Applied Maths - what was I thinking?

There has been a distinct lack of posting on this blog lately because I've been busier than usual.

This Monday I'm sitting for my Applied Maths A-Level and I realised that trying to study when you have a full-time job, a husband, a flat and a cat is a whole new kettle of fish. I study on the bus, I study during my lunch break, I study in cafes, I study in the middle of rehearsals... *sigh*

Just two days to go *meep* and I am wading through mechanics like nobody's business. Well I did most of this stuff already as part of my Physics A-Level or as part of my degree, but some of it is new stuff and some of it I never really got in the first place.

I am hating differential equations, but I love that today I did an entire topic (shear force and bending moment diagrams) in a relatively short time because it was one of my favourite subjects back in Uni. Heheheh.

When I decided to sit for this exam, it was part of my "Sit an A-Level every two years" master plan, which has the ultimate aim of preventing stagnation of my brain. Then for the in-between years I do musical theatre exams instead, which fall at around the same time of year. I was thinking of doing chemistry, and started working on it, and then decided that no way, it was much too hard. Lol.

But Applied Maths didn't sound too bad because I'm already familiar with the subject. Now in the pre-exam weekend I am panicking a bit because I haven't been through ALL the topics yet, I'm struggling on a couple of the more esotric ones, I am not doing so well on the past papers... aagrh! What was I thinking?

Well, we'll see how it goes.

After the raging success that was my English A-Level two years ago (I got an A, along with four other people out of the 819 who sat the exam), I thought I would aim high this time too. I doubt I'll get an A though, that was a bit too optimistic.

If I did, I would totally skew the statistics for this subject - there are generally less than twenty people who take this exam every year, hardly anyone goes above a C, and there aren't even any official statistics because the sample size is so small.

Mind you, I can see why the grades aren't that high - there's a lot of pure maths in it, but anyone taking Applied at A-Level won't be taking Pure at A or I and therefore will be missing a lot of background. And there's probably too much "applied" content to allow much time for teaching the "pure" background that is so important. Pure Maths A-Level is an absolute NIGHTMARE but I will be the first to say that it left me with a good grounding.

I realised earlier this week that there is a much greater chance that I will actually study if I prepare a space with everything I need already there. So I cleared off a desk that my sister had donated to us (my proper desk is full of PC, old-skool monitor, speakers, telephone etc) and I put all my study stuff there.

This is what my study desk looked like yesterday, with textbooks, past papers, highlighters to mark what I need to study (yellow for paper I, orange for paper II), water bottle, file paper, calculator, pen, kitchen timer for timing study sessions, chocolate cupcake for motivation, and cute toy for mindless moments. What more could an aspiring student need?

This is what my study desk looks like today, several hours of use later. I ditched the timer because the ticking bugged me, had to dig out an engineering textbook because the applied maths textbooks I got don't cover one of the topics, Jenny ran away with the remains of the cupcake (who knew that cats like chocolate cupcake?) and as you can see I'm using a lot of bits of trees. *sigh*

The blob on the chair is Fuzzball, the newest member of our little family. I'll blog more about him later.

I'm off to bed, thoroughly fed up with calculating collisions and closest approaches (one of the topics I don't remember ever doing before).

Just remember, for collision or interception to take place, the relative velocity must lie on the relative displacement vector. Or something like that.

Comments

[Sandro Vella]

Dear Maltagirl,

I wish you well from the bottom of my heart.

Sandro Vella

[Sandro Vella]

The blog post "Applied Maths - what was I thinking?" is featured on Maltamedia: The Maltese Blogosphere

- Nominate blog post of the month -

[Krystle]

Good Luck for your exam :) I had taken Applied Maths Intermediate Level some years ago but I changed the subject after a month! lol

[Fausto Majistral]

Applied Maths A-level? Don't you need that to study engineering?

[ninuhadida]

"Pure Maths A-Level is an absolute NIGHTMARE"

You got that right!

Good luck for your applied A-level! :)

[wen]

I know what you mean. I am really struggling to study and I have this exam in June...It is very tough. Most of my colleagues (last year) only managed to pass, some of them failed however :( As you said, with a full time job, hubby, shopping, cleaning, it is very difficult to find time to really concentrate and study. Good luck!

[hsejjes]

I always found Maths very elusive, and barly managed to get my o level, so cudos of respect for even THINKING of sitting for Applied Maths A level. Gook luck gal!
Oh and are you comming to the ikla?

[MaltaGirl]

Thanks everyone! I am forging on with my quest to absorb as much mechanics as possible by tomorrow *sigh*

Wen, my sympathies. Good luck to you too!

Fausto, Applied Maths A-Level doesn't count to get into engineering, it has to be Pure Maths. Pure is more like building a big toolkit that you can use for all kinds of things, and Applied is more like learning how to actually use a few of those tools in one field - you need less in-depth knowledge of the tools but you need to know more about how to use them. Applied counts for Architecture and Civil Engineering because a lot of what they do is in this field, and they don't need a lot of Pure. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when I got to fourth-year and found out that we didn't have any maths courses left to take, hahahaha.

[Charlene]

Animals are not supposed to eat chocolate. It gets their heart beating too fast and it can kill them!!

[MaltaGirl]

Don't worry, I know this, which is why we never give the cats chocolate (or human medicines, or other stuff they shouldn't eat). She ran off with the paper wrapper, which I then retrieved and threw away, so she didn't actually eat any of it. I was surprised because usually she doesn't show any interest in any food that isn't meat.

[Kenneth]

Hope you did well! I admire your master plan... Coincidentally, just an hour ago, I was thinking of attempting Pure Maths A-level again next year. I had passed when I did my A levels, but I just want a better grade.

Insomma, good luck for your result now :)

[sergio]

did u end up passing the exam? what grade did u get? unfortunatley i fell into the applied maths a-level death trap too...*sigh* and i have to sit for the exam in two months.... :S