sheets and the past exam papers are literally all you need! Apart from one module where you have no choice but to buy the textbook as you need it in the exam (it's the only module where you can bring a textbook into the exam). There goes £30 down the drain but oh well :tongue:

but yeah, you can borrow stuff from the library if you wish. One of my friends on an optional language course borrows the textbook every week, returns it and takes it back out again. :lol:

I don't know, maybe a combination of all 3. I guess I'll find out :tongue:

.

I just had a look at all of the reports/stats etc and it doesn't seem to be the one I was thinking of. For second year modules :K:

out of 256 people, 19.92% failed 'PDEs and continuum mechanics' in 2013 and that was the highest fail rate by some distance. In 2014 the highest fail rate for second year was, out of 308, 11.29% (Analysis 2B, compulsory pure maths :eek4:

). and then in 2014, highest in 3rd year was, out of 27 people, 22.22% on a probability module :tongue:

so.. yeah.

True I guess, which is why I say 'I know it's not your fault but it's too boring/too difficult/not engaging :cry:

'.

Reply 88

Original post by SeanFM

x.

whoops i didnt mean it like that :laugh:

in my head if youre in a shirt and tie doing accounting/marketing things on a computer you're doing admin, i didnt mean you'd be counting stock of 12 months, sorry about that :laugh:

that actually does sound super interesting, its weird to think that we never think of layouts of supermarkets but really behind the scenes hours and hours have been spent planning every aisle out.

ah yea so just like school then basically? you get the few who do every single maths homework, then the middle people who half do them and then the (rather silly) few who never do homeworks! i never understood why youd study maths and not do the problem sheets though, it seems a little silly. Do you get to know a lot of those 300 odd people? and does everyone know who the best are? is it competitive to be the best in the year or unlike school is that not something people care about?

good ole past papers, what would we do without them :laugh:

£30 is like 2 weeks groceries at uni, right? :laugh:

ive always thought that was such a cheat in the system, you cant take a book out for 2 months at a time but you can take it out for a week, come back at the end of the week and take it straight back out again :tongue:

holy crap, a fifth failed a module :eek:

isnt a fail at uni like 30% or something :curious:

how bad will you feel during that exam, they must not have been able to answer any of it hahaha. that 11% fail rate on a compulsory module is scary too, ill hope that's just down to laziness on the pupils behalf

i suppose they wouldn't feel as bad then. The initial blow to your confidence of just reading/hearing "you failed your questionnaire" would really suck

Reply 89

tinkerbella~

13

Original post by Zacken

I can sympathise. :redface:

Oh can you now?

Reply 90

Original post by DylanJ42

whoops i didnt mean it like that :laugh:

in my head if youre in a shirt and tie doing accounting/marketing things on a computer you're doing admin, i didnt mean you'd be counting stock of 12 months, sorry about that :laugh:

that actually does sound super interesting, its weird to think that we never think of layouts of supermarkets but really behind the scenes hours and hours have been spent planning every aisle out.

ah yea so just like school then basically? you get the few who do every single maths homework, then the middle people who half do them and then the (rather silly) few who never do homeworks! i never understood why youd study maths and not do the problem sheets though, it seems a little silly. Do you get to know a lot of those 300 odd people? and does everyone know who the best are? is it competitive to be the best in the year or unlike school is that not something people care about?

good ole past papers, what would we do without them :laugh:

£30 is like 2 weeks groceries at uni, right? :laugh:

ive always thought that was such a cheat in the system, you cant take a book out for 2 months at a time but you can take it out for a week, come back at the end of the week and take it straight back out again :tongue:

holy crap, a fifth failed a module :eek:

isnt a fail at uni like 30% or something :curious:

how bad will you feel during that exam, they must not have been able to answer any of it hahaha. that 11% fail rate on a compulsory module is scary too, ill hope that's just down to laziness on the pupils behalf

i suppose they wouldn't feel as bad then. The initial blow to your confidence of just reading/hearing "you failed your questionnaire" would really suck

I bet you notice like sweets and other stuff sometimes near the checkout to reward yourself after you've had a 'healthy shop'? It's interesting stuff.

Yeah like that. You say that now, but it's really a lot of effort to keep on top of every problem sheet, look over old ones, keep up with lecture notes etc and you may just find yourself leaving it till the last day. :dontknow:

Maths people tend to stick to small groups of 2-3 (no shame in sitting on your own though), sometimes bigger groups and there's no real effort made to make new friends in lectures or tutorials because we're.. introverted. So I could name like maybe 50 of the 300 people but how many I actually talk to / see often.. more like 5. I haven't a clue who's doing best in the year, you'd have to know them personally I guess but there's no kind of competition or wooden spoon or anything like that.

35-39% is a 'soft fail' meaning you might not have to resit the exam, less than 35 means that you do have to resit. You might get used to seeing 80/90/100 at A-level but it's not as easy at uni. I got 47 in two of the worst exams I've ever sat in my life, and I was certain I'd failed them (Algebra 2A/Analysis 2A) but I guess I could have worked harder for those two - just didn't enjoy it and had 0 motivation. :hide:

It's not impossible to get by on £30 for 2 weeks but for my that's just over a week, maybe a week and a half at best.

I guess it is, I am just more concerned about my grade though :lol:

Reply 91

Original post by SeanFM

I bet you notice like sweets and other stuff sometimes near the checkout to reward yourself after you've had a 'healthy shop'? It's interesting stuff.

Yeah like that. You say that now, but it's really a lot of effort to keep on top of every problem sheet, look over old ones, keep up with lecture notes etc and you may just find yourself leaving it till the last day. :dontknow:

Maths people tend to stick to small groups of 2-3 (no shame in sitting on your own though), sometimes bigger groups and there's no real effort made to make new friends in lectures or tutorials because we're.. introverted. So I could name like maybe 50 of the 300 people but how many I actually talk to / see often.. more like 5. I haven't a clue who's doing best in the year, you'd have to know them personally I guess but there's no kind of competition or wooden spoon or anything like that.

35-39% is a 'soft fail' meaning you might not have to resit the exam, less than 35 means that you do have to resit. You might get used to seeing 80/90/100 at A-level but it's not as easy at uni. I got 47 in two of the worst exams I've ever sat in my life, and I was certain I'd failed them (Algebra 2A/Analysis 2A) but I guess I could have worked harder for those two - just didn't enjoy it and had 0 motivation. :hide:

It's not impossible to get by on £30 for 2 weeks but for my that's just over a week, maybe a week and a half at best.

I guess it is, I am just more concerned about my grade though :lol:

yea i done some of this type of thing in economics; milk and other daily necessities at the back so people have to walk through the whole shop. Also learnt about the lowering of price of a seasonal good to attract costumers, even if they make a loss of profit on that item theyll make it back on the other items they sell. I agree it is very interesting

are they not something which can be done in one sitting? one problem sheet per module per week or something like that? I can see how if you left everything to the last minute everything would come crashing down on you. Scary stuff. especially with no teachers there to make you do it!

i could have guessed that i suppose :laugh:

do people who do other courses mix a lot or is it basically just your flatmates and a few math students in your friend group?
(and flatmates/maths students are two separate friend groups most likely). aww thats a shame, i would love the competitiveness of being ranked in the year group :frown:

am i right in saying it is 70% - first. 60% - 2:1, 50% - 2:2, 40% - 3 and below for a fail? are they as clear cut as that? what degree grade (is it called a grade) are you aiming for? is there a rough percentage who get 1sts. 2:1s etc etc, or does it massively vary from year to year?

im quite excited to do grocery shopping as weird as that sounds, i think it will be quite a laugh at first, 20 trips to the shop a day because you've forgotten things

Reply 92

Original post by DylanJ42

yea i done some of this type of thing in economics; milk and other daily necessities at the back so people have to walk through the whole shop. Also learnt about the lowering of price of a seasonal good to attract costumers, even if they make a loss of profit on that item theyll make it back on the other items they sell. I agree it is very interesting

are they not something which can be done in one sitting? one problem sheet per module per week or something like that? I can see how if you left everything to the last minute everything would come crashing down on you. Scary stuff. especially with no teachers there to make you do it!

i could have guessed that i suppose :laugh:

do people who do other courses mix a lot or is it basically just your flatmates and a few math students in your friend group?
(and flatmates/maths students are two separate friend groups most likely). aww thats a shame, i would love the competitiveness of being ranked in the year group :frown:

am i right in saying it is 70% - first. 60% - 2:1, 50% - 2:2, 40% - 3 and below for a fail? are they as clear cut as that? what degree grade (is it called a grade) are you aiming for? is there a rough percentage who get 1sts. 2:1s etc etc, or does it massively vary from year to year?

im quite excited to do grocery shopping as weird as that sounds, i think it will be quite a laugh at first, 20 trips to the shop a day because you've forgotten things

Yeah, that sounds about right :tongue:

, I'm looking forward to it :tongue:

will be a lot different from uni, I imagine.

Oh yeah, you can do that. Doing most of the questions should take you about an hour if you're flicking through notes, looking at definitions and examples etc and then putting pen to paper. But it's just effort I guess, particulary if you need to go over the lecture notes properly because you missed a lecture or something or.. you feel tired after a 9-6.

Just to give you an idea of my timetables so far...(Mind you, they can change every year :dontknow:

)

First year, first semester - Tuesday and Wednesday were the two nasty days. Tuesday was 9-6 and Wednesday (the day where lectures are not on from 1 o'clock onwards because of sports) was fully booked from 9-1 with no breaks.

Can't remember anything from second semester, though one of my mates had the only 8:15 tutorial on the timetable, which was on Friday.

Second year - first semester. All time high of 25 contact hours per week (21 maths + 2 hours languages + 2 hours placement sessions). Monday was 9-6, Tuesday was 9-6 (both with some breaks) and Wednesday was 9, break, 11. Had a lie in until 2 or 3 or something on Thursdays and then Friday was 9, maybe something else, finish at 4.

Second semester, all time low of 16 contact hours (14 every other week as I had the option of choosing when two fortnightly tutorials were (so I picked them to be on the same weeks). Monday is 10-1 and then 4-5, Tuesday is 9-1 and then 5, and 18:15 till 19:15 every fortnight :cry:

. Wednesday is just 11:15 and then Thursday is 9 and 3 and then 5 every fortnight, Friday is 9, 2 and the 4-6.

So you really have to prop yourself up and keep on top of everything, I mean they can pull you over and talk to you about poor attendance/poor problem sheet handing in rate if they really wanted to, though I've only heard people getting pulled in for their exam results and failing etc.

For the Maths courses, in first year everyone is mostly the same, except in some units you get the joint honours people (Maths + Physics, Maths + Econ, Maths + CompSci).

Second year, you might get a few Natural Sciences students and then, depending on what you choose, people from different departments (this mostly applies to the two physics options and the accounting/finance options - in my ones you've got Economists and Chemists and some other people. :dontknow:

) so your group'll just be flatmates, some coursemates and then other people you meet.from anywhere else.

Yes, that's correct. They are called classifications. I'm aiming for a 1st (isn't everyone?) but at the moment I'm only on track for a 2:1. Which is good, but I just don't work hard enough to deserve anything higher at the moment.. but I'm working on it :tongue:

Also, apparently a 'secret' is that for the Maths department, they add a tiny bit of % on to your overall grade (I don't know how, whether it's at the end or they do it for every exam like UMS) as it is 'one of the most difficult degrees at the university', or so one of my first year professors said. I hope she was telling the truth!

You can probably find tables online, but the % of firsts awarded at Bath overall is one of the highest in the country :tongue:

so that can't be too bad, right?

:lol:

I will save you some effort - make shopping lists! The amount of times I have forgotten something important, gone back and bought more stuff that I don't need as well.

Reply 93