Hello everyone, welcome back to my
channel. In today's video I'm gonna be
doing a Q&A, answering everyone's questions
about studying maths at uni. There are always
so many people in the comments asking
questions because apparently there
aren't that many people on YouTube who
talk about maths, which is fair enough.
I've got a mixture of frequently
asked questions, I asked for some questions
on Twitter and Instagram so I'm gonna
answer those today. Just a little
disclaimer before I start. Obviously I'm
filming outside right now. There are a
lot of birds cheeping, let's just treat
it as atmospheric noise. I should
probably say for context if you are new
around here that I am a maths graduate.
I went to Southampton, got a First and I graduated a
year ago now. I had a gap year so I can't
really answer that much about employment.
Let's start with the big one:
how difficult is a maths degree? I'd say it was
definitely up there in the list of most
difficult degrees. I mean, maybe I'm
biased because I want to think I'm smart
but it is really difficult and you do
have to apply yourself a lot. I'm not
saying that people who do other courses
and study other things don't have to
work hard because, I mean, whatever you
end up doing, if you're doing a degree
you're going to be working hard. I think a
lot of other courses especially more of
the social sciences, any kind of essay
writing subjects, the work is less about
understanding what's going on and more
about to sit down and putting hours in to
write your essays, or learn the facts, or
whatever it is that you've got to do to
pass your course. Whereas for maths it
takes time and it takes effort to just
be able to understand it and then on top
of that you've got to go and put in the
hours of work to complete whatever task
you've been given to do. So to answer
your question, I would say pretty
difficult but it's not unmanageable.
I mean, I wouldn't consider myself like a
genius but I got a first so if you put
the work in and you're willing to make
the effort to learn things then you'll
be absolutely fine. But it's definitely
more of a challenging degree than most,
I would say. But like I said, maybe I'm
biased. Following on from that another big
question that I'm always asked, and I
think that's fair enough because I do
talk about it a lot, is how much of a
step off is it from A Level to degree maths?
If you've watched any of my maths videos
before you'll love heard me say that the
jump is just ridiculous. The majority of
university maths is theory based. Every so
often you get a module where they have
some computational questions and you
have to work something out, but even then
most of those exam papers are still
theory based and it's going to be things
like asking you to state
definitions and theorems, prove things, and
there's a lot of reasoning. You've always
got to know why something happens, you
can't just state it. Until it's like 100%
proven, we aren't using
it at all. So we start right at the
beginning, with the axioms of real
numbers, which like the most basic rules
of maths, the things that we've always
taken for granted. Things like timesing by
zero makes zero, adding zero makes the
same thing, timesing by one makes the
same thing, and then you use those as
your basic building blocks to literally
prove everything else that you learn.
It's very different to the teaching
style that there is at A Level. You all
know the A Level syllabus and the
lecturers know that that's your knowledge,
so that's where they're going to start from.
As I said before, everything you're doing
you're doing from first principles.
If they bring up something from A Level,
they're going to introduce it the same
way that they introduced any other
theorem and you're gonna prove it, so
everything's gonna be recapped. There
shouldn't be any real worry about how
difficult the step up will be. As I said,
the step up isn't necessarily in
the maths that you're doing, it's just
the way that you're approaching it, and
that's something that you will just get
used to over time. The next question is
the big question that people always
ask me and it's how important is Further
Maths for studying maths at uni? I'd say
on my course 70% did do Further Maths
and 30% didn't, and it became pretty
level straight away really. It wasn't
like we were jumping in straight from
where we'd finished off Further Maths.
It was, like I said, starting from the very
beginning and working your way up.
The real advantage that Further Maths
gives you is being a bit more familiar
with some of the topics like complex
numbers, differential equations and
vectors, which are all things which are
quite key elements of first year. I know
some schools don't offer Further Maths,
but if you've got the option to do it,
it shows dedication to the subject, which is
good for applications; you're gonna be
going into your course with more
experience, more confidence, more
understanding of slightly more complex
topics; and at the end of the day if
you're considering studying maths at uni,
it's likely that you're already pretty
good at it and it comes pretty naturally
to you, in which case it's gonna be an easy
A Level, so just do it. I feel like because
it's just kind of an extension of Maths
the work you put in is maybe like three
quarters of what you'd put into a
single subject A Level, if that make sense.
What do I think of a Maths and Philosophy
degree or Maths with anything else? Yeah, I
think that's a great idea. Maths and
philosophy go really well together
because they're both very theoretical.
I don't know if you know this but I started my degree
doing Maths with Spanish and I did that
for one semester before I changed out.
Personal circumstances, I couldn't carry
on with it but especially in the
beginning when everything is so intense
and it's just a lot of maths and you're
not quite used to it, it was nice I found
to go and do something that wasn't maths
for a while. So if there's something that
you're passionate about and want to
carry on doing it then definitely do.
Pure or Applied Maths? For me, Pure all
the way. I am not an Applied Maths girl.
I don't like it. There are two questions about
employment chances. One of them is
from Charlotte it says "what kind of work
experience and internships did you do?
Advice to improve employability?" I
didn't do any maths related work
experience, I didn't take out a year to
go into industry or anything. I think all
of those things are a really good idea
but at the time I was just focusing on
my studies. In terms of advice to
improve employability, I think you've
just hit the nail on the head there, like
just go out and get experience. I'm
definitely not the best person to ask
about this, in fact I'm the one who needs
the advice for this, so let me know if
you have any. The other question on
employment is how good of an idea is it in
terms of employment after you get your
degree?
I think that's saying how good are
the employment prospects for maths
graduates, and they're pretty good.
Maths is a highly sought after field,
anything in STEM is really but especially
with maths. It's a certain way of thinking
which employers are really looking for
so I think in terms of prospects for
jobs for graduates they're very good.
It's just if you don't apply for
any then you don't get any. Hi.
Oh there's another one actually. "What career
paths are there for maths graduates? I
hate anything to do with finance." Again,
I'm not the best person to ask. I don't
have any experience in terms of maths
employment. I think the main ones are
finance, like you said; actuarial things,
which can be linked to finance; and the other
two main branches I suppose are like
computing things and teaching. But of
course you don't have to go into any of
those four things which just came
off the top of my head. It doesn't even have
to be a maths related job, but so many
jobs are after people with the skills
that a maths degree brings. I'd say
honestly your options are pretty much
limitless.
"The limit does not exist. The limit does not exist!"
Did you feel less smart than your peers
in seminars? Yes, all the time! And kind of
related to this as well actually is
"how good do you need to be to do really
well?" People who talk in seminars are
usually the ones who are pretty
confident. It's easy to feel like you're
the only one because when you're just
looking at the people who are talking it
feels like you're the only one who isn't.
But if you look around you there are a
lot of other people who are feeling the
exact same way as you and to be honest a
lot of the people who are talking and
asking questions are probably putting on
a front and underneath they're still a
bit confused too. If you get accepted to
do maths at uni then you're good enough
to do, and that's that. There are obviously
some people who really stand out to be super intelligent and you're just
kind of in awe of how they understand
everything so fast. But you don't have to
be that kind of person to do well, not at
all. At the end of the day it all just
comes down to how hard you work, putting
the hours in, just making the effort
that if you don't understand something
you ask. I don't know if you've ever met a
maths lecturer, but if you show the
slightest bit of interest in their
specialist subject they will be so happy
to talk to you about it.
I think you just need to be smart about
how you answer exams. Really hone in on that exam
technique. Look out for any hints in lectures about what the lecturer is
going to be looking for in an exam
situation.
Study any kind of example answers that
they've written up for you or gone
through a lecture, and you take out the
elements that they're looking for and
you just reproduce them. Get used to
doing the questions that way around. The
other thing is being smart about the
modules you take. I know personally I
perform a lot better in exams than I do
with coursework, so I would always try to
choose modules which were mostly exam.
 I liked having sort of 80% exam 20%
coursework, that was like my ideal level.
Ask around as well, people in the year
above you, what modules do they find
interesting? What lecturers do they like?
Are there any modules which seem to
follow the same kind of formula every
year? Because those ones, they're your
safe bets, they're the ones that you can
count on that if all else fails you can
fall back to past exam papers, because
the past exam material is the most
relevant. If you feel like you're not
smart enough to do a maths degree,
that's not true first of all, but second
of all there are ways to kind of
outsmart the smart ones and just do well
anyway. How many hours did you have to
put in a week to keep up with the work?
I'm just trying to think. I would have
about 15 to 20 hours
of contact time a week. Some of
that was tutorials or workshops, so
they weren't compulsory things. There
wasn't anything new that I was learning,
it was kind of more of a time to ask any
questions that I had. In terms of actual
lectures, I had three a week for each
module and I did four modules, so that's 12
hours a week of lectures that I had.
Quite often there's not enough time in
the lectures to process the information,
all you can do is write it down. So I'd
say like one hour of lectures to one hour
at home writing up my notes if I'd
missed anything in the lecture, and
then understanding what it was about.
Then I'd usually spend more time studying
whenever I had an assignment. So for most
modules it was like once a week there
was a little problem sheet. When I say
little, there was probably like five
questions and it took between like 4-6
hours maybe. I think it really does vary
depending on what kind of modules you're
doing, the time of year, and what coursework
you've got due, and all sorts of
factors. But for the most part, that one
hour after each lecture I think is
key, and then maybe four hours a week
on top of that for each module. Obviously
everyone's gonna be different and
work at different speeds and want to spend
different amount of time on different
things. So this question is how do I
study? So how do I remember how to do
things? How do I keep things in my brain?
For me it was writing things down and
doing practice questions. I always tell
my students this as well, the way
you learn is by doing practice questions.
So any kind of computational thing that
we would need to know for the exam, I
would just do a load of questions. After
doing a couple of questions I would
maybe write down on a piece of paper, on
one of those little revision
card things, like bullet point notes of
how to do that particular method of that
computation. In terms of the theory stuff,
writing it down, that's how I
learn things. You might have to know a
definition more or less word-for-word.
The way I would learn that is literally
writing it down on a piece of paper and
then, kind of like you would do lines at
school, just keep repeating and
repeating it, writing it down and it down,
and each time comparing it to
the original, underlining anything that
wasn't right. Saying it out loud really helps
as well for me. I like when I can hear
things, they stay on my head longer. But I
think because you're going to be writing
it in the exam it's important to know
how to write it down as well. That's more
or less how I would study. I would write
everything on a revision card and then
just practice writing things out again,
practice questions, exam questions, past
papers, whatever you can get your hands
on. Do them all, especially anything that
has been written by the lecture who is
examining you because you'll get used to their
style, you'll get used to the kind of
things they're expecting of you, what
they're going to ask and also what
they're going to look for in the answers.
Did you have as much free time as
your friends from other courses? No. In
first year I lived with a group of
people who didn't study maths and they
had a lot more free time than me. They
had less contact hours and also they had
less work to be doing outside of
lectures. In my case I became closer with
my maths friends, so all of my closest
friends were also doing maths and had
the same amount of free time as me. So it
worked out quite well in that aspect
because we were all on the same page in
terms of how much work we had to
do and how much time we had to spend
with each other outside of uni. And we
did still spend time together, it's
not all studying. I know I say that it's
a lot of work and there's a lot of hours,
and that's true but there is still time
for other things in your life. So don't
worry, don't feel like your life's gonna
be consumed by uni stuff. How hard will
it be and will it be easier at some
point? As I've already said, it is pretty
hard especially to begin with. You expect
it's gonna be hard, like I'm telling you
right now it's gonna be hard and you're
like "yeah of course it's gonna be hard".
But when you get there, you're just
not going to be prepared, but that's okay
and it gets easier. It really does.
Your brain adapts. You adjust, you get
used to the teaching style and the
learning style and what's expected of
you. So even though the first few weeks
may seem impossible, at least they did
for me, you'll get through it and it will
get easier. Things to include in personal
statement for maths? Ah, that's been a while
since I did that. I think you should
google that one because it has been a
while since I wrote my personal
statement. It's been like five years
or so. Oh, that's horrible to think about.
All they really want to see is that
you're dedicated enough to your chosen
field of study, so maths in this case, that
you're gonna put in three years of work
for it at uni, go through all the
emotional labour and the turmoil of
having to study maths and then come out
at the end and still want to study it.
Anything you've done which shows that
outside of school you're still
interested in maths, still dedicating
your time to it. Another good idea is to
think back to when you first knew you
liked the subject or knew that you wanted
to study it or something that happened
at a young age that really
influenced you into enjoying that subject.
For me, my dad taught me when I was about
4 or 5 that there were 3,600 seconds in
an hour because there were 60 seconds in
a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. So
that more or less taught me how
multiplication worked and then ever
since then I could just do it, which is
pretty impressive for a five-year-old. So
if you can think of any stories or
anecdotes like that. If I can find
something I'll put a link below about
personal statements for maths because
like I said it's been a while since I
wrote mine. What do you do if you don't
understand a maths question? It's always
good to have a go yourself first because
you may be able to work it out yourself, but
if not then at least you have explored all
the avenues you can think of and you
know what exactly it is that you don't
understand, so you can actually ask
someone. I always get a piece of paper
and I jot things down and write down any
symbols used, write the definition of any
words and just try and piece things
together. Try and work out what they're
actually asking. The next step if that
doesn't really get you anywhere is to
talk to someone else on your course.
Either they're stuck as well, which means you can
work together to solve it, or they
already worked out the answer in which
case they can help you. And hopefully, as
well as them just telling you the answer,
they'll be able to explain to you how
they got there so you can see their
perspective and their approach, so next
time you can actually do it on your own.
If you're still stuck then talk to a
member of staff, a lecturer, a
postgraduate. It depends on your uni
but for mine we could speak to them
after a lecture, speak to them in a
tutorial, go to a student workshop where
any lecturer will be more than happy to
help you work it out. Even if it's not
their personal field of study,
maths lecturers are massive nerds and
they'll more than happily sit down
and work through a maths problem with you.
You can email your lecturer, sometimes
they have a forum you can post on
or they give you a telephone extension
to call. I've even had a couple of
lecturers who have had hashtags, so you
can just hashtag on twitter your
question and they'll bring it up
anonymously in the lecture, which i think
is awesome. There are so many ways to ask
for help but the most important thing is
that you do ask them for help, because
it's their job to help you, it's their
job to make sure that you know
everything you need to know and that you
pass your exam. So they'll be more than
happy to help you and they'll probably
rejoice in the fact that someone's
taking interest in their course. What are
exams like for uni maths? I feel like
that's gonna be different for everybody
and like
every University, every course, and then
every module as well. Most modules it's
mostly exam based. There's a little bit
of coursework which is either like a
worksheet or a little in-class test but most
of your marks won't come from the exam.
I've had a couple of exams with multiple-choice
sections but mostly it's all just
written like normal. To be honest they'll
mostly for the pattern of your notes.
If in lectures you've done a lot of
computations, that's going to be a
good indicator that that's kind of the
style of exam as well. I think I'll have to
show you a paper to kind of give you an
idea of what an exam would look like.
But I know... I think her name's Tibees on
YouTube, she's done some videos about
looking through university math papers,
and she goes through them, shows
you the kind of questions and then she
actually answers a couple as well. So if
you're wondering and you're curious, I
would say go and check out her channel
for all sorts of maths related content. I
think she's actually a physicist, I might
be wrong. And we'll finish with
something light-hearted. What was my
favourite part of course? My favourite
module was graph theory. And just in
general my favourite part of
studying was probably writing my notes.
I'm really enjoyed writing notes. I loved
making them look very pretty and I
really miss it. Okay so that's more or
less all the questions that I got. Some
of them I don't feel qualified enough to
like answer in a video, like career stuff
and stuff about masters, like I don't
have the personal experience to talk
about that. One more thing. My friend
Andy who I lived with in first year
has given me an info sheet all about
starting uni. It's specifically about
Southampton but I think you can
generalise most things to whatever
uni you're going to. I'm gonna leave
a link to that in the description below.
Feel free, if you want a little bit of
information about starting uni. This is
Andy's writing not mine, so if there's
any bad advice I blame him. But no, I've read
it through, it's very informative. It's
good advice about stuff to take
to uni, and how to adjust in the
first few weeks. So that will be linked
in the description if you want to
download it. Thank you all for your
questions. I hope I answered them well.
Good luck if you're starting uni in the
next few weeks. It's gonna be a blast,
you're gonna love it. Thank you all very
much for watching and I will see very
soon for another maths at uni video.
It's coming very soon I promise.
