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3rd Year Module Recommendations

Post Icon Posted: Submitted by Thomas Farrington on 19 March 2007 - 11:27pm.

Joined: 2006-11-20
Posts: 2

Does anyone have any recommendations for easy modules I can take in my 3rd year? For example, easy ones from List A, or easy second year modules? (Preferably not from Maths - all my non-Maths modules so far have been worryingly easy, sans the relativity exam).

Post Icon Posted: 22 March 2007 - 10:00am

Joined: 2007-02-13
Posts: 14

Maybe you should try and do the module Consolidation.

Post Icon Posted: 22 March 2007 - 12:06pm

Joined: 2006-10-09
Posts: 327

Honestly it depends on where your interests lie. The History of Maths course is apparently quite good (I know a few people who have done it), is reasonably maths-y but not overboard, but does have 3 essays to do... Otherwise, it's really quite open. In CS there are a couple of interesting modules which I did in my second year - Logic for Computer Scientists and Automata and Formal Languages tend to be quite easy coming from a mathematical background. Not having taken any 3rd year CS modules, I can't really comment fully, but I would suspect that Complexity of Algorithms might be a good one to try.

Physics is an area that I haven't really done a lot of. I know that Mathematics for Physicists 2 is quite an easy course - applied Fourier Analysis really - but again, I don't know if it's open to you in the 3rd year. The rest of the courses, however, I don't know about.

Going into maths, I know that Modelling Nature's NonLinearity is open to you in the 3rd year, and is a good course to do - not a huge amount of content and no exam. I personally would suggest the 3rd year essay as an option, which although seems to be something perhaps aimed towards people planning to go into research etc, is in fact a course which you are able to make up yourself and go at your own pace - certainly one to look at. I would further suggest for that course that it might be productive to come along to a couple of Discussion Groups next year and have a look at some potential areas of study at an easy-to-understand level. 2nd Year Geometry is probably a good course to do, again definitely open to 3rd years, however get the lecture notes and don't be too bothered to go to the lectures - Miles Reid takes the course, and as undoubtedly brilliant a mathematician he is, he's a bit of a rubbish lecturer (although he did have a shave and a shower at the end of last term, so who knows!).

Finally, for 3rd year courses it really does depend a lot on what areas of maths you enjoy the most (or hate the least). Matrix Analysis and Algorithms is quite easy, and I think Modern Control Theory would be worth a look. Intro to Topology is well worth a look if you have done Metric Spaces (or even if you haven't), and it leads on to Knot Theory which isn't too challenging (IMHO). Fractal Geometry is a course I love, and is based on a great book by Kenneth Falconer of the same name, which is well worth a read even if you don't take the course! I would push Complex Analysis and Linear Analysis as well, although if you're more into Algebra most of what I've said is a load of crap really... Anyway, have a look through the courses, if you've got any questions either leave a message here or email me, and we can go over some more of the ins and outs of the courses available.

Jamie