Can anyone doing maths at uni tell me what its like?

Can anyone doing maths at uni tell me what its like?
Is everyone working at the same level/ speed
Is it easy to keep up if you put in the work

and also how was your application process like, regarding interviews x

Can anyone doing maths at uni tell me what its like?
Is everyone working at the same level/ speed
Is it easy to keep up if you put in the work

and also how was your application process like, regarding interviews x

Can anyone doing maths at uni tell me what its like?
Is everyone working at the same level/ speed
Is it easy to keep up if you put in the work

and also how was your application process like, regarding interviews x

...

Extremely hard and fast paced. Not everybody works at the same level or speed - in fact, there's a massive gap between the top student and the worst. It's not easy to keep up, even if you put in the work - but it is certainly possible.

The application process was standard - UCAS, SAQ, interview where you get asked maths questions, offer, STEP, acceptance.

Cambridge maths is already 'extremely hard and fast paced'? How so? Challenging problems in example sheets, difficult content?

I enjoy it. Sometimes it can be a bit tedious, and some of the lecturers are as woefully uninspiring and useless as you could imagine. But many are quite good, and a lot of the work is interesting. Obviously it's very different to a-level maths. I find myself spending most of my time writing sentences rather than calculations in assignments, but that suits me as my verbal intelligence is probably my strongest..however I think the emphasis on proof and rigorous argument can perturb some people.

People work at different levels. Some barely pay attention and do a lot of recreational maths, finding the work rather trivial. Others struggle with most things. Others are somewhere in between. Many do assignments early, many leave assignments til the last minute.

Yes, it is fairly easy to keep up. I haven't missed an assignment yet, apart from when I just couldn't be bothered with a certain module.

I had an interview with Cambridge, but I did very poorly on the pre-interview test, for what reason I am not sure, as it was not really all that hard, but in any case, I was fittingly rejected. I go to Warwick and essentially an offer was immediate, as it often is; I then did just STEP I to get in, obtaining a 1, although a 2 would have sufficed (indeed, had I applied a year later and got the same A-level grades, STEP would have been entirely unnecessary, but I enjoyed taking it so no matter.)

Overall, do you think Wawrick has a good Maths department? Compared to other universities that you chose?

The content is not so bad at the moment, but the example sheet questions are pretty challenging and we got swamped with four of them in our first week - but I think it's mainly because I've been going out so much that it seems more difficult that it is. I dunno how hard the example sheet questions are, but there's about ~12 of them on each and you're advised on spending about 20 hours on one sheet, which sounds about right from the four that I've done so far.

How's Warwick going for you?

(Out of curiosity, something I've been recently wondering: do you have modules/courses that you take for the whole year or is it a set of modules that you do in first term and then another set in second term?)

I have little experience with the others I chose, but their maths departments certainly didn't seem as good. (excepting Cambridge, of course) Certainly it would seem that Warwick's research is better than pretty much anywhere in the UK but Oxbridge (some might argue it is on par with Oxford, I dunno).

so now my new method is to attempt the questions once the solutions have been uploaded so i can try and work through them rather than just missing out tonnes of questions ...

Well I'll restrain myself a little and just go with 'badly'. Most of the maths I've done so far is from my own books in order to avoid getting withdrawal symptoms from lack of problem solving lol. The lectures are too boring/slow to go to for now so I'm just using the lecture notes to cover the content in my own time. But yeah a distinct lack of challenge is the main problem. Oh well, at least I can continue with the same approach I took for A-Levels, minimal work for that and a lot of work on 'other' maths so that I actually have something to do with my life. Don't think there's any point getting higher than the passing mark for a first anyway.

Yeah it's sets of modules. You choose your first term and second term modules at the start of the year and then there are registration/de-registration periods later on.

I'm doing a maths degree and I'm in my first year and tbh it is a lot harder than i imagined ; i have tonnes of problem sheets to do and i always find myself not knowing where to start with questions despite having attended the lectures so now my new method is to attempt the questions once the solutions have been uploaded so i can try and work through them rather than just missing out tonnes of questions ... i already have tests in november and I'm feeling so unprepared and they count for 10% of the module marks as well ... panic doesn't even cover it.... only pick maths if you LOVE maths and want to spend the hours trying to understand what is happening and also if you don't do further maths you're gonna struggle cause everyone i know who did further maths actually knows what they're doing whilst I'm just lost af

Sounds like you're growing to hate your course...

I'm sure the pace will pick up and things will get more interesting once the 'settling in' period is over. The latter years should definitely be more interesting.

To be honest I'm so far finding that Warwick second year is no more taxing than the first, which never really got particularly hard. Indeed, the majority of issues/"challenges" seem to come from technicalities, like being unsure whether I can use certain theorems in assignments, and trying to write things up without too many crossings out, asides, and unnecessary justifications to avoid losing clarity marks...

Yeah my last DE assignment was particularly annoying since it was principally easy but there were so many little technical details (that the lecturer (Dedner) clearly did not intend) you had to address to fully justify your solutions.