Note: Freshers are the intended audience here, some answers may only concern first year e.g. the format of exams.
These answers are written by students for students in an effort to be as informative as possible. However, everyone’s university experience is unique, and as so, we would like to caveat that these answers contain both fact and opinion.
Essentially three/four years of gaining content through lectures, problem classes and tutorials and outputting that content in the form of exams and coursework. It’s not that much more complicated. Your first four weeks will consist of one module only called IUM which is a mixture of elementary set theory, linear algebra and number stuff - stuff that every mathematician should see at least once. Then you will do several modules at once for the remainder of the year, which you can see on the course info page on the website. Periodically you will have quizzes, courseworks and midterms and then a final exam for each module.
Your first year counts for 7.5% of your total degree grade. This is a phrase you will think to yourself a lot during the year. So if you do some quick maths, there’s not MUCH of a difference between getting like 50% or 70% in first year but ideally you want to do as well as possible because future years will rely on your skill in first year. At the end of the day it’s not too deep, but something to keep in mind. Most older years don’t regret their grades in first year being a bit low, but they do regret not having a good work-life balance. First year only happens once!
You need to pass every module to progress to the second year, but you can resit some modules in Summer if you need to. You need to gain 40% in each module (and 50% in IUM) to pass the module. So you need 60/60 credits.
You’re probably used to interactive lessons where the teacher explains something and asks questions from the class, and then you have an opportunity to practise problems in the class and get feedback. At university however it’s more like you’re watching someone deliver a talk, although the lecturer may ask you to complete a quick example. It’s mainly a lot of listening, absorbing and scribing. The practice happens outside of class.
Each module will have its own final exam, but some modules may also have midterms and January exams too. Your final exam will be worth 70% of your final grade for almost all modules and they happen in May. The exams in May are three hours long which sounds like a long time but they fly by quickly to be honest. You will have a set of normally 6 questions to respond to in 3 hours, each question being subdivided into smaller parts. Each module has one final exam.
Exams are difficult, there’s no way around it. But would you really wanna spend your hard-earned money (or your government’s hard-earned money) on a school that was easy? Just trust the process, go to lectures, go to problems classes, do the problem sheets, do past papers and you’ll be just fine.
You don’t need to buy any specific textbooks, you’re best off using the notes that the lecturers create specifically for the course. No textbook will map perfectly onto the specification that you will be learning and be examined on. Disclaimer: see real analysis advice.
Not in the first year, everyone does the same modules.
First, try to identify the problem: Is it a specific subject, time management issues, or something else? You can always reach out to your professors and personal tutor, as well as talk to peers. Joining study groups can help you study more in a less stressful environment. Remember to always take care of your health: sleep schedule, healthy diet and regular exercise are essential.
This is a member of academic staff who is allocated to you for the duration of your course to offer help and support with academic or personal issues. They will also follow your progress throughout the course to help keep you on track to succeed.
Mathsoc is a not-for-profit organisation under the umbrella of the Royal College of Science Union RCSU and Imperial College Union ICU, that strives to build a bridge among students, faculties and industries. Mathsoc organises various events for maths students throughout the year, which help socialise, network and just have fun with fellow mathematicians. Every student in the Mathematics department is automatically a member of MathSoc.
So real analysis……. It’s fairly universal in how students agree that real analysis is notoriously difficult, particular and unintuitive in parts, but that’s less to do with the content itself and more to do with how you’ve developed as a mathematician so far. You’re probably used to doing maths up to this point like an engineer would, but mathematicians at university do it differently.
Real analysis is about proofs, not solving equations or calculating integrals. What does it mean for a function to approach a value? Why can we do L’hopital’s rule? What is a real number? How many real numbers are there? Are there more rational numbers or irrational numbers? What’s the relationship between an integral and a derivative? What does it mean to do an infinite sum?
Given all this, how do you cope? You go to the library and you take out a copy of “Understanding Analysis” by Stephen Abott and you sit down and write out all of the proofs in the book by hand. Don’t question this advice, just do it. Thank me later.
Failure sucks, but it’s not the end. If you fail a midterm or coursework, nothing happens because those only count for a small portion of the module. However if you fail a module overall after the final exam, you will have the option to resit that final exam in the Summer before second year. It happens a lot more often than you’d think. Your mark in the module will be capped at 40% for these resits in most cases, and you need to pass the module after resitting the final exam in order to progress onto the next year.
Apart from rare exceptions, all of your lectures will be in the same lecture theatre - Clore. Clore is on the second floor of Huxley, across from the reception.
Keep up to date with lectures and the material covered in them otherwise it’s very easy to fall behind. Missing a few is completely fine with all the chaos of fresher’s, but make sure you review after to compensate. This is especially important for the modules with assessments pretty soon after the start of the year (CP1, IUM) - Big Adam
You should 100% buy the union’s freshers events, they’re awesome and people are often scrambling for tickets at the last minute because they didn’t buy in advance. For anything else like a general London freshers pass, it’s probably not worth it unless you plan to go out literally every night. Otherwise just buy the day before for the clubs you actually wanna go to.
As a London based university, it is not uncommon that you’ll meet other people who are living at home for at least a portion of their time here at Imperial, so do not feel like you will be the only one.
Luckily, the mathematics department hosts a not-in-halls event even before the term starts which is an amazing opportunity to socialise and meet others in a similar position from early on.
As a student commuting from greater London, relying on the underground can be quite exhausting from trying to make it to early morning lectures to accommodating for when the final train departs when on a night out however here is some advice that help to make my first year experience as good as possible:
1) Attendance - The dread of 9am lectures means you’ll likely need to wake up earlier than usual but please don’t let this discourage you from heading into campus since simply being there is the best way to make new friends. However, of course make sure to take rest days if you need to since it can take a while to adjust to commuting.
2) Social nights - Often nights out around campus with friends can be quite a spontaneous activity meaning it can be difficult to decide what to do when your final lecture for the day is over, head home or wait for those last minute invites?
This is why I greatly recommend MathSoc events as they are all pre-planned weeks in advance with frequent updates that you’ll receive weekly via email from the society. - Big Nick