Cambridge maths part IA mechanics: how is it?

I am an offer holder for cambridge maths 2025 and I hate mechanics, so I want to avoid it as much as possible.
Unfortunately, mechanics is mandatory for year 1, and I wonder how similar it is compared to AS/A level mechanics.
I hope that something interesting comes in cos I think A level mechanics is basically bunch of annoying calculations

Its only 10 lectures, so Id not overthink it. But its partially a review for people whove a limited experience at a level and a precursor for dynamics and relativity. Covers single particle, rigid body, energy/momentum, shm/circular motion, but obv a bit more from first principles.

thanks for replying!! how about the dynamics and relativity part? does it require much of physics/mechanics background or is it more similar to pure maths modules?

As in the previous post, Id really not overthink it at this stage. There are some topics which youve covered at a level maths/phy, but theyre generally derived (as with most ug maths) rather than stated at a level. But it looks at relativity, newtonian dynamics, rigid bodies (inertia) ....
Wbf there is a fair amount of a level m/fm mechanics which you can do in a more interesting/fundamental way and step questions sometimes touch on this. So looking at the kinematics explicitly, deriving conservation of momentum from n3 / understanding impulses, deriving moments from energy, having a clear idea about how force, energy, momentum, power are related, ...

well that sounds quite interesting! I have covered most of basic ug calculus (including definition of limit, derivations of things like IVT, MVT, etc..) and enjoyed studying the proofs. It sounds like the dynamics/mechanics part will be similar to that, which is reassuring haha

Sounds good. Ug mechanics is less about heres another calc to perform, though obviously you have to still practice applying the principles somewhat. In some ways the step mechanics questions are fairly different to a level ones and are more about setting up a slighly unusual problem and analysing it.