Schols Schols Schols, information and venting thread.

tehjimmeh

amacachi wrote: »

Just saw the numbers, might give it a miss.

Dude, it's one week of exams...

I don't get the mindset of people who get cold feet about doing the exams. What's there to lose?

claire h

tehjimmeh wrote: »

Dude, it's one week of exams...

I don't get the mindset of people who get cold feet about doing the exams. What's there to lose?

Time. Dignity.

Folks, if you're even a little bit prepared, go for it. It's the one set of exams there are no consequences for failing, so you can take chances with how you answer.

Plus - very handy, particularly with upcoming budgets of doom, to have one option for postgraduate study covered.

Carl Sagan

Go for it amacachi. You've got nothing to lose

languagenerd

Argh just found out that my Schols oral exam for French is NEXT WEEK! Next week! They just dropped that bombshell on us now. :mad::mad::mad::mad::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

*runs around screaming*

Podge_irl

Aoibheann wrote: »

Monday, Wednesday (both mornings) and Thursday (afternoon) for me. Could be worse. Maths have Monday, Wednesday and Friday (mornings), so I'm a tad jealous... Oh well, I'll be happy to be finished a bit earlier I guess!

Three exams? Piffle, you have it easy

Aoibheann

Podge_irl wrote: »

Three exams? Piffle, you have it easy

The joys of the 9 hour rule! I'd prefer if Complex Analysis and Geometry weren't on the same paper on the first day, because I have a feeling that the other Maths paper will be my strong point (relatively speaking.. I don't actually have any strong points >_<), and having a bad first day would not be pleasant. Conveniently though, Geometry looks nice and repetitive, so I think I can manage it.

I'm also almost certainly transferring into Maths (half-way through the year, I'm so wise! :pac:), so no break after Schols for me.. Straight into catch-up mode!

Podge_irl

Aoibheann wrote: »

The joys of the 9 hour rule! I'd prefer if Complex Analysis and Geometry weren't on the same paper on the first day, because I have a feeling that the other Maths paper will be my strong point (relatively speaking.. I don't actually have any strong points >_<), and having a bad first day would not be pleasant. Conveniently though, Geometry looks nice and repetitive, so I think I can manage it.

I'm also almost certainly transferring into Maths (half-way through the year, I'm so wise! :pac:), so no break after Schols for me.. Straight into catch-up mode!

Would you not just transfer at the end of the year? I have very little knowledge of the current syllabus but all of the interesting maths courses were in soph years in my day and you didn't miss out on much by being in TP in SF (except group reps...which ironically is absurdly important for theoretical particle physics).

As regards the exams, as difficult as it is, try not to worry about how they've gone. Especially with schols. I practically broke down in panic after one of my exams it went so badly - I was close to crying in the exam! It turns out that it wasn't just me who thought it was absurdly difficult, it was everyone and it was marked exceptionally easily and ended up being one of the better results I had. Schol exams aren't quite an exact science.

Aoibheann

Podge_irl wrote: »

Would you not just transfer at the end of the year? I have very little knowledge of the current syllabus but all of the interesting maths courses were in soph years in my day and you didn't miss out on much by being in TP in SF (except group reps...which ironically is absurdly important for theoretical particle physics).

As regards the exams, as difficult as it is, try not to worry about how they've gone. Especially with schols. I practically broke down in panic after one of my exams it went so badly - I was close to crying in the exam! It turns out that it wasn't just me who thought it was absurdly difficult, it was everyone and it was marked exceptionally easily and ended up being one of the better results I had. Schol exams aren't quite an exact science.

I'm wavering, but I think that stats may come in useful to me as well, so I'd kinda like to take it up. Hate missing out on metric spaces (although I sit in on a lot of the lectures) and the like too. I really, really like some of the supposedly less interesting pure maths courses this year, and I enjoy them a lot more than physics. So why wait? That's how I see it atm..

And thank you, that's definitely good advice for me to drill into my brain. I've also vowed to not have silly post-mortems because there's just no point!

Podge_irl

Aoibheann wrote: »

I'm wavering, but I think that stats may come in useful to me as well, so I'd kinda like to take it up. Hate missing out on metric spaces (although I sit in on a lot of the lectures) and the like too. I really, really like some of the supposedly less interesting pure maths courses this year, and I enjoy them a lot more than physics. So why wait? That's how I see it atm..

And thank you, that's definitely good advice for me to drill into my brain. I've also vowed to not have silly post-mortems because there's just no point!

What are you planning on doing? Cause I wouldn't worry about stats if you want to be a theoretical physicist. As regards the other topics, depending on how good you are at the physics side I would consider getting through this year while attending the extra maths lectures and then changing next year. Depends on how easily you think you will catch up I guess, but would be nicer to have a summer to do it then trying to cram it in while also taking lectures. Your results in second year don't really matter anyway (this can be taken as either an incentive to stay or change I guess!). How many maths courses do you guys do at the moment vs. the maths people?

Aoibheann

Podge_irl wrote: »

What are you planning on doing? Cause I wouldn't worry about stats if you want to be a theoretical physicist. As regards the other topics, depending on how good you are at the physics side I would consider getting through this year while attending the extra maths lectures and then changing next year. Depends on how easily you think you will catch up I guess, but would be nicer to have a summer to do it then trying to cram it in while also taking lectures. Your results in second year don't really matter anyway (this can be taken as either an incentive to stay or change I guess!). How many maths courses do you guys do at the moment vs. the maths people?

Honestly? I'm not sure, but I can see my interests in a postgrad lying in the maths side. I could even turn traitor and go into finance, though that's unlikely! So a maths degree may suit me better.. It's hard to know though, I'd end up with an insanely mixed maths degree (a mix of TP maths, pure maths and some CS modules) if I had my way!

The good thing about physics is so much of it is continuous assessment based (mainly labs), and I can get away with attending the extra maths lectures as it stands.. I probably shouldn't be doing so though with the physics schol paper!

We do Geometry, Methods, Mechanics (all year-long), Complex Analysis and Groups (one semester each). So we miss out on Rings/Fields type stuff, Lebesgue Integral, Metric Spaces, ODEs, Stats (but they only take that or Mech anyway).. I know they're not hugely important, but I'm interested in most (if not all) of them!

PurpleFistMixer

Regarding "not panicking in exams"... If it's any consolation, for the first 2 hours of my physics schol exam it looked an awful lot like I was going to completely bottle it (I had honestly only done a couple of questions at that point), and then I had some crazy burst of inspiration and ended up doing very well indeed. So yeah, don't panic.

Aoibheann

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Regarding "not panicking in exams"... If it's any consolation, for the first 2 hours of my physics schol exam it looked an awful lot like I was going to completely bottle it (I had honestly only done a couple of questions at that point), and then I had some crazy burst of inspiration and ended up doing very well indeed. So yeah, don't panic.

This occasionally happens to me in exams, and is why I will never, ever leave before the time is up. And you did do rather well alright (:P), so clearly I must trust this advice!

amacachi

Pfft, 15 minutes of reading, half an hour of answering questions, 15 minutes of relaxing then a mad burst to finish. Usually gets me out by the halfway point. :pac:

Jammyc

So I hear in previous years, schol applicants get extra borrowing rights for christmas break. Is this true? If so, when?

Sir Ophiuchus

They mentioned last year that it was a huge hassle for the librarians, and they didn't want to do it again.

So they might not. Be warned!

Feu

I never knew about this! Still, you can prob convince someone to take out 1 or 2 books for you? And you can renew online 7 times now. not too shabby.

Unshelved

They mentioned last year that it was a huge hassle for the librarians, and they didn't want to do it again.

So they might not. Be warned!

Rubbish. Watch out for the email regarding special borrowing rights for schols candidates in the next day or two.

Sir Ophiuchus

Unshelved wrote: »

Rubbish. Watch out for the email regarding special borrowing rights for schols candidates in the next day or two.

I wasn't attempting to speak on behalf of the library, but that's what a librarian told me last January when I thanked them after Schols for having provided such a useful and important service.

That they didn't want to run it again because it was such a huge hassle.

Sorry if that offends you.

Unshelved

Not offended - just wanted to correct a statement that was misleading and could cause unnecessary worry to candidates.

Scholars will have special borrowing rights from Friday 17th December.

Sir Ophiuchus

Glad to hear it. Dismissing my factual statement about what I was told as "rubbish" was, I thought, unnecessary.

Nonetheless, I'm glad there are special borrowing rights. They were incredibly helpful last year.

Larianne

Unshelved, do they increase the amount of books you can take out if you're doing Schol? Could do with another 2 books out on loan.

Unshelved

Yes - afaik Schol candidates can borrow up to eight books for the Christmas period from tomorrow, Friday 17th December. Last year borrowing was not restricted to LEN/S-LEN books and I think it's the same this year. Phone the Duty Librarian - 896 1127 to confirm.

Larianne

Brilliant! Thanks a mill for that.

Fringe

I still haven't got this email yet. When does the library close for Christmas?

Larianne

24th December. There's reduced opening hours from Saturday 18th. Says so on the website.

Sugarglass

Was just wondering if anyone knew if it matters if you withdraw now, after the official date. Is the deadline just for administration purposes or what?

amacachi

Sugarglass wrote: »

Was just wondering if anyone knew if it matters if you withdraw now, after the official date. Is the deadline just for administration purposes or what?

Yeah I don't to withdraw now without being an outcast. :P

Feu

i think it's so's your lecturers can set a paper. I.e. you've signed up by a particular date, so then they have to make a paper. Either way it's done by now i'd imagine, so doesn't matter when you withdraw, but if you do so nowish, that way they can just take your name out of the pool. It especially doesn't matter if you know there's other people from your course sitting them, as then their work doesn't go to waste! That said, absolutely nothing to be lost by just sitting them, even if you don't feel that prepared.

Aoibheann

I'd like for complex analysis to go away now, please. Studying geometry was so much nicer. I'm suddenly insanely happy that they're on the same paper, at least half to four-sixths of it *might* go reasonably well - provided I remember approximately a million definitions and theorems..

PurpleFistMixer

I did 4 geometry and 2 complex on that paper. Thank god for geometry! That said, complex is very interesting... just not as easy as geometry.