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I hate Oxford maths:(
hi,
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
Scroll to see replies
Phil23
maths is so depressing and boring
Endless list of advice for you. Firstly, talk to your tutor. Be open and honest. Secondly talk to your parents. Thirdly talk to your head of sixthform from your old school. Fourthly talk to the citizen's advice bureau about how it will affect your student loan / finances. Fifthly sleep on this decision.
All I can see is stick with it for another term and then make up your mind.
I had similar problems in my first term, and ended up liking my course once it all clicked.
I had similar problems in my first term, and ended up liking my course once it all clicked.
doesn't seem much point deferring - the course won't have changed much by next year. do you plan to have changed by then?
Phil23
hi,
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
Why do you want to defer? I think first term, in fact first year's are supposed to be easier and it gets harder as you carry on. If you like the way things work and like working in the lab go for engineering. As for physics, I think a good mathematician is always good at physics so it is also an alternative. But still think twice, to whom much is given, much is expected. Remember you are in oxford.
Manifest
Manifest
Why do you want to defer? I think first term, in fact first year's are supposed to be easier and it gets harder as you carry on. If you like the way things work and like working in the lab go for engineering. As for physics, I think a good mathematician is always good at physics so it is also an alternative. But still think twice, to whom much is given, much is expected. Remember you are in oxford.
I think many people find the first year of the maths degree the hardest of the first three, because it takes quite a while changing to the mindset of university mathematics.
Phil23
hi,
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
i'm hating oxford maths, its rigour and proofs and all that. I am thinking of deferring and changing to either engineering or physics but am not sure what to do.
can people please discuss the pros and cons of sticking with maths, or going to do one of the other two subjects?
I had the worse 1st term of my life at Oxford...so miserable and maths is so depressing and boring
PK
try and catch up over the hols, and next term start working in first week. it will be completely different. engineering and physics arent that much easier than maths - ask marko or anyone. and work with people man. i've helped you when i could, as has anand, and the other first years have given you their notes.see monoyio/stoy and wildon for extra sessions. they dont want you to fail, but they'd like to see some get up and go about you...
One of my friends changed from maths after her 1st term at Oxford. She changed to E&M, but had to take a gap year and be re-interviewed with all the other applicants! 
So you may not be able to do a straight transfer, make sure you think about what you would do if you didn't get into Oxford again.
I didn't really like my first term either, but its got loads better. The uni work is so different from school that its natural to be overwhelmed at first. Also its a big lifetyle change from living at home.
Whatever you do, make sure you talk to your tutors. My friend had the tutors on her side when she wanted to change, and it helped her enormously.
So you may not be able to do a straight transfer, make sure you think about what you would do if you didn't get into Oxford again. I didn't really like my first term either, but its got loads better. The uni work is so different from school that its natural to be overwhelmed at first. Also its a big lifetyle change from living at home.
Whatever you do, make sure you talk to your tutors. My friend had the tutors on her side when she wanted to change, and it helped her enormously.
dancingqueen
One of my friends changed from maths after her 1st term at Oxford. She changed to E&M, but had to take a gap year and be re-interviewed with all the other applicants! So you may not be able to do a straight transfer, make sure you think about what you would do if you didn't get into Oxford again.
I didn't really like my first term either, but its got loads better. The uni work is so different from school that its natural to be overwhelmed at first. Also its a big lifetyle change from living at home.
Whatever you do, make sure you talk to your tutors. My friend had the tutors on her side when she wanted to change, and it helped her enormously.
So you may not be able to do a straight transfer, make sure you think about what you would do if you didn't get into Oxford again. I didn't really like my first term either, but its got loads better. The uni work is so different from school that its natural to be overwhelmed at first. Also its a big lifetyle change from living at home.
Whatever you do, make sure you talk to your tutors. My friend had the tutors on her side when she wanted to change, and it helped her enormously.
yeh, he has his tutors on his side.
This is exactly how I felt after the first term. My advice is to stick to it and it will click into place. Work over the vac but don't overdo it. Write out all the definitions on a separate piece of paper and do the same for the theorems and proofs. Once you have done this then it all looks clearer.
Phil23
proof is so hard, and i don't see the point in proving everything we do!...its so annoying! aghhh...
Maybe we should change places ... I'm finding it scandalous that our maths lecturer (I'm reading chemistry) just omits so many proofs. Back in secondary school maths we'd prove virtually everything we did - including quite a few things the lecturer now says are 'too difficult' for us. Grrr. I can't understand why anyone would want to destroy the beauty of mathematics by simply making it a tool.
(Though truth be told, from what I've seen the first year college mathematicians doing, we've covered most of that in secondary school as well, so I'm not missing out on too much. Am very glad I went to a school with a heavy emphasis on maths.)
What's wrong with proving everything you do? How else would you know that what you're doing is true? Mathematics is, I dare say, all about proof: that's what makes it so precise and so beautiful. In science you can never be sure - in maths, always. That's the thing which is so very appealing about maths!
(Hmm ... maybe I *should* have said yes when the tutor for maths asked me if I wanted to change course ...)
Sinuhe
Maybe we should change places ... I'm finding it scandalous that our maths lecturer (I'm reading chemistry) just omits so many proofs. Back in secondary school maths we'd prove virtually everything we did - including quite a few things the lecturer now says are 'too difficult' for us. Grrr. I can't understand why anyone would want to destroy the beauty of mathematics by simply making it a tool.
(Though truth be told, from what I've seen the first year college mathematicians doing, we've covered most of that in secondary school as well, so I'm not missing out on too much. Am very glad I went to a school with a heavy emphasis on maths.)
What's wrong with proving everything you do? How else would you know that what you're doing is true? Mathematics is, I dare say, all about proof: that's what makes it so precise and so beautiful. In science you can never be sure - in maths, always. That's the thing which is so very appealing about maths!
(Hmm ... maybe I *should* have said yes when the tutor for maths asked me if I wanted to change course ...)
(Though truth be told, from what I've seen the first year college mathematicians doing, we've covered most of that in secondary school as well, so I'm not missing out on too much. Am very glad I went to a school with a heavy emphasis on maths.)
What's wrong with proving everything you do? How else would you know that what you're doing is true? Mathematics is, I dare say, all about proof: that's what makes it so precise and so beautiful. In science you can never be sure - in maths, always. That's the thing which is so very appealing about maths!
(Hmm ... maybe I *should* have said yes when the tutor for maths asked me if I wanted to change course ...)
hmmm...thing is that most proofs that i've been thrown make little/no logical sense. Uni maths is weird like that. I think they want us to rote learn the proofs because they don't really explain it well! they just write down on the board like we are genius' and can decipher it and then say that is the proof. I'm sitting there trying to figure out how on earth these things the lecturers put up actually prove the theorems etc! One of the disadvantages of maths in a top uni, i think is that they go so fast, you don't to go into much depth as one would like. They expect you to absorb it and use it, and on top of that they say we are expected to know the proof!
its a twisted system, and the pace is irritating
proofs in mods, especially in analysis, mainly come down to knowing your defintions and how they then need to be positioned in the proof. yes it all looks alien to start with- but you (with your tutors' help) need to break down the proofs so that you can see how the whole thing jigsaws togethers.
it just takes practice.
it just takes practice.
Phil23
hmmm...thing is that most proofs that i've been thrown make little/no logical sense. Uni maths is weird like that. I think they want us to rote learn the proofs because they don't really explain it well! they just write down on the board like we are genius' and can decipher it and then say that is the proof. I'm sitting there trying to figure out how on earth these things the lecturers put up actually prove the theorems etc! One of the disadvantages of maths in a top uni, i think is that they go so fast, you don't to go into much depth as one would like. They expect you to absorb it and use it, and on top of that they say we are expected to know the proof!
its a twisted system, and the pace is irritating
its a twisted system, and the pace is irritating
i dont think the system is much different between subjects, neither is the pace.
dancingqueen
So you may not be able to do a straight transfer, make sure you think about what you would do if you didn't get into Oxford again. Is that Charlotte? I didn't know she had to be reinterviewed with everyone else!
That's harsh, sometime they just let people do their prelims in one subject and switch to the first year of another after that.Related discussions
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