Maths and Theoretical Physics Course Thread TR031 TR035

sganyfx · 20-09-2013 9:53pm

Could someone please give me a general overview of the mathematics course and its difficulty? I just received an offer to study it this morning and I am unsure if I want to leave BESS to switch. Going for a career in Investment Banking/Funds/Trading.

rjt · 20-09-2013 11:49pm

sganyfx wrote: »

Could someone please give me a general overview of the mathematics course and its difficulty? I just received an offer to study it this morning and I am unsure if I want to leave BESS to switch. Going for a career in Investment Banking/Funds/Trading.

So I did maths and not BESS, and amn't working in the financial sector, so take this with a piece of salt. But for trading or quant type work, I'd say that although maths would probably be the more difficult route, if you work hard it will stand to you better in the long run.

Pros:

1) Trading companies really like maths/TP graduates. I've a friend who was in BESS and he has said in the past that he felt doors to trading companies like SIG are closed to him.

2) Maths is hard, and doing hard things will equip you better analytically than an easier, less technical route.

3) You have a lot of options, and can learn programming and stats, both of which are very employable.

Cons:

1) Most of what you do will seem irrelevant. This frustrates a lot of people.

2) It can be hard.

3) Because of the amount of choice offered, a lot of the courses aren't really quality checked. Some of the options are very poorly structured or taught (maybe this is a university wide problem, I'm not sure).

sganyfx · 21-09-2013 12:00am

rjt wrote: »

So I did maths and not BESS, and amn't working in the financial sector, so take this with a piece of salt. But for trading or quant type work, I'd say that although maths would probably be the more difficult route, if you work hard it will stand to you better in the long run.

Pros:

1) Trading companies really like maths/TP graduates. I've a friend who was in BESS and he has said in the past that he felt doors to trading companies like SIG are closed to him.

2) Maths is hard, and doing hard things will equip you better analytically than an easier, less technical route.

3) You have a lot of options, and can learn programming and stats, both of which are very employable.

Cons:

1) Most of what you do will seem irrelevant. This frustrates a lot of people.

2) It can be hard.

3) Because of the amount of choice offered, a lot of the courses aren't really quality checked. Some of the options are very poorly structured or taught (maybe this is a university wide problem, I'm not sure).

Thank you very much. The irrelevancy does not bother me that much BESS has a lot more of it than mathematics for my tastes. The only thing I would be scared of is the the 3rd con you mentioned. I have no problems killing myself over work to get it solved. That is my main fear of BESS is having doors closed.

rjt · 21-09-2013 5:11am

sganyfx wrote: »

Thank you very much. The irrelevancy does not bother me that much BESS has a lot more of it than mathematics for my tastes. The only thing I would be scared of is the the 3rd con you mentioned. I have no problems killing myself over work to get it solved. That is my main fear of BESS is having doors closed.

If you pick carefully, there are enough interesting and rewarding courses. Especially if you keep up with stats and programming, then in third and fourth year you'll have a ton of cool options.

Anyway, keep asking around to get a variety of opinions. I'm fairly biased!

sganyfx · 21-09-2013 10:30am

rjt wrote: »

If you pick carefully, there are enough interesting and rewarding courses. Especially if you keep up with stats and programming, then in third and fourth year you'll have a ton of cool options.

Anyway, keep asking around to get a variety of opinions. I'm fairly biased!

I'm pretty sure I have made up my mind now

The changing is going to be awkward and I have no idea when I would get the timetable and lectures start on Monday

BeanbagBallbag · 21-09-2013 12:01pm

The timetable for JF is here http://www.maths.tcd.ie/undergraduate/timetable/Michaelmas_ttjf.php if you want to just go to the lectures, the lecturers won't be taking names or counting people.

sganyfx · 21-09-2013 12:04pm

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

The timetable for JF is here http://www.maths.tcd.ie/undergraduate/timetable/Michaelmas_ttjf.php if you want to just go to the lectures, the lecturers won't be taking names or counting people.

Thank you

Just need to contact the university and get the course changed.

EuropeanSon · 21-09-2013 6:10pm

rjt wrote: »

So I did maths and not BESS, and amn't working in the financial sector, so take this with a piece of salt. But for trading or quant type work, I'd say that although maths would probably be the more difficult route, if you work hard it will stand to you better in the long run.

Pros:

1) Trading companies really like maths/TP graduates. I've a friend who was in BESS and he has said in the past that he felt doors to trading companies like SIG are closed to him.

2) Maths is hard, and doing hard things will equip you better analytically than an easier, less technical route.

3) You have a lot of options, and can learn programming and stats, both of which are very employable.

Cons:

1) Most of what you do will seem irrelevant. This frustrates a lot of people.

2) It can be hard.

3) Because of the amount of choice offered, a lot of the courses aren't really quality checked. Some of the options are very poorly structured or taught (maybe this is a university wide problem, I'm not sure).

Worked at SIG last summer, and study Mathematics. All of the above is pretty much dead on.

countbezukov · 17-07-2014 10:27am

If you don't want to or can't do all the maths physics modules, sophister choices are really poor this year....

Bottleopener · 18-07-2014 4:45pm

countbezukov wrote: »

If you don't want to or can't do all the maths physics modules, sophister choices are really poor this year....

Yup. Slowly becoming a TP department apparently >_>

Raspberry Fileds · 18-07-2014 7:31pm

Wow, those are disappointing. Anyone have opinions on which is the best Maths dept in Ireland (in terms of reputation, variety, quality, etc)?

EuropeanSon · 19-07-2014 1:28pm

Raspberry Fileds wrote: »

Wow, those are disappointing. Anyone have opinions on which is the best Maths dept in Ireland (in terms of reputation, variety, quality, etc)?

It's still Trinity by a mile, but Trinity is just getting slightly less good.

Cork are fairly decent, and UCD have been getting better lately (they've taken on a few excellent former Trinity academics recently).

countbezukov · 19-07-2014 5:58pm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

It's still Trinity by a mile, but Trinity is just getting slightly less good.

Cork are fairly decent, and UCD have been getting better lately (they've taken on a few excellent former Trinity academics recently).

UCD now claim to be the "top ranked" on their homepage but yeah it's still trinity even if it's struggling to keep some of the younger lecturers, and not really hiring replacements.

ride-the-spiral · 20-07-2014 12:15am

Bottleopener wrote: »

Yup. Slowly becoming a TP department apparently >_>

Well there aren't more TP choices than there usually is.

Raspberry Fileds · 20-07-2014 12:58am

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Well there aren't more TP choices than there usually is.

But they form a larger proportion because of a reduction in Pure options.

Having so many CS options is new as well, right?

countbezukov · 20-07-2014 10:03am

But when all the CS options are in the first term, and there's only one course after christmas that doesn't have a requirement from before christmas, it makes it difficult to do them....

Bottleopener · 20-07-2014 1:47pm

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Well there aren't more TP choices than there usually is.

Yeah thats fair enough. Just slightly irked that if you took stats in second year your choices are slightly ridiculous due to the fact theres 30 credits of stats first term and 5 second term, which means you cant really do much at all due to needing prereqs for term 2.

EuropeanSon · 20-07-2014 4:22pm

countbezukov wrote: »

But when all the CS options are in the first term, and there's only one course after christmas that doesn't have a requirement from before christmas, it makes it difficult to do them....

You don't have to do 6 and 6, you know.

I did 7 and 5 in third year, and 6 and 4 (plus project) in 4th.

I know someone did 8 and 4 in third year.

countbezukov · 20-07-2014 8:15pm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

You don't have to do 6 and 6, you know.

I did 7 and 5 in third year, and 6 and 4 (plus project) in 4th.

I know someone did 8 and 4 in third year.

I know yeah, planning on doing 7 and 5, but want to do most of the stats ones so still can't really fit them in. Also, we've heard from some sources that they are actually making it 6 and 6.

Anonymo · 20-07-2014 8:26pm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

It's still Trinity by a mile, but Trinity is just getting slightly less good.

Cork are fairly decent, and UCD have been getting better lately (they've taken on a few excellent former Trinity academics recently).

Nonsense to say TCD by a mile (and pretty condescending to suggest they've improved by only getting in some TCD guys). Its pretty close with UCD -- including internationally. Maynooth has massively improved in the past 5 to 10 years and is getting recognition now. UCC is behind those by a good bit (which is a ridiculous status but there you go)

EuropeanSon · 20-07-2014 11:15pm

Anonymo wrote: »

Nonsense to say TCD by a mile (and pretty condescending to suggest they've improved by only getting in some TCD guys). Its pretty close with UCD -- including internationally. Maynooth has massively improved in the past 5 to 10 years and is getting recognition now. UCC is behind those by a good bit (which is a ridiculous status but there you go)

That bit is pretty inarguable. That is exactly what has happened, it isn't condescending at all.

Probably incorrect to say by a mile in terms of the department itself now, but the courses in Trinity are certainly far more reputable.

Anonymo · 20-07-2014 11:46pm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

That bit is pretty inarguable. That is exactly what has happened, it isn't condescending at all.

Probably incorrect to say by a mile in terms of the department itself now, but the courses in Trinity are certainly far more reputable.

Of course it is arguable. Just cos some tcd guys went to ucd does not automatically mean the standard has gone up (given how close they actually are it may mean it's gone down!). The rest of your post is ridiculous too and yes incredibly condescending. I did undergrad and msc in ucd and phd in cambridge. The fact is there is little difference between ucd and tcd (more accurately ucd has broader scope and tcd more specalists in string theory and lattice). If you're happy to think there's a big step up from ucd to tcd you are kidding yourself. Both are good institutions. Neither are world class but both possess some top notch researchers

Anonymo · 20-07-2014 11:48pm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

That bit is pretty inarguable. That is exactly what has happened, it isn't condescending at all.

Probably incorrect to say by a mile in terms of the department itself now, but the courses in Trinity are certainly far more reputable.

Of course it is arguable. Just cos some tcd guys went to ucd does not automatically mean the standard has gone up (given how close they actually are it may mean it's gone down!). The rest of your post is ridiculous too and yes incredibly condescending. I did undergrad and msc in ucd and phd in cambridge. The fact is there is little difference between ucd and tcd (more accurately ucd has broader scope and tcd more specalists in string theory and lattice). If you're happy to think there's a big step up from ucd to tcd you are kidding yourself. Both are good institutions. Neither are world class but both possess some top notch researchers

rjt · 22-07-2014 8:46am

Anonymo wrote: »

Of course it is arguable. Just cos some tcd guys went to ucd does not automatically mean the standard has gone up (given how close they actually are it may mean it's gone down!). The rest of your post is ridiculous too and yes incredibly condescending. I did undergrad and msc in ucd and phd in cambridge. The fact is there is little difference between ucd and tcd (more accurately ucd has broader scope and tcd more specalists in string theory and lattice). If you're happy to think there's a big step up from ucd to tcd you are kidding yourself. Both are good institutions. Neither are world class but both possess some top notch researchers

I reckon the above is basically spot on (and I'm a TCD grad, so can't be accused of bias). My experience in the US has been that UCD and TCD are about as well known as each other. I'm very happy I went to TCD myself, but the snobbery is unwarranted and embarrassing.

kozak · 21-08-2014 11:06am

Hello

Questions to Theoretical Physics students:

1) Where 1st year books can be bought for a reasonable price? Amazon offers Algebra by Michael Artin for 50 USD which looks a bit steep.

2) Would Win 7 i5 laptop with 4G RAM be good enough for Theoretical Physics tasks?

Thanks

Maybe_Memories · 21-08-2014 1:05pm

kozak wrote: »

Hello

Questions to Theoretical Physics students:

1) Where 1st year books can be bought for a reasonable price? Amazon offers Algebra by Michael Artin for 50 USD which looks a bit steep.

2) Would Win 7 i5 laptop with 4G RAM be good enough for Theoretical Physics tasks?

Thanks

I'm maths but point still stands... Don't buy books.

Tears in Rain · 21-08-2014 1:53pm

kozak wrote: »

Hello

Questions to Theoretical Physics students:

1) Where 1st year books can be bought for a reasonable price? Amazon offers Algebra by Michael Artin for 50 USD which looks a bit steep.

2) Would Win 7 i5 laptop with 4G RAM be good enough for Theoretical Physics tasks?

Thanks

Any piece-of-**** laptop is grand for TP, there's nothing computationally intensive you'll be doing. You probably won't need to buy any books for 1st year. Possible exception being the Mechanics book (Kleppner and Kolenkow).

sganyfx · 21-08-2014 6:59pm

If you have a laptop don't bother buying books, pdf files are pretty useful and free ^_^

ride-the-spiral · 22-08-2014 12:18am

kozak wrote: »

Hello

Questions to Theoretical Physics students:

1) Where 1st year books can be bought for a reasonable price? Amazon offers Algebra by Michael Artin for 50 USD which looks a bit steep.

2) Would Win 7 i5 laptop with 4G RAM be good enough for Theoretical Physics tasks?

Thanks

As people have said you just won't need to buy books really. Lecture notes usually suffice. Also the school of maths hasn't really updated the module content entirely so books like artin which the previous lecturer used might not even be the recommended text.

sponsoredwalk · 22-08-2014 7:32pm

Artin was Pete's book of choice, you guys have Vlad for linear algebra so you could pick up a cheap 1 cent copy of Gelfand.

kozak · 25-08-2014 9:33am

Thanks for books replies, much appreciated.

Now question to TP students about 3 Revision weeks during Easter period to prepare for tests in May.

There is no lectures during Easter Revision weeks.
Does this mean though that 1st year student can spend couple of Revision weeks outside of Ireland, preparing for tests?

Is there any need to attend TCD during Easter Revision weeks like extra seminars?

ride-the-spiral · 25-08-2014 1:45pm

kozak wrote: »

Thanks for books replies, much appreciated.

Now question to TP students about 3 Revision weeks during Easter period to prepare for tests in May.

There is no lectures during Easter Revision weeks.
Does this mean though that 1st year student can spend couple of Revision weeks outside of Ireland, preparing for tests?

Is there any need to attend TCD during Easter Revision weeks like extra seminars?

Nope, you're free to do what you wish over those 3 weeks, you only need to be in for exams. They're would most likely be extra revision tutorials which would be recommended to go to but not compulsory.

zagaluke · 30-08-2014 1:13pm

Just about to start first year TP.

Any point in familiarizing myself with some of the maths in the weeks before I start, just so it's not the first time I'm seeing things?

Tears in Rain · 30-08-2014 4:21pm

zagaluke wrote: »

Just about to start first year TP.

Any point in familiarizing myself with some of the maths in the weeks before I start, just so it's not the first time I'm seeing things?

It's not really necessary at all but obviously it's not going to hurt. Maybe just for fun take a glance at something involving epsilon delta limits, matrix inversion or introductory vector calculus topics like gradients or divergences, since these are probably the least familiar things you're going to see? But really, there's nothing that hard at all mathematically in first year TP.

zagaluke · 30-08-2014 8:21pm

Tears in Rain wrote: »

It's not really necessary at all but obviously it's not going to hurt. Maybe just for fun take a glance at something involving epsilon delta limits, matrix inversion or introductory vector calculus topics like gradients or divergences, since these are probably the least familiar things you're going to see? But really, there's nothing that hard at all mathematically in first year TP.

Thanks for the reply!

yeah I probably won't do much if it isn't necessary, I'll just try to keep on top of the work during the year

Maybe_Memories · 02-09-2014 2:08pm

Since Vlad is teaching Linear Algebra again my massive post on the Jordan Normal Form on the first page of this thread might actually be useful again. :pac:

EDIT: Although looking back on it I realise there's probably a lot wrong with it. I might do it again and LaTeX it and stick it on my page.

Also a word of advice to first years maths and TP - don't worry if you don't understand the epsilon delta stuff in analysis - pretty much no one does until months later when everything suddenly clicks.

I'm mildly terrified that we have Frolov for Diff Geom.

Anyone have any ideas for projects? I'm doing one on scalar products in quantum integrable models.

sganyfx · 02-09-2014 6:05pm

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

Since Vlad is teaching Linear Algebra again my massive post on the Jordan Normal Form on the first page of this thread might actually be useful again. :pac:

EDIT: Although looking back on it I realise there's probably a lot wrong with it. I might do it again and LaTeX it and stick it on my page.

Also a word of advice to first years maths and TP - don't worry if you don't understand the epsilon delta stuff in analysis - pretty much no one does until months later when everything suddenly clicks.

I'm mildly terrified that we have Frolov for Diff Geom.

Anyone have any ideas for projects? I'm doing one on scalar products in quantum integrable models.

So much agree with this, my entire year struggled with it for the first few weeks/months and then after a while it suddenly clicks and it is really easy.

Any similar advice for second years? :P

sponsoredwalk · 02-09-2014 8:58pm

Any idea on who's doing GR? Frolov? I'd give just about anything for that to happen :cool:

If you're going into second year mechanics, there'll come a time when these 3 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Lagrangian' & these 2 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Hamilton's equations' will explain all the magic.

Maybe_Memories · 02-09-2014 9:33pm

sganyfx wrote: »

So much agree with this, my entire year struggled with it for the first few weeks/months and then after a while it suddenly clicks and it is really easy.

Any similar advice for second years? :P

If you're doing schols just start learning the solutions to Simms stuff asap.

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Any idea on who's doing GR? Frolov? I'd give just about anything for that to happen :cool:

If you're going into second year mechanics, there'll come a time when these 3 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Lagrangian' & these 2 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Hamilton's equations' will explain all the magic.

I really hope it's Frolov too.

ride-the-spiral · 02-09-2014 11:08pm

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Any idea on who's doing GR? Frolov? I'd give just about anything for that to happen :cool:

If you're going into second year mechanics, there'll come a time when these 3 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Lagrangian' & these 2 pages motivating 'Newton ---> Hamilton's equations' will explain all the magic.

Frolovs already teaching 3 modules so I don't think it will be him. There are 3 new lecturers so it could be one of them? Although there's still nobody down for teaching first year mechanics or PNS...

For second years, beware that Zaitsev expects a lot more on his schols exam than his course might suggest.

sganyfx · 03-09-2014 12:18am

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Frolovs already teaching 3 modules so I don't think it will be him. There are 3 new lecturers so it could be one of them? Although there's still nobody down for teaching first year mechanics or PNS...

For second years, beware that Zaitsev expects a lot more on his schols exam than his course might suggest.

@Maybe_Memories thanks ^^

I'm doing Statistics instead of Mechanics in 2nd year, but thanks @sponsoredwalked

Is there any recommended reading to cover all the stuff Zaitsev will expect on the schols paper?

Maybe_Memories · 03-09-2014 1:20am

sganyfx wrote: »

@Maybe_Memories thanks ^^

I'm doing Statistics instead of Mechanics in 2nd year, but thanks @sponsoredwalked

Is there any recommended reading to cover all the stuff Zaitsev will expect on the schols paper?

The stuff in class will probably be at the level of the book by Churchill, so use that as a basis and supplement with the book by Bruce Palka which is basically what he uses for the sophister complex analysis course.

As an aside, he seems to be a very generous marker; in the sophister course for the first half I only felt like I did well enough to get 60-70% but ended up with 87%.

ride-the-spiral · 03-09-2014 2:23am

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

The stuff in class will probably be at the level of the book by Churchill, so use that as a basis and supplement with the book by Bruce Palka which is basically what he uses for the sophister complex analysis course.

As an aside, he seems to be a very generous marker; in the sophister course for the first half I only felt like I did well enough to get 60-70% but ended up with 87%.

He's quite generous for the end of year exam but is is very harsh for schols. People who thought the paper went okay on the day ended up getting in the 20's in his part of the exam.

He doesn't use a particular textbook and recommends quite a few, so you might just have to trawl through several to find an appropriate treatment of a topic. In particular, I never really found a good resource for understanding branches.

Maybe_Memories · 03-09-2014 1:53pm

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

I never really found a good resource for understanding branches.

I don't think anyone ever has. He's also stopped including them in the sophister course so it's possible they wont be in the freshman one too. They're kind of pointless anyway in the large scope of the course.

Evan93 · 03-09-2014 3:27pm

I have no advice for studying Zaitsevs material, but if you do find yourself completely lost in his lectures (I did) a fun game to play is: where will he write next?

First_October · 03-09-2014 11:16pm

I have Zaitsev's sophister complex analysis course LaTeXed. Maybe if there is some overlap with the senior freshman course it could be of some use to people.

Although his blackboard presentation is a little haphazard, I always liked the emphasis he places on understanding the material; unlike other lecturers he doesn't expect you to regurgitate long proofs in his exams.

Maybe_Memories · 04-09-2014 12:57am

Prof. Andrei Parnachev is teaching GR apparently.

Maybe_Memories · 07-09-2014 12:33pm

Nice timetable but whats with all the QFT lectures being in one giant three hour block?

Fringe · 07-09-2014 12:58pm

Samson likes to get it all over with in one day. It's actually fine. I enjoyed Samson's lectures and he'll give you breaks every hour. Sometimes, he'll finish early if he doesn't want to start anything new or if his back hurts.

Tears in Rain · 08-09-2014 1:06pm

Fringe wrote: »

Samson likes to get it all over with in one day. It's actually fine. I enjoyed Samson's lectures and he'll give you breaks every hour. Sometimes, he'll finish early if he doesn't want to start anything new or if his back hurts.

I'd say everyone's back will be hurting with those new lecture theatres wha

Maths and Theoretical Physics Course Thread TR031 TR035

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