monologues of a mathematician: third year

hello!!
well, turns out you can't get rid of me for very long. i'm back for the 6th year running, lol

sorry, who are you?
uh so yeah i'm niamh, i’m 20 and i'm from yorkshire. most of you probably know me as protostar. but i wanted a change :tongue:

you're a mathematician?
by definition, i guess i am. i'm a third year maths student at newcastle university, but this isn't my final year as i'm doing 4 :headfire:

. i'm also the publicity officer for our maths society for 2020/21!

what are your grades like?
not as high as i'd like, hence me trying to grow em. because i know people care, my academic history looks like this
a levels: abc
first year: 70.9 overall

by module

second year: 69.7 overall

by module

what are you studying this year?
we chose our modules in august. because of covid-19 they paired up 10 credit modules to create 20 credit modules of which we had to choose 6. january exams have been cancelled and we'll be sitting exams on all of the year's content next june, which is terrifying. the modules i've chosen are:

mas3710 group theory, graphs and symmetry (required to specialise in pure maths in 4th year)
mas3711 linear analysis and topology (also required for a pure specialism)
mas3712 matrix analysis and representation theory

mas3810 methods for differential equations and partial differential equations (required to specialise in applied maths in 4th year)
mas3811 quantum mechanics and classical fields (also required for an applied specialism)
mas3812 advanced fluid dynamics and computational modelling (also required for an applied specialism)

so my year will be 50% pure and 50% applied maths, as i'm currently so undecided on what i want to specialise in in my 4th year :colondollar:

leaning more towards applied atm but i wonder how that'll change this year...

what are your goals and aims for 3rd year?
honestly with covid and everything my main aim is to just complete the year lol. but beyond that i'd really like to push myself back up to a first, not getting one for second year really stung despite all the disruptions

what's this blog all about then?
i'm gonna try and grow my grades essentially. i'll be talking about how i find my modules, all the work i do for each of them and anything extra i do. will also be for how uni is going as a whole, basically documenting yet another year of my life lol. i do love reading these back i can't lie

so join me through this year, or don't, i accept i'll probably be talking to myself a lot in here so i'm okay with that. but yeah if you wanna be tagged just lemme know

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(edited 3 years ago)

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Reply 80

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by niamhdoesmaths

submitted all my assignments so i’m now done
i’ll have failed 3 of them. hopefully i’ll do well in matrix analysis
i’m so so so tired
what a horrid term

Well done for getting to the end of term :penguinhug:

Reply 81

niamhdoesmaths

update #10: monday 21st december 2020
well, i'm done for the year

morning everyone, thanks for the good vibes last week. it wasn't an easy one but i got through it in one piece just about

uni stuff
mas3710 group theory: haven't done anything for this since i submitted my assignment, don't have the results yet either

mas3711 linear analysis: i managed to submit 3 questions of the assignment (there were 8 in total) so less than the 4 i managed for assignment one. i'm really not confident about q3 as i was teaching myself the content at the same time i was trying to answer the question, i was so behind on content it was ridiculous. the assignment was on chapters 8-13 and before this week i'd only done up to and including chapter 6 so i was already screwed. but at least i managed to submit *something*. it's annoying as i feel like i could enjoy this module if i were just caught up :sigh:

mas3712 matrix analysis: still my fave. managed to submit the whole assignment for this even if it did take me like 3 days again. i did have to go to my lecturer's virtual office hours on thursday to ask a few questions but they were really helpful so i'm glad i went. really hoping i've done well in this assignment, i'm still really enjoying this module and even the bits i haven't actually covered yet i think i managed to understand. did a big proof all by myself so i was buzzing about that. pure maths (specifically analysis) is definitely my thing i've realised!

mas3810 methods for differential equations: also haven't done anything for this since i didn't submit the assignment, lmao

mas3811 quantum mechanics: well technically i submitted something for this. it was one question and it's completely wrong but i just wanted to submit something so that i actually get a mark on our system rather than just a blank square. i can't do this module whatsoever. the lectures are awful and i don't understand any of it. the questions seem nothing like what we cover and ugh i just hate hate HATE it.

mas3812 advanced fluid dynamics: had a decent crack at this one. it was only 2 questions, the first one i really struggled with and think i've done it completely wrong, the second question was much much easier and tbh i didn't even thing you needed much knowledge of fluids to be able to do it, it was essentially just loads of rearranging. so hopefully i'll have got like 40% or something, but even if not at least i did some of it

i really need to sort myself out over the holidays lol this is ridiculous, i used to be such a good student wtf happened to me

mathsoc stuff
not much to be said here. haven't been able to send the hoodie orders off yet as one member of committee still hasn't told me what she wants?? so that's annoying but yeah otherwise not much. we didn't do a social this week as we all had too much on our plates. we did go to the department christmas quiz though which was fun, we came joint 2nd! we haven't planned anything for after christmas yet but we've got a meeting/bonding session planned for some point between christmas and new year so hopefully we'll get some stuff planned then

other society stuff
dance finished last week so nothing to say this week. i haven't practiced since the really bad rehearsal, i really really should. rag had a couple of socials last week but i didn't go to either cos i was busy. i went to 20 minute society's bingo on friday night which was ok, but i probably won't go to any of their socials again in future

mental health stuff
looooool where to even begin with this week. i spent hours every night until friday just bawling my eyes out, and then just feeling like crap every day. i've felt a bit better since friday though so i'm putting it down to uni stress. i always struggle in semester 1 but not usually this bad. this term has just ruined me, i'm so so glad it's over

other stuff
uhhh not really sure what else there is to say. i'm going home for christmas on wednesday and coming back on sunday. also dyed my hair again yesterday and it's VERY pink so i'm looking forward to it fading a bit. i don't like how vibrant it is atm

anyway yeah think that's all i've got to say, thanks everyone for being so supportive this term and i just hope i'm less of a mess next term. i'll definitely try and organise myself better at least :redface:

hope you all have a great christmas if you celebrate it :hugs:

tags

Reply 86

flaurie

Volunteer Team

well done for getting through the year Niamh :hugs:

it’s been a tricky old time!
I relate to your ‘goal four’ very much :giggle:

mine are mostly based around sorting out my well-being before starting uni lol

Reply 87

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Really proud of you for getting through 2020, not an easy feat at all. I hope 2021 is somehow kinder to you, lovely :penguinhug:

Reply 88

absolutelysprout

how do you remenber what you do each month wow :eek:

you got through 2020 despite it all so thats something to be proud of :hugs:

Reply 89

Lemur14

Volunteer Team

Never seem to get round to commenting on GYGs nowadays :emo:

But good to see how you're getting on :hugs:

I'm very impressed you can remember things from each month...it's all blurred into one for me :lol:

Good luck with your 2021 goals :rave:

(Wondering how many months it's gonna take me to remember it's 2021 not 2020 :rofl:

Never write the date nowadays)

Reply 90

Muttley79

Thanks for the update - hope 2021 is easier for you :hugs:

Reply 91

MajorFader

What are you planning to do after uni? I know you said you wanted to go into teaching but is that something you still want to do?

Reply 92

niamhdoesmaths

Original post by laurawatt

well done for getting through the year Niamh :hugs:

it’s been a tricky old time!
I relate to your ‘goal four’ very much :giggle:

mine are mostly based around sorting out my well-being before starting uni lol

thanks! ahhh good goals, good luck!

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Really proud of you for getting through 2020, not an easy feat at all. I hope 2021 is somehow kinder to you, lovely :penguinhug:

thanks lovely :hugs:

Original post by absolutelysprout

how do you remenber what you do each month wow :eek:

you got through 2020 despite it all so thats something to be proud of :hugs:

hahaha mainly looking through my camera roll to remember, my memory is shocking :lol:

thank you

Original post by Lemur14

Never seem to get round to commenting on GYGs nowadays :emo:

But good to see how you're getting on :hugs:

I'm very impressed you can remember things from each month...it's all blurred into one for me :lol:

Good luck with your 2021 goals :rave:

(Wondering how many months it's gonna take me to remember it's 2021 not 2020 :rofl:

Never write the date nowadays)

thanks for popping by :biggrin:

thank you! i actually haven't written 2020 yet, i'm doing well :tongue:

Original post by Muttley79

Thanks for the update - hope 2021 is easier for you :hugs:

thank you

hope you have a good year too!

Original post by MajorFader

What are you planning to do after uni? I know you said you wanted to go into teaching but is that something you still want to do?

oh i have no idea yet lol. i think i've moved away from the idea of teaching but have no idea what to do instead :s-smilie:

Reply 93

niamhdoesmaths

update #11: monday 11th january 2021
back to the grind!

morning folks, today is the "official" first day of term but i'll be ignoring all my live lectures this week as i'm still really far behind. did make some decent progress last week though

uni stuff
mas3710 group theory: did i think 3 lectures for this, on cosets, lagrange's theorem and its converse. i understood it all pretty well, i do like this module. still very behind but most of the lectures are quite short so i should hopefully be able to catch up. got marks back for the assignment i did before christmas and i got 98% which i'm chuffed with, the 2 marks i lost were for a really dumb error as well lol

mas3711 linear analysis: haven't actually done anything for this yet as it's the one i was most ahead with, but i'll start having to do stuff soon. got marks back for the assignment and i got 26% which is crap, i only answered 3/8 questions but had absolutely no idea what i was doing so i expected a rubbish grade

mas3712 matrix analysis: done 1 lecture for this on jordan blocks and stuff relating to it. i had to learn some of it for the assignment so i already had a bit of base knowledge but it was good to learn it properly lol. still don't have assignment marks back yet which is sad as i think i might have done quite well

mas3810 methods for differential equations: ugh this module. i did 1 lecture this week and it was horrid. i don't have a clue what's going on ever lol. still looking at pdes and separation of variables and stuff and i'm just clueless. can't get an assignment mark back as i didn't submit anything

mas3811 quantum mechanics: i still despise this module. did 3 lectures for this last week and they were vile. one was on some uncertainty principle, one was on a time independent schrodinger equation (??) and i was just clueless the whole time. my ability to do applied maths really just left this year lol. no assignment marks back yet but i'll get a 0 anyway

mas3812 advanced fluid dynamics: did one lecture for this on 2d vs 3d flows and didn't really get it. he didn't explain very well when you can use the approximation bc every example was one where you could :confused:

so that's not great. no assignment marks back yet for this either, i'll probably get them this week

dance stuff
comp rehearsals started again on saturday and they actually went quite well to say i didn't practise once over the christmas break! it's very likely we'll be filming them ourselves and having the videos put together so we can't do any cool formations which is sad but hey what can you do. does mean we'll have to change some parts but it's not so bad. still got just under 2 months until the video deadline so we should get it looking nice and sharp!

mental health stuff
had a wobble earlier this week with the whole lockdown thing but doing better now. my housemates have all come back so the house is nice and full again :biggrin:

not feeling too stressed out for now. i've got 3 weeks until semester 2 starts so hopefully i can get caught up before then, it'll mean having to get through about 5 lectures a day but hopefully i can do it.

other stuff
not a whole lot to say really! this time next week i'll be 21 which is rather terrifying, been on tsr since i was 15 so that's a longgg time. quite excited for my birthday ngl even though we're in lockdown. still got stuff planned in the house and i'm looking forward to it :excited: