Applied Maths

johnfaul

Hi all
I am just wondering if it would be benefical to take up applied maths from now on and during the summer? im in 5th year i do higher level maths and physics. im not great at english and i think it could bring up my points . Is it as hard as its supposed to be?
thanks john

ironclaw

Its very hard. The books are crap. You need a very good teacher. But it is easy points if you good at it. If you do Physics and HL Maths, then you should be ok. Its hard to self-teach it but can be done. I'm doing it at the minute.

And you can say your 1 in 5000

amacachi

If you're good at maths and physics it's not too hard. There's not a lot in the course, it's just a matter of being really good at what is in it.

Des23

If you are teaching yourself, unless you are particularly gifted, it would be extremely difficult to go for a top grade. If you plan on getting taught it then, provided you teacher is good, and you have an aptitude for maths and physics then go for it. I would advise to ensure that you do like maths because if its just points you are going for there are easier subjects out there.

Dubs

its well doable on your own and you have plenty of time to get it done as its a relatively short course. Plenty of maths and physics is involved in it so if you are mathematically gifted you should get along well with it. If you have problems with questions, and the chances are that you will, make sure you ask your physics / maths teacher for help!

good luck with it bud

timmywex

If you are doing it by yourself, i would advise that you go to one of the revision courses in the institute of education or similar place next christmas maybe.

Oliver Murphys book (the most popular one) mysteriously skips alot of areas so the notes you get should help boost you upwards!

Its well doable though, you only have to do 6 questions from 10, recommended you do more though.

ironclaw

ironclaw wrote: »

And you can say your 1 in 5000

More like one in ~1300.:)

It's not a terribly hard subject at all. It has a reputation of being one of the hardest, but, it's far from. In my own opinion, honours maths is a good bit harder; the maths mightn't be a lot harder, but it's a much bigger course than app. maths.

Give it a go anyway, you won't know otherwise. Oh, and by the way, I thought it to myself, and it's not very hard once you've the internet.

cocoa

I got myself an A1 in app maths the year before last Was taught some of the ordinary course in fifth year, self taught through 6th. I'd say go for it, I was working out of Oliver Murphy's book myself. The key really is to go through exam questions and have somewhere to go when you get stuck. I think at some stage I put some solutions up on zulunotes so you could check that out if it's still there... If you ever have any problems there's always boards

I really wouldn't say it's that hard if you're already doing well in maths and physics.

Jay P

I did it up untill a few weeks ago but I left cos I just didn't get it. Without wanting to sound cocky or big-headed, I'm very good at maths and physics, but applied maths went completely over my head. It could have been a confidence thing maybe, I dunno really.

Don't do it automatically thinking you'll have an A, it is difficult ad some of the concepts are difficult to grasp so it does take work. Good luck thouhg!

cocoa

I didn't make this fully clear in my previous post, but it is fairly important to have someone you can go to if you don't understand something. It's possible you could get it yourself if you sat and tried for a couple more hours, but it also possible you could have it within minutes and with much less frustration if you had some help. The oliver murphy book is far from foolproof and often some extra explanation is needed, so even if you are self teaching it's important to use other resources from friends (who have done or are doing app maths, or anyone in engineering) to other books to the internet. The key is not to get bogged down and seek help before things start seeming impossible.

johnfaul

thamks for the replies guys much appreciated. i think im going to give it a go and see how i get on