Applying for a place on a PGCE course isn’t as simple as just completing an application form then popping in for an interview, as I found out this week. The application process is controlled by an arm of UCAS, the university admissions service. As such, it costs £5 just to enquire. Furthermore, any correspondence you [...]
Tag Archives: maths
Damage Limitation
I’m becoming increasingly disillusioned, not least in my mathematical ability and my job prospects.
My most recent annoyance concerns one of the modules I am taking. I had some homework due in for Friday, but I didn’t do it. I didn’t catch the deadline and was given the impression the lecturer wasn’t taking it in. Fortunately [...]
Mathematical Witterings
It has been a pretty bad week to be honest. It feels like it has just been a succession of kicks in the teeth. It started last Friday with my exam results.
I got a 52 and a 66 for the two modules I sat exams for in January. I wasn’t too happy about the 66 [...]
Anti-Climax
After lectures on Friday, I headed straight to Cheltenham by train for the first part of a job application. It’s a long train journey: stopping at Durham, Darlington, York, Leeds, Wakefield Westgate, Doncaster, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Birmingham New Street and finally Cheltenham Spa four and a half hours later.
Staying overnight in a Travelodge on a [...]
A Pain In The Neck
On Tuesday I had a lecture. One of the students came in with a throat infection having just been prescribed antibiotics. To be honest, I can’t blame her. I only have two exams too, but it’s still going to be incredibly difficult. The only problem is that she sat next to me, and now I [...]
The Beauty of Maths
So often as I do come across stories of note on the BBC website - such as this one: The Beauty of Maths - it is not often that these stories strike a chord particularly.
But this one does. It highlights the problem of a lack of teachers of Mathematics in secondary schools, and how such [...]
Driven To Distraction
On Tuesday I went to see my project leader again to discuss my project. It isn’t easy, of course, and it has taken me longer to understand the principle concepts than I had hoped. I still don’t think I completely understand, but it seems I know enough to proceed. That is good, but I’m greedy [...]
University Challenge
I haven’t written about my mind in a while. To be honest I’ve done my level best to occupy my mind on other things. But you get reminders about certain things on a regular basis that spur you to think about important things, or rather things that are important to you.
There are two things that [...]
Excuse Me
This post may end in a tirade. If that happens, I apologise.
If you are a Mathematician - looking for a University to study at - do not come to Newcastle University. That’s right, I am persuading you not to come to my uni. Why?
The teaching is great, the support I cannot fault. But it’s not [...]
Third Time Lucky
Ooh I’m angry! I wasn’t too enamoured by the university as it was, but things seem to conspire against me. I mentioned before about my module and project choices - As One Project Ends… and On Things And Stuff, for example - and how unhappy I was with them. However, I thought these things would [...]