How are you feeling right now? MKV

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I love this inevitable steady increase in volume of text from both sides lol.

Anyway, slightly random, but which book(s) do you think is best for self-studying the vector analysis module? He's recommended so many books and I cbb to go through all of them. I'm going to use the (incomplete) notes too, but thought hey I may as well supplement them if I'm going revise thoroughly.

That's surprising, I found the hours of prep very fun, it was just such a nice change from drab A Level stuff and was really my kind of style unlike the MAT which I flopped and olympiads etc. But I did start very early when there was basically no pressure, so that might have had something to do with it.

Lol I wish. I mean I have had borderline miracles before, was totally convinced I got 112 in STEP but got far higher than that getting almost as close to SSS as is physically possible (alas only 1S1). So it's possible. But this time I'm actually being over optimistic about stuff I only just might've got right, which is very unusual and not a good sign. What did you get a 60 in if I may ask? Considering you had a 60, a 75, etc. you must have absolutely aced some modules to skyrocket the average up to 86! Maybe there is hope for me lol.

Jeez, an IMO team member at your school, that's pretty awesome. We got rekt in the team maths challenge, a certain two schools however always smashed that team challenge so I might have some idea who you're talking about lol.

I have noticed Samir likes to show off his fabulous writing skills lol.

Man I would've loved to have two interviews. Instead of a test which I f**k up and then 20 mins of some douche just rubbing it in, not bothering to ask me a single new question. Tbf I also embarrassed myself with a rather simple mechanics question lol. To the point that the guy has to illustrate stuff by waving his pens in the air and spelling out the answer (not literally spelling it out though lol). Needless to say I did no applied Qs in STEP...

I dunno, most people I just don't click with, so it doesn't really bother me when I 'know' someone but never makes friends with them. Only very few people exist who I can actually become friends with.
Lol I can imagine you raging in pool XD.
Yeah idk why I'm so perfectionist with undeservedly high standards either. Though it seems that with reduced 'social success' one strives more for success in other areas.

Yeah it always seems to happen, and someone eventually collapses it..

Tbh I didn't even use a book, I just used his resources and random stack exchange and wikipedia stuff. Some definitions I just assumed lol (like I just "figured out" what it meant to integrate things dzconjugate in C for instance, and assumed it was correct). Might wanna ask @fatart123




I just found myself unable to do questions very often. I guess I never really focused much on prep. I did quite a lot and quite early but didn't really give it the due respect or attention.

Yeah I guess that's true but who knows. My feeling is I should just let go and accept whatever mark rolls my way. Rather than do like last year where I spent every minute neurotically calculating potential mark predictions. I remember I never expected to get as high as I did, and I've probs over adjusted this year in terms of predicting high marks. Think I've said before but Prob A, so only 6 CATS tbf. Yeah I mainly relied on core maths modules plus of course logic I. Geometry and Motion and Linear Algebra were pretty much my only nontrivial big success stories with 90 and 92 respectively (which incidentally is probably like twice my raw mark in the advanced variation lol. Well not really, but it was horrible all the same). That Geometry and Motion exam is probably the only challenging one I've done particularly well in. Almost every other exam that has tested me I've just been pretty much killed by.

Well you know I went to a Welsh school...but we never smashed it, or at least not when I went.. Not much scope in the baton round for one great team member to carry you. IIRC we almost got full in the crossword but one of us (not me) thought that 57 was prime, even worse than 1729! Or that may have been a practice but I am pretty sure that came up lol.

Yeah he does but I like him. Really hoping he does Galois Theory again next year as that interests me quite a lot.

Oh yeah one thing that happened in my second one also was that a guy was asking why a certain equation was problematic with some variable input or something. It was because the denominator was zero. he asked me like twice and I just stared at the paper blankly, then back to him, he was like ...
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"well Z would be infinite"
then moved on.

I guess. I just tend to like people I suppose. I would probably describe myself, perhaps paradoxically, as somewhat extroverted, in that social contact energizes me a great deal.
Yeah like basically everyone I know on the course who doesn't get great marks makes up for it with actual life skills. I feel like, not having life skills, I better get super great marks to make up for it..

I guess I just had a strange knack for STEP when I started, despite being bad at maths in general. I went into my first mock aiming for a 2 and came out with full marks (tbf it happened to be the easiest modern STEP paper in existence).

If I did even the slightest bit of mark analysis (even taking the papers home with me) I'd probably launch myself into depression. My tactic this year is to follow the old adage 'ignorance is bliss' and lull myself into a false sense of security. That way, I can pretend that I actually might've done well in my exams lol.
Damn, I knew you were hiding some great marks like those. I probably got <80 in Linear Algebra and potentially even in G&M. Only recently realised I labelled the radii of the torus wrongly... So I've f***ed up the modules that matter, apart from Analysis I guess...

Yeah I went to a Welsh school too. It really wasn't cut out for preparing Oxbridge students though, which was well illustrated by the fact that the 'Oxbridge group' initially had like 15 people, then suddenly it became 2, me and my friend, who both got rejected... Though I would've loved to have an IMO student or someone that good in our school; one of the reasons I wanted to go Cambs was to meet students who were a lot better than me at maths.

Yeah he's a fantastic lecturer, I almost feel bad for not going to his lectures, but then his lecture notes were so great I didn't even need to lol.

Lol sounds like something I would do.

This is my main concern. Even if I were to (hypothetically of course) get 100% in every exam I sat here, I'd still be worth less to employers than everyone else with a first, because I have absolutely 0 life skills, whereas everyone else can at least socialise. Of course the 100% thing is a little bit too exaggerated since that would no doubt arouse attention from professors. But basically a first would mean a lot less than it should.

Fair enough, I suppose the exam just kinda "suits" some people.

I usually just like to have a fair idea of what I've got, and be, if anything, on the pessimistic side, if not to a great extent. Then I usually don't get shocked. But as I said this year I've predicted myself far too high usually. Even predicting myself like 85 in my best case for Differentiation when I got like max 75-80 raw haha.

Yeah in my year 2 of us applied for Cambridge, pretty sure nobody else applied for Oxbridge (and I'm talking every subject not just Maths. I don't know for sure though). The other one got rejected pre-interview for bad UMS in spite of 4As...pretty brutal. Yeah I never had enough interest in actual Maths as opposed to garbage A-level at that stage to really gain anything from being around such an outstandingly talented mathematician sadly. A guy in my supervision group was pretty good, seemed Cambridge level to me, think he got 87 last year, so one of the top few. Haven't seen him in a while and other than that there are lots of people who I think are good but I don't feel like I'm surrounded by talent as such, it's not a hugely inspiring environment.

Yeah. I went to all of Samir's lectures because back then I actually went to lectures, those were the days. Remember going to play Badminton (I'm even more sh*t than one might think, just was enjoyable, til I inevitably, as usual, decided I couldn't have fun for fun's fake) straight after them. Seems absolutely ages ago now.

Yeah I just dunno how to develop anything at this point. Don't really know where to start. Just haven't had any actual practical work experience.

What be the matter?

Same old sh*t lol

Family made me cry for 3 straight hours tonight. Or shall i say this morning

Family made me cry for 3 straight hours tonight. Or shall i say this morning

If I ever leave TSR forever for a reason or another (banned, no time, etc), remember that I still love you all.