Topics in engineering

I'm not currently doing Further Maths for my A levels but I'm hoping to do Engineering at university. It would be really helpful if you guys could let me know what further maths topics in specific are really important in engineering. I'll try to teach myself those (with a bit of help) before I go off to university

Hi,
I was in this exact situation as you a year ago and now I just started Uni this year and yes further maths will definitely help especially in more competitive unis. But the topics depend on which type of Engineering you're going to do and which University you're hoping to go to if you don't mind sharing.

If the course does not ask for F Maths then it will teach you what you need.

These are some great unis like Loughborough ad Oxford Brookes with fantastic Engineering courses

Oh i see haha. Yeah i thought so, but people keep telling me that if I did F maths, my first few months(at least) of uni will be really smooth. So I was wondering if I could prepare myself with the bare minimum

Yes - you could look at more Differential Equations, complex numbers, etc

Honestly I've never heard of an issue at somewhere that does not ask for it - where it is preferred obviously there might be. Look at the content of the modules and that'll give you a clue

I'm actually applying to Canada, where they do a first year general engineering. It's at the end of the 1st year that students get to choose what engineering they want to go into.

I'm not currently doing Further Maths for my A levels but I'm hoping to do Engineering at university. It would be really helpful if you guys could let me know what further maths topics in specific are really important in engineering. I'll try to teach myself those (with a bit of help) before I go off to university

Sorry for the late reply but if its general engineering then I'd say focus on complex numbers first, so things like drawing argard diagrams, de moivres theorem etc cuz those are the fundamentals. Then move onto the other stuff. maybe some further mechanics since general engineering is usually heavy on that kinda stuff. Unlike A-level, most courses like IB and other abroad ones at least teach you complex numbers so I'd say that'll be helpful. I just started Uni rn studying Electronic Eng at Imperial and did some fmaths during lockdown and OH MY GOD I'M GLAD I DID because my professor just skimmed through it in like a week 😂😂. Dw tho you'll be fine as long as you do the important topics which imo are complex numbers, matrices and calculus. Don't stress too much about it i don't wanna scare you or anything but I was in your situation and I can say that this would definitely help. Good luck!

nice, i want to study electrical engineering at imperial what grades did you get to get in and what was the interview like?

I got A*A*A, the A in Physics and the other 2 in Maths and Computer science. The minimum req is A*AA, they rlly want u to be fluent with maths cuz it's rlly important. In the interview we got 1 maths question. It's almost always drawing some kind of graph so familiarise yourself with sin, cos, tan and exponential graph methods. ie. draw y= sinx + cosx or smt like that. Make sure you remember or find a way to learn the trig values by heart. I used this thing called the finger method that i found on ytube. Just make sure to sub in values into the equation, find intercepts etc when drawing the graphs. Then you get a few weird physics questions that make you think a lot. It's less calculation but you have to think about the physics behind them. The main point is that you don't have to get them correct so don't panic. U gotta convince them that you're interested. If u get it wrong (like I did on the physics question), listen to the professor explain it and understand it. One of the guys there told me he was tested on a topic that he missed out in school cuz he was ill but he just pretended to be interested enough that they let him in 😂😂. I'm sure he did something well tho cuz they don't let everyone in. Oh and last thing is ofc they're gonna ask why u want to go Imperial or why ur interested and random stuff from ur Personal statement. Prepare a response beforehand if you can, maybe mention ur interested in the research or some aspect of the Uni and not just "it was top 10 in the world leaderboard so i picked it" (which is literally why I chose it)😁. That's about it, it's not crazy as the Oxbridge ones so don't stress. Good luck!

woah, i didnt even see your reply,thanks though, just out of interest how would you have drawn that graph if you dont mind me asking?

No prob, I just subbed in consistent values of x into the function. so like sin(pi/2) + cos(pi/2) then, sin(pi) + cos(pi) mark that point and join the dots. It wasn't that bad, the prof was happy that i knew the trig values without a calculator. If u wanna know what the graph looks like exactly you can put the function in a graph plotter online (ie. desmos graphing calculator) and it'll give it to you. Also its good to start with the intercepets like x =0, y=? first and if possible y= 0 x = ? then move onto other values and plot. Sometimes if u sub in 0 or infinity u get a value thats not possible i.e x/0 (can't divide by 0), then you know there's an asymptote there and you can draw it. If u wanna get better at drawing graphs there's plenty of vids for more complex ones but that's the jist of it. Hope it helps and good luck!

Thanks,ive got an interview lined up for eee at icl,is there lots of personal statement questions in the interview>?