Unremarkable ventures IV

Miles said the draft was impressive and all the points he gave were presentational. : )))))) (though he said it was already very polished)

Computational physics has these moodle python quizzes with a limit of 2 attempts, meaning that you can keep on trying on one attempt then copy and paste your correct answers to the second for 100%.

Guess that's 20% of the module for free lol.

As to other assignments this week, one subpart of Geometry gave me trouble because I didn't know you had to use an orthonormal basis for one part. The rest of it was ok, one question was isometries preserving circles and the second was showing that a certain transformation was a rotation.

Algebra I was disgustingly computational. Characteristic polynomial of 4x4 matrix. Otherwise it was mostly basis change stuff.

Stats was straightforward, basically just calculations with distributions.

MV calc I think I did this morning or yesterday. Was pretty fair - continuity of multivariable functions, sequential compactness, path connectedness and closure. Nothing mad.

I wanted to start a third year course (probably Manifolds [hardest third year module lol but I like the look of it] or Functional Analysis I or measure theory) but my motivation hasn't been especially high. Unconnected to academics, I'm just feeling a bit miserable at the moment.

That's fantastic to hear, ofc no surprise

Good old moodle

sorry to hear that hope you're doing better now

Algebra I is unbelievably boring. There seems to be a lot of interesting stuff to do with vector spaces but pretty much the whole module (heh) is more matrix calculations I'm given no reason to care about, until the very last section of the module. Having to force myself through it because it really is mind-numbing.

I can't say I know from experience haha, but you'll get through it!

I am going to be changing to Maths A-level (not further because it feels a bit too late to do that and I also don't really want to give up English Lit) in my head, I'm thinking doing maths a-level will be great because if I enjoy it like I did pretty much every year apart from year 11, I could even decide last minute to do a maths degree... but in your experience is not doing further maths particularly limiting for that pathway?

Shouldn't be.

Definitely do FM if you can - at least to AS. You will lock yourself out of a few universities without the full A-level but you'll be fine for quite a few with just AS FM. (you might have a higher offer than you would otherwise)

Degree level maths is a lot different to A-level, more of an emphasis on theory and exploration rather than just computations. I say that even though I'm complaining about Algebra I (our second year linear algebra module - might be called something else when you look around) being horrifically computational, that's kind of an anomaly among "pure" courses lol.

motivation very low

done more of my second year essay than I realistically need to, about 9 pages deep but will have to cut stuff down. need to find a paper source for my second section and more sources generally to pretend I've used more than 2 sources.

geometry I think I'm up to date with. don't really like the course, it's far too concrete and has no abstraction at all. if i can get a good mark in it I'll keep it on that basis alone.

algebra I is horrifically boring. 100% matrix calculations, no abstraction or interesting calculations. like yay I can use the Jordan Canonical Form to determine whether two matrices are similar. Can't wait to see what adventures the Smith Normal Form will take us on : oooo. I think the next bit is Quadratic Forms which should be better. I really can't be bothered to pursue algebra further after this - I've never been more bored doing maths, without exaggeration.

Sad to hear that.

Always good to have too much then trim down compared to too little and padding it out. I wouldn't worry too much about the amount of sources. I know with my undergrad dissertation I had to add some to get more than 1 lol, ended up with 3.

I'm really puzzled by how much of your courses seem to not have much abstraction, especially your algebra. Would it be possible to have a look at the lecture notes you've been given?

These are the Algebra I notes I was given: http://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~masdf/alg1/lec_notes_2009.pdf. Just feels excessively computational.

The notes seem standard, but I guess it's the problems you are being asked to solve. Not really a fan of the finitely generated abelian group section as it seems quite rushed.

Got blanked by the first lecturer I emailed.

I've not done enough functional analysis I, I just started the measure bit. Need to crack on with it over christmas and start emailing more widely. I "started" manifolds in the sense that I now know what a pseudogroup is.

Haven't really been at all productive but been doing well in assignments (full in all but one). Surprised I'm keeping that up with Algebra I and Geometry tbh.