• Question: What parts of maths did you enjoy the most while doing your degree?

    Asked by AnikaK to Sarah on 18 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Sarah Brown

      Sarah Brown answered on 18 Nov 2020:

      I always enjoyed the most applied parts of maths. I actually did a joint honours degree – so half of it was in biology and half of it was maths. Whenever a module related these two subjects, that it what I really loved! For example, I had modules that used differential equations to model animal population changes or disease infection rates, or used statistics to learn about inheritance and evolution.

Comments

  • Photo: Christos

    Christos commented on :

    Hi @AnikaK,
    I have enjoyed solving differential equations as well as doing statistical courses! For that reason, I chose to do a BSc Maths with Statistics for Finance. Some of the modules I took were Methods where I used differential equations to model an epidemic and Credit Scoring where I was predicting whether a person was likely to default on a loan based on a number of factors.

  • Photo: Chris

    Chris commented on :

    In my degree I mostly enjoyed the areas where we used computational methods to solve scientific problems including differential equations. In fact I enjoyed this so much that I have made a career out of doing exactly this. For example I now work with the Met Office to help design the computer programmes to predict the weather.

  • Photo: Kate

    Kate commented on :

    Sometimes I found it would take me a while to appreciate and enjoy the maths I was learning. The best example of that was Fourier transforms. I spent 2 years wondering why we were being taught it every year, then in my third year learning about some of the applications and thinking ithey were pretty nifty. Fast forward 5 years to me starting to work in medical physics and I learnt about how Fourier Transforms are used to create MRI images and now I think they’re amazing!

  • Photo: Heather

    Heather commented on :

    It took me a while to really find the area of maths I loved. I enjoyed all aspects of my degree but never really fell totally in love with something until I took my Math Bio class in the third year of my degree. I really enjoyed seeing the real world applications of mathematics. This surprised me, because I’d never been the strongest biologist at school, but seeing it in a mathematical context really helped me understand and I found it fascinating.

  • Photo: Freya

    Freya commented on :

    I love integration. Not sure why, but was very pleased when that came up in my degree in Astrophysics.