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is it worth keeping the A level maths materials/books for uni?

ok so big clean out soon and history stuff is definitely going to trash cos its totally unrelated to engineering. but I have my C1234s1 books/materials that's in quite an organised pile, though I dont know how much of it I'll need or at all. the engineering mathematics module resembles some what to some stuff ive done IIRC. what have you done if you're in this situation before?

Reply 1

pereira325

I'd definitely throw out S1 and most likely C1 and C2 because anything useful from that (i.e. logs) is covered again in C3/C4.
What you need to know from A Level is differentiation, decent algebraic capabilities, and integration.
Mechanics modules could come in handy though, if you've done those?

Reply 2

TSR George

Original post by pereira325

theres statistics in the maths too like continuous and discrete (I wish there wasn't though), and I didnt buy mechanics book at all when I did it, its the only book I didnt get for the a level collection :colonhash:

im definitely not throwing the books out, cos they look nice and cost a lot. but I was just wondering if you looked at it again or used your new uni materials as guidance instead

Reply 3

pereira325

Oh, strange. I don't do an engineering degree myself but my friends do (so I'm commenting based on what I've heard from them, sorry. I think a semi-decent reply is hopefully better than no reply, lol).
I guess there could be some stats but for my friends doing engineering they didn't do S1 or S2 in the A-level so I guess the degree statistics bit might not be too challenging.
I'm doing economics and had 1 maths module and 1 statistics module in 1st year... ofc engineering probably has more maths related ones, but I really didn't need to look over my A-level work, at all. Like, not even once.
There was a maths textbook for the module which I bought and was useful.
Saying that though, I have forgotten how to differentiate in a test once lol. But, on the harder parts of maths the lecturer will definitely cover it anyway. My maths lecturer implied we knew C1,C2 but went over things from C3/C4 (to refresh us) on diff/int.
Don't throw your books out but I guess see if you can give them away to charity/family or sell them.
Also, which engineering are you doing? There are loads of types so I might be able to advise further

Reply 4

I'msoPi

Original post by pereira325

Hiya i'm also doing engineering (mechanical). I have my further math modules and i'm wondering the same thing whether or not to bring fp3 or m3 with me

Reply 5

TSR George

Original post by pereira325

this is useful thanks, I just didnt want to take something and not look at it, I want a room thats not packed and stuffy. im doing civil engineering so a lot of the mechanics is just static objects

Reply 6

pereira325

Original post by I'msoPi

Hiya i'm also doing engineering (mechanical). I have my further math modules and i'm wondering the same thing whether or not to bring fp3 or m3 with me

I don't think FP2 or FP2 is needed but it could be useful some of the matrices stuff possibly. It's worth seeing if you can find your spec though as most of the stuff there is irrelevant.
I didn't do M3 so I don't know what was covered but I'd say the same thing. Of my friends doing engineering only 1/5 of them did further maths so I reckon you'd survive without it anyway.

I kept all my stuff from A-Levels because I thought I might need it too and I'm a bit surprised that I've not needed to reference it at all. I know you're referring to engineering but as an example my degree is economics and I haven't needed to refer to any of my A-level economics stuff.
Now, stuff has come up from it contentwise (Same for A-level maths) but it's stuff that I take as common sense in a way now. I don't mean it in a way to say I'm incredibly genius or anything but we retain the core stuff of what we've learned.
The internet is the greatest tool now and most of the time when I'm stuck on something in uni... I ask my coursemate or ask in a course groupchat or google it. There are probably a couple hundred people on your course or similar courses and they are all in a similar boat so atleast at the beginning of the year everyone is good at helping eachother out.

Reply 7

jakeso

I do maths at uni and have never looked back at anything! just throw it all out!

Reply 8

TSR George

Original post by pereira325

Original post by jakeso

I do maths at uni and have never looked back at anything! just throw it all out!

thanks! I'll just leave it home, I'll hopefully remember the basics when I have to and if I had to look back on the basics then im really in deep ***

Reply 9

Doones

They have books, even about maths, in university libraries if you need them.... :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 10

NotNotBatman

Nope, use a proper university book. I didn't take anything for my maths degree because it was taught properly, but the A level book teach In a weird hand wavy way.

Reply 11

TSR George

Original post by Doonesbury

They have books, even about maths, in university libraries if you need them.... :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile

but do they have one that's specifically for people with comprehension of a 10 yr old :smile:

Reply 12

Smack

Volunteer Team

I kept my notes from higher maths that I did at school before going to university to study mechanical engineering - and even took them with me. If your notes are good, then I don't see any issue with keeping them. The maths you will study will go beyond what you have previously covered, but it might still be useful to have the notes as a refresher or to help with something you might be a bit rusty on.