Last Weekend

I had a really enjoyable weekend, as it was my uncle’s wedding. This was a brilliant opportunity for me to catch up with my cousins as I hadn’t seen them since 1^st November (it was Eid on that day). It was really a just a chance to dress up and have a good gossip with the girls.

At the wedding hall, I sat with my mum, my sister in law, my cousin brothers and sister and also my brother-in-law. We just found ourselves just talking about random, things that we find personally interesting. My  sis-in-law and I were talking about how much we’ve got on at the moment in terms of uni work; project and coursework, etc and her with her job (she works full time as an accountant), but she also does work at home on her laptop and she’s got mountains of paperwork to complete. Basically the point was that neither of us was that enthusiastic to attend the wedding. Neither of us attended the Mehndi party on Saturday evening and also neither of us attended my cousin brother’s engagement party, the previous Sunday. This is a different cousin of mine. My cousin brother heard our conversation and said to us that it wouldn’t be the best conversation to be having at the dinner table at a wedding party. We just smiled at each other and changed the topic.

My cousin and my sis-in-law were teasing each other about food. He said to her to eat less, etc. This was obviously a joke, considering she’s stick thin and an exercise freak. Luckily for her, she has a cross-trainer at home, so no need to hit the gym.

After the meal, we went and took pictures of the bride. A little while later, we took pictures of just us cousins and sis-in-laws. We also went on stage and took family photos with the bride and groom.

When it was time to leave the venue, we couldn’t leave straight away to go back to our house. Considering how close we were to the groom (my dad’s cousin brother), my mum and I went to my aunt’s house in the limousine. My aunt is my uncle’s sister (the one that got married).  The bride and groom will be spending the week at her house before moving closer to where he works. 

Monday Mornings

Monday mornings; aren’t usually the best time for me to attend uni classes. Actually this is my first year in which I’ve had a class on Monday morning. In my first year, the class that I had on Mondays started at 3pm and in second year, 2pm. The first term of my final year, I had class at 2pm as well. 

This term however, the class starts at 10am. I suppose it should be OK seeing as I chose to study this course (in the final year of my degree, we have options that we need to chose from).  Honestly, I do really enjoy this course as we can put other aspects of our learning into this course. This course does involve a lot of computing work as we regularly have to use Microsoft Excel to compute different differential equations using a wide variety of numerical methods. Currently we have learnt about the Jacobi and Gauss Siedel method. These are two methods which we learnt about from last year in our Liner Algebra class, and now we are using these two methods in a different context. 

From attending classes, I have learnt that it’s really useful to keep up with last year’s notes and get up to date with them. This is because a lot of background information in the new lecture material comes from last year’s notes, but at a much more advanced level. 

So far I don’t have any coursework to complete, but I have to continue writing my report (equivalent of a dissertation). At the moment I am carrying out background research and writing my ideas down. This does actually need to be written down in an orderly fashion as it is part of my logbook. The log books counts towards 20% of my Research Methods and Project module which is worth 30 credits of my final year. I am enjoying carrying out my research, as it helps to develop my observation and analytical skills. These are two skills which I believe to be crucial and vital, especially when studying for a degree in Mathematics.

Back to Uni!

It’s been a week and a half since I’ve been back at university. So far, I am enjoying university life and hanging around my friends again. This term is going to be really quite busy what with me studying three new modules compared to last term. This term I am studying; Numerical Methods and Software for Partial Differential Equations. Wow! That’s quite a mouthful to say, isn’t it? Basically this course involves solving partial differential equations as well as ordinary differential equations using different methods, both by hand calculations (crucial for the May exams) and also using different software: Excel and Matlab, just to name a few.  A partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation involving one or more partial derivatives of an unknown function of several variables. The highest order derivative in the PDE determines the order of the PDE.  PDEs are used extensively to represent real world phenomena and processes. For example: Heat transfer in nuclear reactors, Airflow around an aircraft, Structural dynamics of a bridge and Movement of money in financial markets. The modelling and simulation of such processes then requires solution of these PDEs.  Having only attended two lectures so far, I’m not sure about the exact content on the course, but I know that I will learn much more over the next few months.

The second option I am taking is called Financial Modelling and Analysis.  This course investigates modern financial modeling using stochastic processes, arbitrage theory and partial differential equations. I chose this course because I am really interested in finance and financial markets. My final year dissertation is based heavily on finance and therefore I thought that this would be a brilliant module for me to study. This course covers a wide variety of interesting and exciting aspects of finance, for example; The Black – Scholes PDE, Basket and Asian Options (I wonder what that’s about?) and something I’m very familiar with; the Monte Carlo Integration using Matlab. I am familiar with the Monte Carlo Method as it was covered last year in one of my modules called Numerical Methods with Computer Algorithms. Interestingly enough, the lecturer who taught the Numerical Methods course last year, is teaching the Financial Modeling course this year.

The final module which I am taking this year is called Actuarial Mathematics. This course investigates modern actuarial modeling and examines the basic techniques used in actuarial analysis. This module covers interesting topics such as: life insurance, premium calculations, Simple & Compound Interest, Present Value, Annuities, etc amongst many other topics. This module does require a lot of statistics and calculus, but I suppose that’s okay considering I did study Statistical Modelling last term. I also studied statistics last year and the year before that as well. I studied Calculus in my first year of uni. So I am quite looking forward to learning more regarding this module.

There are other modules which are offered and we are allowed two weeks to try and test as many of them as we wish, (this Friday is the last day for testing) and if we want to change modules then we need to email our personal tutor by Friday. From next Monday onwards we can only attend the courses which we are registered for. There are five courses running this term, one module every day. We can only be registered to three of them. In my opinion, the first two weeks are relatively easy compared to the weeks ahead as they just cover the basics of what you need to know in that module. I think they do it that way so that everyone should have roughly the same or similar knowledge in order to understand the lecture material. They can then decide if this course is right for them. 

http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/ug/mat

End of Term!

Wow! It’s the end of term and I couldn’t be happier. Over the past 2 months, I have been extremely busy with coursework and project work. In fact, I have submitted my proposal last night. With only one week left till the end of term, most of my classes are dedicated to doing past paper exam questions. I think this is useful as it will help us, come the final exams. 

Submitting the proposal was kind of stressful as it contains guidelines and timelines of what work I will be carrying out over the next 4/5 months in order to complete my project of the highest standard. Considering our project (including the proposal) makes up half the total marks of my 30 credits: Research Methods course, it is essential that I keep up-to-date and on task to meet the targets which I have set up for myself. 

I am very much looking forward to working on my project. The title of my project is ‘Time Series Analysis for FTSE 100 and Forecasting’. Luckily I have gathered all my data which I wish to use to carry out my analysis. I will be using different software packages such as Microsoft Excel as well as Minitab (Statistical Package) to complete my work.  Having met up with my supervisor twice over the last month or so, I have gained valuable advice and knowledge on how to develop my project. One of the difficulties I did encounter when writing my proposal, was that I started off quite generally. The language I used wasn’t vague, however the way I was writing, meant that I was covering a wide area involving Finance. Learning to cut it down and make it more specific initially was quite difficult. However when my supervisor actual questioned me on exactly what I was going to do as part of my project. I was able to say it out loud. So I guess I was just having difficulty interpreting my thoughts onto paper. After doing that, I was able to successfully complete my proposal. I have to say, that I am quite pleased with the end result. My hard work paid off.

Starting Individual Project

I’ve finally submitted my group project YAY! I feel so relieved that it’s all done and out of the way. Now I have two more coursework’s to complete, 1 for statistics and 1 for finance.  Luckily the statistics one just got released today and I have four weeks to complete it. The finance coursework is due in a week before the Christmas holidays.  My aim is to complete as much of it as I can as early as possible.  Then closer to the deadline date, I can review it and fix any mistakes I may have made. 

I also have to think about writing my proposal for my individual project. I think that the individual project will be more stressful compared to the group project. This is because at least as a group, we could bounce ideas off each other and also provide helpful criticism, in order to improve the quality of the report. 

In my opinion, the best projects start off with a fairly large idea, which can then be divided into sub – topics. The best way to formulate ideas is to draw a brainstorm, so then it would be easy to group ideas together. It would also be easier to spot if we’ve written the same idea twice (it can happen). For this reason, drawing a brainstorm is much more creative and effective, compared to just writing a list diagonally down a piece of paper.

I haven’t decided my final project title, but I do know that it will be based on financial econometrics (one of the modules I am studying this term). This is a brilliant topic for me, personally, because I really enjoy my finance lectures, and I’ve got sound knowledge of finance in general, outside of University. I also think it would be quite relevant and useful to combine economics with it as well. Both finance and economics are closely linked with each other, especially when observing the financial markets and considering the economic climate and recession, in today’s modern world. 

Why do I have the feeling that I’ll be writing about my individual project, in my future blogs?

Busy schedule

It’s been ages since I wrote a blog. I’ve been so busy for the last couple of weeks. It’s really weird; I’ve been back at university for 4 weeks now, and we’ve got so much work to do. This year is going to be the most difficult, because I’m going to be studying 7 modules in total, 3 in the first term and 3 in the second term. They are all 15 credit courses. The final module is 30 credits, which I will be studying for two terms.

At the same time, I am enjoying studying. I am currently doing a group project with some of my fellow 3^rd year maths students. I am working with 4 other people. 3 of whom I’ve never spoken to till the group project. At the same time, we get along with each other. I like working in my group because everyone works together really well, and everyone is serious about studying. This is because it’s our final year and also because our group project counts as 30% of our final mark for that module. Working as part of a group teaches us many things, like getting along with different people.

One really interesting thing which I did this week is sign up for a SCONUL card. A SCONUL card gives me access to some other university libraries, so I can go to other universities and look at some books there. I think that’s very cool. One of the members of my group said that he got the card last year, but never used it. At least this way if I ever want to get some reading or revision done for my coursework and my exams, bur I don’t want to study at home, then I can study at other universities closer to home. The best thing about the SCONUL card is that they give a wider access to books and journals. This is brilliant, as Universities have different books, which makes it easier to do a project, whether group or individual as then we will have a wider range of resources.

Summer’s Gone!!

This year, the summer holidays have passed away within the blink of an eye. Throughout my entire life, I have never been as busy during my summer holidays compared to this summer holiday that has just passed. This is because I have been working in the Clearing Department on a full-time basis for the past 9 weeks or so. Time has flown by, and before I knew it, it’s September and I am due back to return to study next Monday. This means I am well on my way to completing the third year of my Mathematics honours degree.

Today is my year 3 induction. Some people may ask, why do 3^rd year continuing students have inductions? The answer to this question is that in 3^rd year, we have specific modules that we have to pick and the course tutors need to talk us through these modules and then we get to decide our final choice. Of course you can change course modules within the first two weeks of study, and you can do this by filling out some forms and passing it onto the school department. However, the mathematics department is very different in that aspect. The course tutors and programme leaders like to have face to face meetings/talks with those students concerning module or even programme changes, to discuss their options and how these options will reflect on their future career and job prospects. 

This is one of the many things that please me to study at this University. The personal tutors and programme leaders, and generally all the staff members of the University as a whole, really look at you individually and take time to get to know you as a person.  This shows how much respect and courtesy the University gives to its students and of course the students studying at the University should return the same respect and courtesy back to their tutors and staff members of the University.