University of Warwick

Coventry

Difficulty of a Warwick Maths Degree

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Reply 20

dididid

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

yeah, Warwick will be my first choice :smile:

nice , same so we're potential course mates :smile:

University of Warwick

Coventry

Reply 21

LaurenLovesMaths

[QUOTE=dididid;68485388]nice , same so we're potential course mates :smile:

Have you got an offer? :biggrin:

Reply 22

dididid

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

Have you got an offer? :biggrin:

havent applied yet :/ , our schools taking a long time with references :frown:

... have you got one?

Reply 23

LaurenLovesMaths

[QUOTE=dididid;68487494]havent applied yet :/ , our schools taking a long time with references :frown:

... have you got one?

Awh :frown:

yeah I got one a week ago :biggrin:

Reply 24

dididid

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

Awh

yeah I got one a week ago :biggrin:

oh congrats :smile:

Reply 25

LaurenLovesMaths

[QUOTE=dididid;68492576]oh congrats :smile:

... hope i can get my application sent next week .. where else are you applying? and have you applied to any low unis for an insurance , i cant seem to find any semi decent ones id insure with AAB/ABB

I've applied to Manchester, Nottingham (offer), Birmingham and Durham, all of which want 3As. I got an interview for Manchester but rejected it as I'd gotten offers from Nottingham and Warwick. Gonna put Nottingham or Birmingham as my insurance :smile:

Reply 26

Lauren-x-

Original post by dididid

thanks , I've had a look at the presentation and its helped clear a lot of stuff. btw will warwick be your firm?

If I don't get an offer from Cambridge, then yes. Or if in a few months time I think there's absolutely no chance of me getting into Cambridge (if they give me an offer) then it will be my firm. (tbh the probability is already pretty low haha.)

I really liked Warwick at the open day. The only thing that put me off a little bit was the cramped accommodation, there were so many rooms down a long thin corridor! But that's pretty standard for student accommodation, I guess :tongue:

I'm not putting it as my insurance choice though as the entry requirements are far too high to be safe!!

What's going to be your firm/insurance? :smile:

Reply 27

dididid

Original post by Lauren-x-

I'm not putting it as my insurance choice though as the entry requirements are far too high to be safe!!

What's going to be your firm/insurance? :smile:

haha, hope you do get an offer from cambridge. I'm most likely going to firm warwick but not to sure on an insurance as i want something around AAB/ABB just to be safe, but if that does happen ill probably end up retaking as i doubt ill be happy going to a lower uni. whats going to be your insurance

Reply 28

dididid

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

I've applied to Manchester, Nottingham (offer), Birmingham and Durham, all of which want 3As. I got an interview for Manchester but rejected it as I'd gotten offers from Nottingham and Warwick. Gonna put Nottingham or Birmingham as my insurance :smile:

oh , im being forced into applying to manchester , I'm not to keen on going there but my parents want me to have an option close to home , even though i won't want to stay at home :biggrin:

Reply 29

LaurenLovesMaths

[QUOTE=dididid;68499452]oh , im being forced into applying to manchester , I'm not to keen on going there but my parents want me to have an option close to home , even though i won't want to stay at home :biggrin:

Haha, my parents want me to go to Nottingham because they don't want me to move away!

Reply 30

dididid

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

Haha, my parents want me to go to Nottingham because they don't want me to move away!

haha, it took a lot of persuading to get them to let me apply to far unis . they're also asian so i had to persuade them i wanted to do maths instead of medicine as well.

Reply 31

BankOfPigs

I'm a third year Maths + Philosophy student. This consists of studying the same Maths syllabus in first year, and about half of it in second year with just a few modules in third year.

The first thing to note that is that how you do in A-level, STEP in my opinion barely affects how well you will do at the degree since the style is fundamentally different. I mean this more from the perspective that doing well in A-level or STEP is not a sufficient condition for doing at University Maths.

I've done a lot of modules in other departments (Stats, Econ, CompSci, Languages, Philosophy, Maths) so it might be more useful if I can give a comparison. Maths really catches up on you if you don't study it enough. By this, I mean that you can more feasibly go into other departments learn their modules and do reasonably well without doing their prerequisites. The individual difficulties into doing so differ, but they are at least approachable. The same can't really be said about Maths, aside from certain modules such as set theory which has few prerequisites. The difficulty of Maths is not at all about the exams. The exams themselves are often quite standard and don't require any new ideas or methods. The difficulty is more about understanding and building on those concepts.

At the same time, I don't think Maths should be hyped in terms of this difficulty. Once you have passed the conceptual barrier its comparitively tolerable. You don't need any supernatural insight (at least for Warwick Maths Exams) to get firsts in the subject. Comparing this with essay writing in Philosophy or other such subjects is difficult since its a different type of requirement to do well.

I agree with the 50/50 notion described earlier. What happens is that some students become completely disillusioned by Maths, especially for those in joint degrees. Other students kind of 'see the light' and end up doing very well. Its very much a sort of snowball in my opinion.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 32

LaurenLovesMaths

[QUOTE=BankOfPigs;68540548]I'm a third year Maths + Philosophy student. This consists of studying the same Maths syllabus in first year, and about half of it in second year with just a few modules in third year.

The first thing to note that is that how you do in A-level, STEP in my opinion barely affects how well you will do at the degree since the style is fundamentally different. I mean this more from the perspective that doing well in A-level or STEP is not a sufficient condition for doing at University Maths.

I've done a lot of modules in other departments (Stats, Econ, CompSci, Languages, Philosophy, Maths) so it might be more useful if I can give a comparison. Maths really catches up on you if you don't study it enough. By this, I mean that you can more feasibly go into other departments learn their modules and do reasonably well without doing their prerequisites. The individual difficulties into doing so differ, but they are at least approachable. The same can't really be said about Maths, aside from certain modules such as set theory which has few prerequisites. The difficulty of Maths is not at all about the exams. The exams themselves are often quite standard and don't require any new ideas or methods. The difficulty is more about understanding and building on those concepts.

At the same time, I don't think Maths should be hyped in terms of this difficulty. Once you have passed the conceptual barrier its comparitively tolerable. You don't need any supernatural insight (at least for Warwick Maths Exams) to get firsts in the subject. Comparing this with essay writing in Philosophy or other such subjects is difficult since its a different type of requirement to do well.

I agree with the 50/50 notion described earlier. What happens is that some students become completely disillusioned by Maths, especially for those in joint degrees. Other students kind of 'see the light' and end up doing very well. Its very much a sort of snowball in my opinion.

Thank you, your opinion is very useful :smile:

Reply 33

AphysouPam

Original post by LaurenLovesMaths

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how difficult a maths degree is from Warwick please? At A Level I generally just understand things quite easily, and if I don't, it doesn't take too much work to do so. I'm just really scared that I'll get to uni and really struggle even though I should make the entry requirements :frown:

The problem with doing Maths BSc at Warwick is that so much of the teaching is done by other students - graduates. They even set papers that count towards finals. This isn't satisfactory when you pay so much money and are expecting some of the famous names in the Maths department.

Reply 34

goodadvice12

can you give me a bit more info about how you revised? Did you just use the lecture notes? What about any textbooks (they seem pretty hard going).Struggling a bit here and need any advice going - it has also been harder with the lecturers strike!!thanks (ps i am first year at Warwick)

Reply 35

math42

Original post by goodadvice12

Lecture notes are generally sufficient, although it does depend on the module. Usually textbooks aren't worth using in my experience. Personally I tend to go through lecture notes, make sure I can reproduce or at least have a good understanding of most proofs, and familiarize myself with all the given examples. Then I use past papers fairly heavily; I'll often go through each of them a few times. This helps massively with being comfortable in an exam setting of course. You'll want to be fairly familiar with assignment questions and how to do them as well - especially the ones that were not assessed, as these are often used in exams.