Lots of lovely sunshine and the colour Blue

Wow! It’s another beautiful, bright and sunny day. Summer is truly here. The weekend is nearly here, and what a weekend it is. A four day weekend I could take a mini holiday couldn't I? Well I guess anyone could.

Alas it is not to be, as I have to attend a wedding this weekend with my parents.  I so wish could miss it, stay at home and maybe go to the park (which is just behind my house, by the way), less than five minute walk from my front door. Unfortunately I don’t have the excuse of studying and revision, the only thing that would have appeased my parents, especially my mum to allow me to stay at home. Luckily for my brother, he is allowed to stay home to revise, considering his exams have not even started, never mind completed. Yes, he starts his exam on 12^th June. I think he is lucky because he gets to spend the next four weekends at home. He thinks I’m lucky considering I can go out during the weekends, attend weddings/parties and catch-up with friends and cousins, etc. Everyone has a different way of looking at things. It’s only a difference of opinion. The major difference between my brother and I is that I am more of a homely person, I like to keep myself to myself. For me the perfect weekend is staying in my pyjamas, watching TV, movies and eating lots of junk food, etc. Ooh and I also love reading books. I have lots of books to read over the summer holiday. On the other hand, my brother, is more of an outdoor sporty kind of person. He likes going out and playing sports like tennis and badminton.  You could never get him to sit down to watch a game of football, tennis, cricket or whatever, but ask him to play a game, and he’ll be the first one to agree, eagerly setting everything up and splitting the group into two groups. He’s very competitive when it comes to sports, but its the fun friendly competitive.  He’s most happy surrounded by people, friends and relatives, always making them laugh and wanting them to be happy.

In terms of my reading, first off i think I’m going to start with Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini. I bought the book way back in January, but it’s just been sitting on my bookshelf, untouched and unread. So I’m really looking forward to reading that.

So this Sunday I have a wedding to attend with my parents. I plan on wearing a Turkish blue Anarkali (Indian style dress). I didn’t have many accessories to match with the dress, so my mum took me out on Monday afternoon after my final exam to Ilford shopping centre.  It’s been a few months since I’ve had to attend any family functions/ weddings, but I am definitely looking forward to it. The wedding I am attending, the bride is a relative of my mum’s, well her aunt and my mum are closely related. It’s all a bit confusing and complicated, but I think it’s just the case of meeting them in real life and getting to know them properly.

Also I still have to get round to tidying up. No improvements have been made on that area since yesterday. Oh well what can I say?  That’s what Monday and Tuesday is going to be for. 

Completed my Degree

Wow! It feels so good to say that now. Yesterday I completed my final exam; Financial Econometrics.  It was a good paper, that’s only because I went over last year’s exam paper as part of my revision. The questions that appeared on the actual exam paper were similar to last years, so there were no nasty surprises.

My closest friend had her last exam on Friday. We both had the same exam that day; Statistics. That exam was pretty difficult, not as good as my Econometrics paper. Thankfully I did achieve a really good coursework mark for Statistics, so all my marks should average out. I did tell my friend after our Thursday’s Partial Differential Equations exam, to not rub it my face the fact that she finished earlier than me. She was really good about it on Friday evening on the journey home. She was like she’ll be thinking about me over the weekend, while show goes out shopping and stuff. She was also saying that she needs to clean out her whole room, because it’s really messy with paper, books and folders everywhere. Her sister-in-law is too scared to go into her room now to use the laptop, because of the mess. Lol! How funny is that?

Actually speaking of my best friend and messy rooms, I’m no better. My books and files are everywhere around my room too. My room and desk table is scattered with paper and notes. My mum was telling me last night that I need to clean everything and tidy my room up, but I told her that considering I only finished my exam yesterday lunchtime, it’s obviously going to take me some time to sort my room out. Considering I am busy until Friday, I guess my cleaning duty will start in the weekend. Thankfully it’s going to be a very long weekend, so I’ll have plenty of time to clean my room and also to enjoy myself, doing other things except for studying. Lol! It feels so good to say that.

Family and Cousins!!

Revision classes have begun, from Monday, what with going over PDE coursework marks, comparing with friends and receiving general feedback. I have to say I am quite pleased with my mark, although looking back, it doesn't feel like I put much effort into it, considering I barely remember doing it. However, considering I submitted it more than a month ago, and I had 3 more assignments to complete since then it’s hardly too surprising, now is it?

Personally for me, I didn’t find all my third year modules hard, I would say that the PDE module was by far the easiest module I have studied throughout the whole year. Ok, maybe not so easy as I make out to be, that’s only because I think most of the major concepts which are taught in that class, just sort of click, it just makes sense to me. However that is not to say, that I will get the same mark in the final exam. I still must go over all my lecture notes and revision material for this course as well as the other modules, to ensure that I do well overall.

My timetable for the rest of the week is pretty jam packed. I’ve got a lecture on Thursday morning for 2 hours, an on Friday; I have a total of 6 hours of lecture and revision time to get through. I have 3 hours of Financial Econometrics and 3 hours of Actuarial Mathematics to get through. Oh Joy! If that’s not bad enough next week I have even more classes to get through. This week I have a total of 4 lectures however, next week I will have 5 lectures to get through. This makes sense seeing as I have 5 exams to complete this May,

On 8^th April it was my granddad’s Birthday (my mum’s dad). He lives in America with my grand mom and Aunt (mum’s sister) and Uncles (mum’s brother, and brother-in-law) and cousins. They had a super great birthday party with cake and candles, etc. My cousins uploaded the pictures on Facebook, and then tagged my brother and I on the cake. This was his way of saying that although we weren’t there to enjoy the celebrations, we were very much in every one’s thoughts. Aaw, how cute is that? I found that a very kind and thoughtful gesture. I showed my mum the pictures from Facebook, she was well emotional, but I knew she was happy at the same time at seeing her parents. How Cute!!

I literally just remembered, last week on 14^th April, it was New Year’s Day for Bangladesh. My cousins, whom live there, enjoyed the New Years day with great enthusiasm. They all dressed up in colourful saris, painted each other’s hands with henna tattoos, and went to fairs, etc. They all uploaded pictures on Facebook, just so I could see. Aaw, how cute!!

That’s one of the many things which I love about family and my cousins, it’s that whenever they are having fun, they don’t forget us and try to include us in some way, shape or form, this time in terms of uploading Facebook pictures and tagging us. 

Holiday over

The Easter holidays have nearly come to an end. Only a few more days to go before I am due back to uni for three more weeks of structured revision with my friends and peers.  Most of my revision time has consisted of answering past paper questions and then going back and then rereading the lecture notes – mainly the one’s which were taught at the beginning of the year – only because those were the ones which were easier to forget.

The scheduled revision sessions are planned to go over the past papers again and correct any silly mistakes we may have made during the holiday period. Another really useful reason to attend the revision sessions is that some of the lecturers just might give hints on which of the topics are most likely to come up on the final exam paper.  I don’t think they will state the topics so obviously, but some things can be picked up by what topics they go over during the revision sessions and also which topics repeatedly come up in the past exam papers. Some of the lecturers have provided additional sample questions as a set of revision booklet. This is really useful as it gives us the students ideas on what the lecturer wants us to go over in more detail.

This Easter has been one of the quietest holidays so far, mainly because it’s the most important set of exams (personally for my family). One of my brothers is sitting his A Level exams this June, his marks are really important for him to secure his place at his chosen university. My youngest brother is studying for his AS – Level exams which take place. His one is really important for him, only because he takes his studies very seriously.

I haven’t met any of my cousins this holiday. I suppose they are all really busy revising for their exams as well. Two of my cousin’s from two different families (my dad’s two sister’s children – one child for each sister) are both the same age and will be sitting their GCSE exams this summer. There is a bit of friendly competition going on amongst them, which one will come out with the better set of exam results.

Overall, it’s quite a short blog this week, but that’s what happens when May is just around the corner with all those exams to sit. I’ll write more when I can. Keep Reading. J

Final week of uni!

Wow! It’s the final week of university and yet the workload is still the same, or maybe it could be said that it has increased! I have two more lectures to attend; Finance on Thursday and Actuarial Mathematics on Friday, so it’s busy, busy, busy for me.  On Monday we were going over the last topic, Finite Element for elliptic equations. It was quite an interesting lecture which only lasted for an hour. The second hour was spent answering a past exam question based on this topic as well as comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the three different methods; finite difference, finite volume and finite element of elliptic equations. In my opinion, it was a great idea to go over a past paper question as it gives an insight into what to expect in the real exam this May.

In terms of preparation for the exams, the best way to revise in my opinion is to do past papers my lecturers have recommended to look at 2 past paper one from May 2011 and May 2010. Tackling those two papers should give us enough confidence and reassurance to perform well in our own examinations. For most of my modules I have at least 3 past papers, in some cases 4 but this is only because I downloaded some 3^rd year papers last April whilst I was studying for my 2^nd year exams. Although my brothers did complain at the time that I should be focusing on the 2^nd year exams and doing the past papers for that year only, looking back, I have no regrets. Sometimes the previous past papers can get taken down from the website automatically or otherwise by the lecturer’s request.

Before answering past exam questions, it’s a really good idea to go over the tutorial questions. Obviously its not compulsory to answer the computing based questions (some computing is involved in Mathematics), it’s much more important to answer the questions that are doable by hand especially considering all the final exams will be hand written and we won’t be allowed to use a computer. Answering the tutorial questions is really useful as it provides a summary of the lecture material. In my opinion, answering the tutorial questions and getting at least 80% of the questions correct, demonstrates good knowledge and understanding of the concepts of that particular topic.

Another good revision tip is to learn the formulas. Obviously some of the formulas are provided in the formula booklet; however I always find that I need to use some formula which is not written in the booklet. Only the most basic formulas are provided, and most of the time we don’t end up using them, either because they are not needed or we already know them.

One more good tip is to have a scientific calculator, or 2 or 3, but even I think that’s a bit over the top. Alternatively just have one scientific calculator and a few batteries. One of my favorite tips and most important for me is to bring a few pens and pencils. Pencils are extremely crucial for a maths exam because we have to draw diagrams, sometimes sketches, other times more accurately using fancy stuff like compasses and protractors. I usually find myself starting an exam with a pen, then as soon as there’s some drawing involved, I do switch to pencil and do my drawing. However, I do forget to switch again! Its only 20 minutes before the end of the exam that I realise that I have completed more than half of the exam in pencil. I often use HB pencils for drawing, simply because they are the best, they come out light on the paper and so it’s easy to rub out if I make a mistake. 

Other important items that are needed in a maths exam are a 30cm ruler and rubber. Me being who I am, I have 2 rubbers, 2 sharpeners; 1 single sharpener and 1 double sharpener and 2 rulers, one 30 cm and one 15cm. My brothers say I am a bit obsessive and over the top about my stationary, bur there you go.  Maybe I am. 

Busy life but supportive friends :)

It’s been a few weeks since I lasted posted a blog, so I thought I’d write something. A few weeks ago, one of my friends called me up just for a casual chat and she commented on my blog writing. One of the things she recommended that I do was comment on what student life is like for a third year maths student. I thought this would a great idea and so I decided to write this blog. Back in January I wrote about the three options which I am studying this term; Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Financial Modelling and Analysis and Actuarial Mathematics.

I have completed the coursework for both Numerical Methods and Actuarial Mathematics. I have one final piece of coursework to complete which is the Financial Modelling and Analysis as well as my final year project report. The Financial Modelling coursework is going well and is due to be submitted next Thursday. In my opinion, the golden rule to being successful in any subject, but especially Mathematics is to practice regularly. The best way to do this is answer the tutorial questions and have a go at the past exam papers (answer all the questions).

To complete the coursework successfully, always read and reread the lecture material thoroughly, make additional notes in the margins during lecture time, whilst the lecturer is speaking. If any difficulties arise during the lecture, then write down the question quickly in the margin, so you can ask the lecturer later during the tutorial or student/staff office hours. Personally, I find in this university the maths lecturers are pretty thorough in the way they go about explaining the notes.

My friends and I help each other, especially during the tutorials. We do the questions separately and then group together to discuss our answers and compare the solutions. If we get different solutions (which has happened on more than one occasion, all three of us obtained completely different solutions), then we try and justify why we believe that our solutions are correct. If we still remain unconvinced, then we ask for guidance from our lecturer who points out what mistakes we have made. We then try and redo the same question again and hopefully obtain the correct answer. Although the correct answers and full solutions are posted on the student intranet about two or three weeks after the tutorial took place. The lecturers do this to give us students the opportunity to try all the tutorial questions by ourselves, not just during the tutorial hour but also at home in our own time.

Overall, I am really happy with the modules I took. Of course I do have some difficulties with mathematics sometimes, but if I give it a few days or even a week or so, eventually things to click into place.

Fab Weekend

Yesterday evening, my family and I visited my aunt’s house (Dad’s sister). We went to visit her because she had twisted her ankle and had trouble walking. This incident took place on the last day of the half-term holidays in Dubai. Her children both aged 15 and 13 are still attending secondary school, so therefore they get half term holidays.

Coincidentally, my other cousins (dad’s youngest brother and his family) also came to my aunt’s house to visit her. My family have this tradition or custom to visit people who are ill or in poor health, just to help them out with providing a meal for them and their family, or just help them out in a useful manner. One of my cousin sisters’s as been staying at my aunt’s house since Tuesday, helping her around the house with cooking, cleaning and tidying up, etc. She said that she arrived at my aunt’s house on Tuesday (21^st February) and plans to go back to her house on 5^th March.

Another one of my cousin sister’s (dad’s oldest brother) also arrived with her husband and 19 month – old son. So as you can tell, it was another girly get together at my aunt’s house, this time unplanned with my other cousins who arrived (obviously we rang our aunts house first before we left our house to ask if it would be ok for a short visit).

My cousin (aunt’s daughter) showed us some pictures of her and her family, and the amazing time they spent in Dubai. They took lots of pictures most of which I saw from her laptop. She also had a couple framed in those smart covers (those which get taken after a Theme Park ride – similar). One of my cousins commented on the numbers of framed photos which were being passed around for show. Then my cousins (the one that went to Dubai with her parents and brother) said that although yes they were quite expensive and there were quite a few of them (like 6 or 7), they couldn’t resist the temptation of not buying them, as if they left Dubai without those framed pictures then they would have regretted it. For them it was like a once in a lifetime opportunity, although they do have plans of visiting Dubai again in the future.