Applied Maths

jennyq

A bit late I know, but I'm doing the LC this year & I'm thinking of doing Applied Maths as an extra. I haven't really began working on it yet & I'm looking for any advice at all basically that would help me in getting prepared for it. I'm doing Honours Maths & Physics already & I've also done some other bits of the course before from being involved with Irish physics olimpiad (I can spell, it just won't let me type that word because of the venue I assume?) training so I know that I would be capable of doing well in it if I can somehow manage to cram it all in in the time I have.

I'm mostly wondering if it's necessary to study all of the course, as looking at the papers you only have to do 6/10 questions & often (from what I can see not having actually studied it fully, please correct me if I'm wrong!) it seems that the same topics come up in the same questions each year. Obviously I've got limited time so I'd like to try & avoid doing unnecessary work. Advice on the best topics to do, ones that are touched on in my other subjects & ones that are easiest, whatever you think might help. I've got a couple of books from friends, Applied Mathematics (Kevin Cunliffe) & Fundamental Applied Mathematics (Oliver Murphy), if there's any other resources available I'd be interested too.

Any advice or tips would be appreciated. Before anybody says it, yes, I know I should have started this earlier!! :rolleyes:

JC 2K3

Firstly, by no means should you have started this earlier, the course is easily doable in a few months and it would be by no means "cramming".

You only need to study 6 topics, though you might want to do 7 just to be safe. I did Q1-5, 9 and 10.

I'd say definately do Projectiles(Q3), Hydrostatics(Q9) and Differential Equations(Q10), as I found them to be the easiest topics(Just should have worked at 9 more, there was a ridiculously easy question on the exam which I stupidly didn't do as I was only going to do it if another question was a complete nightmare. While none of the other questions were indeed "complete nightmares", I think doing Q9 instead of one of them might have gotten me an A1 rather than an A2).

Once you've chosen your 6/7 topics, just work through the chapters in Fundamental Applied Maths. I found I could get away with reading the chapter and doing the harder questions at the end, only going back and doing easier questions if I was struggling. Once you've finished all the required chapters then just do LOADS of exam questions and work on getting quick at doing them.

ryanairzer

jennyq wrote: »

if there's any other resources available I'd be interested too.

http://skoool.ie/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=3203

Great applied maths notes there.

failsafe

I did Applied Maths and only started it in 6th year and it worked out fine. If you have the mind for it, it's not too broad a subject.

Here's the makings of a good resource:
http://www.zulunotes.com/wiki/index.php/Applied_Mathematics
Which you can feel free to add to over the course of the year if it helps you study!

ZorbaTehZ

^^And all because of my hard work.
/gloat

You ought have a look on Oliver Murphy's website for the booklet of past papers he sells if you haven't done so already.