Here is part 2 of my interview with Jennifer Leigh! As an undergraduate at Durham University, she gives us her top tips for getting ahead in order to maximise your chance of success at the university of your choice. From extra-curricular maths at A-Level to fascinating topics you'll encounter during your degree, Jennifer gives us many ideas to start exploring!
"If you want to be stretched beyond A level (Further) Maths, try questions from MOG, BMO, MAT or STEP"
What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing maths at uni?
Chances are, if you choose to study Maths at university, you’re probably pretty good at Maths. All through school, I found Maths to be my easy A* subject, however studying Maths at university is a completely different experience. My advice would be to be prepared to be pushed and enjoy being pushed.
"when you’re studying or planning to study a Maths course at university, no one is doubting that you’re good at Maths."
If you want to be stretched beyond A level (Further) Maths, try questions from MOG, BMO, MAT or STEP- you’ll have a lot of questions that require you to really think at university.
Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’re allowed to work through questions with your classmates. Don’t treat maths like it is a subject that you have to complete independently; when you’re studying or planning to study a Maths course at university, no one is doubting that you’re good at Maths. It is completely okay to go to your teacher, lecturer or tutor and tell them you don’t understand what is on the whiteboard- it will only make you a better mathematician in the long run.
Which area of maths do you enjoy most, and why?
I’m still pretty early on in my maths career but the parts of Maths that appeal to me the most are always the ones that feel “clever”. I remember the coolest piece of maths I did at A level was learning about the Maclaurin expansion; the idea that all these unusual functions like sin(x) and e^x could be represented by a polynomial was so exciting to me, and at university we still use the Taylor expansion (a generalised version of the Maclaurin expansion) to estimate in Calculus and Dynamics.
One of my favourite modules this year has been Discrete, since it is full of these “clever” bits of maths that I enjoy. Simple things like the pigeon-hole principle, for example, can prove some pretty non-trivial statements, even though the principle itself seems obvious.
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