Maths.

Okay, so you’re thinking about doing Maths at York. The course has changed a bit from the one I’m doing but a lot of the content is the same 🙂

For me, I had five courses in my first year: Intro To Stats in first term, Real Analysis and Intro To Applied in second, and then Calculus and Core Algebra that runs all year.

They were okay! Especially Calculus and Core Algebra, which seemed a lot like a natural progression from A-level Maths. There is a lot of going over concepts like differentiation and integration in a more abstract, fundamental way. So learning why differentiation works the way it does, using limits and such.

One thing I would say is that if you aren’t familiar with set theory (if that means nothing to you don’t worry, I was in exactly the same boat!) read up on it a bit!  It’s a key concept that’s easy enough to get to grips with but that tends to not get taught because it’s so simplistic. I struggled a wee bit at first because I didn’t quite understand it, so get on it early!

Introduction To Probability And Statistics is a good course, but it ramps up quickly! It starts off fairly easy for the first 5ish weeks – just like A-level statistics – but then after that it gets a bit more difficult. You start dealing with maximum likelihood estimation and linear regression models. It’s not the worst, but you need to stay on top of it!

Now we get to the last two, these are the ones that in my experience people find most difficult.

I’ll start with Real. Real Analysis sounds fancy and scary but it’s just looking at the Real numbers and how they work on a really basic level. A good consequence of this is that it’s not that hard. On the other hand, it is more of a memory test than anything else. There are a lot of definitions and a lot of theorems and you just need to know them all. Again this is a module where the set theory stuff will really help! It is easy stuff but the only way to really learn it is to slog away, which can get pretty boring.

And finally, we have Introduction To Applied, which is really nothing like A-level Mechanics. I found Mechanics easy enough at school but it’s a step up at uni. I think it’s transferring those very physical and relatable concepts into a far more abstract setting. And because it’s more abstract you end up solving a lot of differential equations that can get quite difficult!

And that was about it for me! Your course will be very similar, but not exactly the same.You’ll do great, look at set theory a bit and it’s not that difficult! Just stay on top of it!