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Reply 1

Depends on how good at Maths you are :wink:

Sorry... :p:

I'd suspect with it being a degree course it'll be very advanced, but it can vary from uni to uni.

Reply 2

in maths a -level i will get a/b
and f.maths i will get b/c

Reply 3

????
im predicted a/b for maths
and b/c for f.maths

Reply 4

That depends on where you go. I find it pretty challenging.

Reply 5

Okey dokey...

Those are decent results, but you really should be aiming for a top A grade in Maths A-level. F. Maths isn't as important, because you'll have at least come across the material it brings, even if you don't get a top grade...

Reply 6

thanks cheers much appreciated

Reply 7

completely depends where you do it. warwick or imperial's g100 will be much harder then somewhere like queen mary or kingston...

Reply 8

Don John
Depends on how good at Maths you are :wink:

Sorry... :p:

I'd suspect with it being a degree course it'll be very advanced, but it can vary from uni to uni.


I agree with your comments - it does really depend on how good you are, and how well you adapt to university maths - which is totally different to A level maths.

Have a look at a few uni websites - many of them have lecture notes posted, so you can get a feel of what it is all about.

Speaking for myself, I am doing G100 first year - I got straight A's in maths, physics and further maths (every module) like most people here, passed the STEP papers (for Cambridge entrance) and I find it really hard!

But don't let that put you off - if you want to do it, just work hard.

Reply 9

I just went on the course outline and it says there is a lot of work on computers, have i read the wrong thing or have i chose the wrong course, i just wanted to do maths.

Reply 10

James
That depends on where you go. I find it pretty challenging.

what's an exhibitioner?

Reply 11

aqfrenzy
completely depends where you do it. warwick or imperial's g100 will be much harder then somewhere like queen mary or kingston...


Surely you're not talking about Queen Mary college, University of London? If so, they've actually got a large and pretty well respected maths department.

Reply 12

adam_leeds
I just went on the course outline and it says there is a lot of work on computers, have i read the wrong thing or have i chose the wrong course, i just wanted to do maths.

That depends on where you're going. I know my course is pretty light on computers, but I wouldn't be surprised if some courses have alot of work on them. Where are you thinking of going? (You might have the results already, I'm not sure what stage in the process your at)

Reply 13

MrShifty
Surely you're not talking about Queen Mary college, University of London? If so, they've actually got a large and pretty well respected maths department.


I'll second that, they're actually really good and have a very dynamic maths department.

Reply 14

MrShifty
Surely you're not talking about Queen Mary college, University of London? If so, they've actually got a large and pretty well respected maths department.


maybe but the course is definitely easier than warwick or imperial.

for example a few of the second year maths modules at queen marys are things covered in first year at warwick or imperial (and of course other top unis)..some of the queen mary 3rd year modules are first and second year modules at these unis..

Reply 15

btw i wasnt trying to put queen mary on the same level as kingston, obviously qm is a lot better..i was just doing a grand comparison

Reply 16

aqfrenzy
for example a few of the second year maths modules at queen marys are things covered in first year at warwick or imperial (and of course other top unis)..some of the queen mary 3rd year modules are first and second year modules at these unis..


The converse is also true: At Queen Mary you study Complex analysis in the second year, at Warwick it's postponed until the third year. Does this mean that Queen Mary is better than Warwick? No, of course not. Module names are misleading, Warwick's will be a third year level course in terms of content, whilst at QM it will be a second year course. Even course descriptions aren't that reliable: QM's complex analysis course (which they call complex variables) looks very similar to a third year course in complex analysis at Bristol (which they called complex function theory). The only difference I can tell looking at the module description is that QM's doesn't cover harmonic functions.

As a second example, I once sat a third year course in differentiable manifolds. Now, they feature on Cambridge's advanced certificate, Imperial don't seem to cover it until the fourth year (from what I can tell from their syllabus), and they don't feature at Warwick at all. Sadly, I'm not justified in saying all three universities offer easier degrees than mine, as our course was very much a third year course: we developed all the basic technical details for the Euclidean domain, and only introduced manifolds proper in the last couple of weeks, and took only the most nervous of glances as the general case.

I don't doubt that there are differences between QM and Warwick's courses (for a start QM seem a little more applied, which is only to be expected since I believe they have a pretty hot astronomy department). But I honestly don't think that the difference in quality are going to be a great as some people may think.

Reply 17

MrShifty
The converse is also true: At Queen Mary you study Complex analysis in the second year, at Warwick it's postponed until the third year. Does this mean that Queen Mary is better than Warwick? No, of course not. Module names are misleading, Warwick's will be a third year level course in terms of content, whilst at QM it will be a second year course. Even course descriptions aren't that reliable: QM's complex analysis course (which they call complex variables) looks very similar to a third year course in complex analysis at Bristol (which they called complex function theory). The only difference I can tell looking at the module description is that QM's doesn't cover harmonic functions.

As a second example, I once sat a third year course in differentiable manifolds. Now, they feature on Cambridge's advanced certificate, Imperial don't seem to cover it until the fourth year (from what I can tell from their syllabus), and they don't feature at Warwick at all. Sadly, I'm not justified in saying all three universities offer easier degrees than mine, as our course was very much a third year course: we developed all the basic technical details for the Euclidean domain, and only introduced manifolds proper in the last couple of weeks, and took only the most nervous of glances as the general case.

I don't doubt that there are differences between QM and Warwick's courses (for a start QM seem a little more applied, which is only to be expected since I believe they have a pretty hot astronomy department). But I honestly don't think that the difference in quality are going to be a great as people may think.


Half of the 2nd year Warwick maths course "Vector Analysis" is actually complex analysis. Half of the 2nd year Metric Spaces course is an introduction to topology. Differentiable Manifolds are briefly covered in a 2nd year module, then get into more depth in the 3rd and covered much more rigorously in the 4th year course "Manifolds" (which exists by the way). I'll also point out that 3rd year Warwick maths students on the MMath are obliged to take at least two 4th year maths modules.

Different maths departments may cover a similar module in the same year, but exams may not be at the same level of diffculty.

Reply 18

Exactly my point. Counting up module titles and noting in which year they occur is no way to assess the quality of a department.

Reply 19

MrShifty
Exactly my point. Counting up module titles and noting in which year they occur is no way to assess the quality of a department.


Indeed but like I said in my "EDIT", the difficulty of exams tend to vary dramatically across different maths departments. I do agree however that the supposed massive difference in course content between different maths departments is over-exaggerated.