So the first exam, Topics in Mathematical Biology, is all out of the way and done. My impressions were that it was fairly similar to the last two years’ worth of past papers, and having done those and the question sheets, it made it slightly easier. However, I couldn’t help but feel that the questions themselves were quite bulky. I found there was an awful lot to do for each question – especially the first, which took me about 45 minutes!

I attempted questions 1–3 and 5. I only answered question 1 in its entirety due to immense time constraints, but I got the vast majority of the work done. For the most part it seemed fairly correct. Unfortuantely I couldn’t quite remember how the very end of the singular pertubation question was supposed to work, so even though I’d got down to the inner and outer solutions, I couldn’t match them up properly to get the composite which was annoying. However, I gave it a decent shot so we’ll see what happens.

Question 3 was actually quite interesting and I very much enjoyed it. I did manage to complete all of the parts barr the very last bit, for which I basically scrawled something down when we were told to put our pens down. Managed to get the same answers as the question, so that’s got to count for something.

Didn’t attempt question 4 since I know next to nothing about lambda-omega wavetrains, so sat down and did question 5. Didn’t do the initial 3-mark starter question as I meant to come back to it later but again, didn’t get around to it which was a bit annoying. Got through most of it with ease, but unfortunately discovered a mistake in the very last part which means that I’m going to have lost a couple of marks.

However, it’s all over and done with, and I’m fairly pleased with what I’ve written. I can’t account for moderation and stupid errors on my part, but I guess that 70% isn’t an outrageous estimate. I’d be very pleased with that, considering I only actually went to one of the lectures for the entire course.

Next exam is on Friday morning, and it’s Introduction to Topology. I’m actually really looking forward to that since it’s one of my favourite lecture courses of all time. Unfortunately I also have Combinatorics immediately afterwards, so tonight will be spent completing the very last topology paper, and tomorrow I’ll mostly do Combinatorics.

So, we’ll see how the both of those go. Will hopefully update the blog afterwards, but that depends on how much time it’s going to take since the dreaded Measure Theory is on Monday morning. Eek.

8:31 pm | Posted in Exams, Linux, Maths, Warwick Blogs | No Comments »

Well, after the complete downer at the end of term, things are looking up. I’m spending a week down in Plymouth with Sarah, and it’s been nice and relaxing so far. I’ve spent quite a few hours coding on the website tonight, trying to get things done by the end of the week. When I get back on Saturday, I’m going to have an awful lot of revision to do and not a whole load of time, so for the main part I will probably not be blogging or doing much else than revision.

My first four exams are at the beginning of April, and I’m not looking forward to them that much.

• Topics in Mathematical Biology
  The course itself doesn’t seem to be too hard. Sure, there’s non-linear PDEs and all that jazz, but we don’t seem to actually do an awful lot with it. The problem with this exam is definately going to be the sheer amount of things that we have to know. And, unfortunately, there’s just no way around that apart from extensive revision.
• Introduction to Topology
  I’d like to think that at this point in time, I understand topology fairly well. Again, there’s a fair amount to revise for but this is something that I can tackle, and it certainly isn’t insurmountable in terms of understanding. Which is always good. I just hope we don’t get a nasty exam.
• Measure Theory
  This one has me a little worried. The problem is that there’s a lot to revise for and it’s also quite challenging from the standpoint of knowledge. We didn’t have the best lecturer, so that doesn’t really help matters. Really need to get going on some past exam sheets and do some questions.
• Combinatorics
  I understand and enjoy this course. My only worry is that the lecturer, Daan Krammer, sets a nice(ish) exam. Last year’s was pretty nasty, and although it’s fairly easy to do, it takes a lot of time - not something that you have an awful lot of in the examination rooms.

Anyway, this is all worrying about nothing at the moment. I’ll worry more when I get back to Coventry and get going on the actual revision. For the time being, I’m going to drink some tea and enjoy myself here (as much as I can).

On the website front, I’ve finally got the “proper” CSS coding in place which means user-selectable themes! I know that’s what you’ve all been begging me for in a completely silent fashion. But yes, I have three CSS templates for the new (WB) theme, the default theme and also the old theme which did mainly suck. But there we go. Just need to write the appropriate bits for password changing, selecting themes, profile information perhaps and a couple other things, then I’ll have something that closely resembles a proper website.

I’m also going to make a distinct effort when I get back to catalogue all of my loose pieces of code here and there that do minorly useful things. I really want to put them on the web, since at least some people might e-mail me. I like e-mails, after all.

On top of that, I hope to accomplish the image catalogue as well as putting the photo galleries back online. I’d also quite like to optimize the scripting so that it all runs a lot faster and uses less SQL queries. Also, the CSS could, as always, need some work but I think I’ll leave that for the time being.

I can’t wait to get this thing finished. It’s been a long time coming and, considering the amount of work I’ve put into it, I’ve not had a lot to show for it. Certainly the coding will be most of the work, but I must sit down and actually write some content, otherwise this place will be nothing more than a skeleton. I’m more determined than ever that during this exam period I will blog more than I have done before. I need somewhere that I can vent my frustrations and not bombard my poor Sarah with rambling maths questions.

Anyway, I must stop writing now as it is certainly time for bed. Tomorrow, I think I’ll mainly concentrate on the user control panel and get that out of the way. Once I get that done, I can move on to sort out the other bits and pieces that are more shiny.

1:16 am | Posted in Exams, Maths, Site Development, University, XHTML/CSS | No Comments »

Got a 1st, with a Seymore average of 75%. Here’s a breakdown:

• Analysis III: 55%
• Algebra I: 68%
• Mathematical Methods II: 97%
• Partial Differential Equations: 74%
• Modelling Nature’s Non-linearity: 79%
• Algebra II: 58%
• Vector Analysis: 60%
• Metric Spaces: 75%
• Differentiation: 59%
• Essay: 78%
• Variational Principles: 88%
• Numerical Analysis: 99%
• Number Theory: 77%
• Introduction to Fluids: 61%
• Fortran for Scientists: 85%

Hurrah and all that. Off to get drinks. Be back later.

5:56 pm | Posted in Exams, Maths, University | 3 Comments » | Show comments » | Hide comments » |

Sitting the maths department, waiting for my results. Haven’t been quite this nervous in a while.

Crap.

2:25 pm | Posted in Exams, Maths | No Comments »

I could’ve sworn that I’d blogged yesterday. Oh well.

In site-related news, I’ve begun doing the changes I stated in my previous post. However, for the time being, they’re on hiatus - I’m not planning on doing any major projects any time in the next six months or so, hence I just got the feeling: “I can do this, but not just yet.” Too much going on at the moment for me to concentrate, really, and I don’t want programming to take up my entire life.

It’s results day tomorrow; I’m both dreading it and looking forward to it. At least I’ll know where I stand tomorrow, and that can only be a good thing. Checked my pigeon hole today, and got the new booklet entitled “Are you ready for Term 1?” Basically, it’s a list of introductory questions for a variety of courses taken in Term 1. Measure Theory has the delightfully named section “High-School Horrors”, doing integrals like:

I find it all rather intriguing really, since I’ve been wondering about these integrals ever since lower sixth form. But yes, I’m quite looking forward to the third year. I feel that I’m really going to get my teeth stuck into some interesting maths.

Interestingly, there’s a great big open outdoor Gala concert right outside maths which I’m planning on going and watching in a few minutes from the comfort of maths (there’s no chairs outside). Should be good fun, and there must be a thousand people all crammed onto the maths lawn. Brass Band, Wind Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra are all playing - I feel that I should really re-join the Wind Orchestra since it was quite good fun. But we shall see how much time I have next year.

Anyway, time to go and beat some servers. I shall be back later.

9:24 pm | Posted in Exams, Maths, Personal, University | No Comments »

Hurrah!

Anyway, I’m going to go and drink beer now. The exam was okay, but it could’ve gone better. Now there’s just about a week until we find out how we did, so that should be great fun.

Will post something later.

9:23 pm | Posted in Exams | No Comments »

Oh well, I’m probably going to not do so good in this one. Never mind; it’s the last one.

Will update later. For now, bed.

11:57 pm | Posted in Exams, Whining | No Comments »

Sarah got a letter today informing her that she’d have to do Jury service - I found this to be quite a bit random.

Anyway, I’ve been working on the site a bit more, and got the projects page “up”. It’s not finished yet, but it should be good once it is. Adding files and images and all that on Monday, since I’ve got the Introduction to Fluids module going on. Should be great fun.

On other topics, I have to decide what to do with this site. I find some of the older entries to be quite crass, and I’m considering taking them off of the public viewing. Perhaps I’ll add the registration page soonish, so that people can see the old ones if they want to.

In fact, I think I’ll do that now. Will be back in a bit with an update.

11:36 pm | Posted in Exams, Personal, Site Development | 5 Comments » | Show comments » | Hide comments » |

So, I’ve now had another two exams! Woot and all that jazz:

• Vector Analysis:
  This was great fun - or not. The questions weren’t exactly hard, but answering them in the allocated 2 hours was pretty much impossible for me. There were some interesting questions on there, though; for one, we had to work out:

  The answer turns out to be . Just in case you all wondered.

• Metric Spaces:
  This went so much better than I expected that it actually scares me. There was an absolutely wonderful question on closure; basically, if with B closed, then . Then some other random things, and it all turned out good.

So now, I have only one exam left; Introduction to Fluids. This one I’m kindof dreading quite a lot, since I think it could be really nasty. However, I’m just going to play it by ear and see how it goes.

Now I’m off to eat some food. More blogging funness later.

1:16 pm | Posted in Exams, LaTeX, Maths, Revision | No Comments »

…until the Vector Analysis exam. I really hope it’s going to go well, because I think I could use the marks this time around. Will report back in a bit, I suppose.

11:54 am | Posted in Exams, Maths | No Comments »