Maths Uni Chat
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Original post by Slick Fosbury
I was having a mare with analysis till the lectures finished, now I'm coming back to revising for the actual exam I really don't see what my fuss was about. Dare I say enjoying it..
This happens a lot!
When I'm in the lecture, it makes no sense.
When I look at my notes after the lecture, it still makes no sense.
When I come back a few weeks later, I feel like I understand it very well.
Original post by Slick Fosbury
Anyone find maths makes sense of itself even if you're not consciously doing it?
I was having a mare with analysis till the lectures finished, now I'm coming back to revising for the actual exam I really don't see what my fuss was about. Dare I say enjoying it..
I was having a mare with analysis till the lectures finished, now I'm coming back to revising for the actual exam I really don't see what my fuss was about. Dare I say enjoying it..
Yep, happening with the module I'm revising atm
Original post by cpdavis
Yep, happening with the module I'm revising atm
Aye. Makes me want to just read through all my notes in the summer before lectures even start. Then I look at them and leave it. Lol.
Original post by tommm
I've never played it but loved The Big Bang Theory with the innuendos
(Also, do some programming!)
Original post by shamika
I've never played it but loved The Big Bang Theory with the innuendos
A friend introduced me last term, it's the best board game I've played. Not seen it on Big Bang Theory.
(Also, do some programming!)
I've done all the programming, that's great fun, it's writing up reports that I can't be bothered with
Original post by As_Dust_Dances_
I was just looking over some of my final year options today and most seem quite interesting like cryptology (code deciphering), but I'm maybe thinking of looking into doing something with Statistics and I just thought I would ask if anyone here has done Medical Statistics as an option for final year? If so, how did you find the course in general?
Don't know which uni you are at but I did a medical state course and it was decent. Also did my final year project on a med stats topic. Give it a go!
Original post by tommm
A friend introduced me last term, it's the best board game I've played. Not seen it on Big Bang Theory.
Matt W? Catan is great fun, but all of my housemates are currently obsessed with a game called Galaxy Trucker (a combined puzzle/ship building/space adventure board game).
The other big boardgame that everyone loves is Carcassonne, which I could never get into personally.
Original post by around
Matt W?
Yep!
Original post by tommm
Yep!
Went to a board games evening with him (and a few other friends). None of them had played Catan before. He had.
He absolutely destroyed everyone (although to be fair, one guy had built a road that basically bisected the board...).
Anyone have any horror stories involving Logic/Set Theory modules?
I'm stuck in two minds about trying them; so far I've always done better with more pure areas of maths but I just feel they will be a step too far and I'll have a hellish third year. At least with other modules there's always the option of just grafting, wrote learning proofs etc. Yeah any experiences would be greatly appreciated.
I'm stuck in two minds about trying them; so far I've always done better with more pure areas of maths but I just feel they will be a step too far and I'll have a hellish third year. At least with other modules there's always the option of just grafting, wrote learning proofs etc. Yeah any experiences would be greatly appreciated.
They're really good. Do them.
Besides, there's nothing fundamentally HARD about beginner logic/set theory, you just have to keep a clear mind and be able to disentangle some concepts which have been carelessly merged together by ordinary (mathematical) thinking.
Besides, there's nothing fundamentally HARD about beginner logic/set theory, you just have to keep a clear mind and be able to disentangle some concepts which have been carelessly merged together by ordinary (mathematical) thinking.
I like it how the advert for a teaching position at Harrow school mentions a "high quality coffee machine".
Original post by Hathlan
I like it how the advert for a teaching position at Harrow school mentions a "high quality coffee machine".
Clearly the most important thing about a job.
also, why are they targetting phd students to teach?!?
Hi 
Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous. 
People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous. People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
Original post by lantern
Hi Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous.
People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous. People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
- Get a complete set of lecture notes through whatever means works for you
- Do all of the bookwork (learning definitions, theorems and examinable proofs) from said notes
- Do all of the problem sheets, then do them all again
- Do all of the relevant past papers (remember that lecturers and syllabi change so some past papers will not be suitable)
Maths exams at Bath are around 30% bookwork, 40% seen problems (directly from problem sheets or close enough), and then 30% unseen problems. So doing the above list should do you for a 2:1. If you want a first you will likely have to solve a few "unseen" problems on exams which require a deeper level of understanding of the content. Some modules will just click, others likely won't and will require hard work to gain an understanding. This is what separates a 2:1 mathematician from a 1st class mathematician.
Original post by lantern
Hi Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous.
People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous. People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
The most useful thing for me would've been to re-read lecture notes the day of the lecture. You won't understand everything immediately, but making sure you do on the same day at least means you've got a better chance in the next lecture. And so on.
I only struggle when I don't know my definitions. So what Slumpy said is very true.
Also if you can't do a homework it's because you don't understand that part of the course, so go back and learn whatever the homeworks on.
The absolute hardest thing though is balancing it with everything else in your life. It's too easy to get caught in "uni life" spending a third of the time drunk, a third hungover and a third talking about how hungover/drunk you were. Luckily that got old fast and I'm doing alright now.
Also if you can't do a homework it's because you don't understand that part of the course, so go back and learn whatever the homeworks on.
The absolute hardest thing though is balancing it with everything else in your life. It's too easy to get caught in "uni life" spending a third of the time drunk, a third hungover and a third talking about how hungover/drunk you were. Luckily that got old fast and I'm doing alright now.
Any Actuarial Science students on here, particularly first year? How are you finding revision etc?
Also, any tips on revising/learning Probability and Statistics modules? I'm finding it a huge struggle to get everything to stick, not helped by the fact that past papers seem to contain a lot of stuff not in lectures.
Also, any tips on revising/learning Probability and Statistics modules? I'm finding it a huge struggle to get everything to stick, not helped by the fact that past papers seem to contain a lot of stuff not in lectures.
Original post by lantern
Hi Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous.
People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
Could any of you can give me some advice on how to do well in degree maths? I'm starting university this autumn and I'm a bit nervous. People say past papers are the key to success in A-Level mathematics. What would you say is the key to success in degree level maths?
Also, if I really put a lot of effort in, is First achievable? Or does degree maths require certain 'natural ability' in order to get a First?
I know for certain that I'll enjoy degree maths. I got a feel for what it's like through A Concise Intoduction to Pure Mathematics by Leibeck and I'm really looking forward to it! But I'm still a bit scared I might not understand anything in lectures and so on.
Thanks in advance
To be honest, I think everyone has a different way of doing things and how to revise, and of course part of this variation is down to different level of ability in maths and other aspects (like how good you are at coping with a high workload) but generally you'll work out very quickly how you need to work/revise to do well, so don't worry about it too much. I'll talk specifically about Oxford (since it looks like that's where you're heading) but the same applies to any (top) university for maths. The Oxford past papers are invaluable, but not in the same way as they are at A-Level. The main, if only, thing you take away from the past papers is the structure of questioning you can expect when you're in the real thing, which is obviously a lot of help, you don't want to be figuring out the exam structure when you're in the exam and have only 2.5 hours to pick and choose what 4 or 5 questions you want to do.
I don't know really in regards to what's exactly needed to get a first, no doubt it's a mix of natural ability and hard work - but the first year course in Oxford is pretty intense (in fact, they changed the syllabus this year and have done a good job of making it more challenging) and I would think if you lack a certain level of aptitude in maths it would be pretty difficult to keep up with the pace of the course well enough to then also end up getting a first (or in the case of first year, a distinction) - it's probably possible though if you're willing to work 60+ hours a week (as a lot of people do). Really though, it's very difficult to even start thinking about 'aptitude' when it comes to maths, most people don't excel in every module, and you normally end up spending a disproportionate amount of time on a specific module that's giving you trouble. What I mean to say is, at A-Level there's a very unilateral aptitude in maths that it's testing, and if you're good at one module, you're probably going to be good at them all, and this isn't really the case with University mathematics - this is why it's important that you actually enjoy mathematics to study it, it really takes a certain level of dedication to spend hours and hours trying to understand a topic that really doesn't agree with you, or that you find particularly interesting.
Also, what college do you have an offer from out of interest?
(edited 10 years ago)
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