Should I take up App Maths?

Just at the end of 5th year at the moment, and nearly certain I want to apply for Medicine next year. Problem is I only have 6 higher subjects, so if one of those goes badly on the day I'm screwed. I do Higher Level Maths and Physics, and am thinking of teaching myself Applied Maths over the summer and through 6th year. I do well in both Maths & Physics (got 100% and 96% in my Maths Christmas & Summer exams this year) so I think I'm capable of doing the course.

I'm just concerned that it might be too much work or will hinder the study of my other subjects. Can anyone give me some advice? (and good luck to all taking exams

Nicole

I'd say to go for it. If you're already doing physics and higher maths then you've nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

As for worrying about how much time it will take, don't. It's relatively a very short course. It's possible to cover it very quickly (I covered it in about 5-6 weeks a few months back); I don't see any reason why you couldn't cover it in 4 months, let alone a year.

You're planning on teaching yourself? If you are, get Fundamental Applied Mathematics by Oliver Murphy (it's an ugly brown book). It's pretty much the only book available for the course (apart from another crap one). Get past papers - they're the most valuable thing you can get.

The method I used for teaching myself was to start directly from the papers and work through a problem until I got stuck: I would then resort to the textbook, or, better still, to the internet. Whatever works best for you really.

Anyway, best of luck with it. If you've any specific questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for the advice I'll talk to my living legend of a maths teacher and see what he thinks (he's actually writing a new app maths book, which is fairly ambitious considering all I've heard about the brown one! His maths ones are ace though)

Des23

I'd have to agree with the above post.

It is an excellent course to do and its quite compact, as long as you have a bit of mathematical aptitude, which you apparently do, it is probably the best course you could do.

Also it will help you regular maths quite a bit, thats what I found anyway.

I haven't done Q7, Q6 and Q9 circular motion, statics and hydrostatics but they are deemed to be the most difficult (but ''difficulty'' is obviously objective, and I'm only going on hearsay). But the point I'm making is if you are stuck for time / only want to cover 7 questions all the others are doable.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Four-Percent

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for the advice I'll talk to my living legend of a maths teacher and see what he thinks (he's actually writing a new app maths book, which is fairly ambitious considering all I've heard about the brown one! His maths ones are ace though)

If he's the guy who wrote the brown one (Oliver Murphy) then he's definitely not writing a new one anytime soon - he just left my old school to become principal of Castleknock college An absolute legend and was a fantastic teacher.

Four-Percent

Four-Percent wrote: »

If he's the guy who wrote the brown one (Oliver Murphy) then he's definitely not writing a new one anytime soon - he just left my old school to become principal of Castleknock college An absolute legend and was a fantastic teacher.

He's not, but he's the finest teacher I've ever known.

likely_lass

the best advice i can offer is go for it, i love applied maths. Id really reccomend trying to get grinds with aidan rowantree, the man is amazing and has the best notes, mes made me go from failing ap maths to being a A1 student in a year

Fringe

Yeah go for it but you definitely need to put work into it. Don't think that just because 20% get A's every year means you'll get one too just because you're doing it. It's a very hard subject. I'm finding it very unreliable at the moment since at times, it can be very challenging. I really like it but it's not an easy A if that's what you're hoping for.

Jack Sheehan

Absolutely go for it. If you're good at Higher Maths and Physics you are more than half way there.