maths help

googlehead

hi,
I have a national cetificate in electronic & computer eng. done about 10 years ago. i have applied for university to do the hons degree course, i spoke to the course director and they said i could enter at year 2, but that maths will be very hard as they will be continuing on from 1st year with the maths, so i might be lost with it, does anyone know what kind of maths i would need to touch up on? i have not been approved for the course yet, but if i am i want to go into year 2 and not being totally lost.

Darren1o1

googlehead wrote: »

hi,
I have a national cetificate in electronic & computer eng. done about 10 years ago. i have applied for university to do the hons degree course, i spoke to the course director and they said i could enter at year 2, but that maths will be very hard as they will be continuing on from 1st year with the maths, so i might be lost with it, does anyone know what kind of maths i would need to touch up on? i have not been approved for the course yet, but if i am i want to go into year 2 and not being totally lost.

It depends on the institution some work on the maths more in first year (DCU and trinity, as i am aware, finish it in the first two years). I would say look at Engineering mathematics by K A Shroud. You will be expected to advance onto Advanced engineering mathematics (Kreyszig) in second year. This is the case in DCU at least. Another thing worth looking at is http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/jtm/contents.htm which is like an online book... Hope this helps!

x in the city

The math will be difficult, you should check the course content and be well aware of what faces you....!

but its not like einstein impossible, if you get stuck in its all good.

good luck

Jonathan

Darren1o1 wrote: »

It depends on the institution some work on the maths more in first year (DCU and trinity, as i am aware, finish it in the first two years).

Trinity does 3 years of maths.

godtabh

jmccrohan wrote: »

Trinity does 3 years of maths.

And boy what fun it is!

Like any thing in engineering if you can follow logic maths shouldn't be hard. It'll take work but it can be done

Darren1o1

kearnsr wrote: »

And boy what fun it is!

Like any thing in engineering if you can follow logic maths shouldn't be hard. It'll take work but it can be done

Apologies, we had a math Prof at DCU who mentioned the curriculum was the same standard as when he was teaching at TCD, hence my assumption. DCU did two years of Eng math and then some stats in third year but we never counted that as "Math". Either way the books as noted above should help, You will be expected to know most of Engineering mathematics by KA Shroud after first year moving onto the Advanced Engineering mathematics (Kreyszig I found better for this) and beyond.

I found that mature students tended to work harder than those out of secondary. So with a good work ethic you should be able to do well. DCU has a math help centre, as i am sure most colleges do. If you put in the effort you should do okay/

Turbulent Bill

I'd strongly suggest getting the 1st year maths curriculum from the college - the department should be able to supply this. Assuming you'll start 2nd year in the autumn, this should give you plenty of time to get up to speed. A lot of the 1st year work tends to be recycled Higher Level Leaving Cert stuff, so if you're immediately stuck you could look at LC books for a gentler introduction. Past exam papers and solutions are also generally available from colleges to test your understanding.

I found Kreyszig to be the best general reference, but it can be a steep enough introduction. I'd borrow copies of Kreyszig, Shroud etc. as multiple explanations of the same thing from slightly different angles can help understanding.

googlehead

thanks for your replies guy, so you think i should study this first to freshen up on my maths, it has been 10 years since i did any

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/jtm/contents.htm

and then if i study one of the books will that bring me ahead of some of the
people when i go into 2nd year? and which book should i study to do that?

thanks

miss no stars

googlehead, I'm in 2nd year in a different engineering course and we're working from Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud (not that I've looked at it cos I've been working from notes). However, a lot of first year engineering maths tends to be the same.

A lot of what's in that link is assumed knowledge from the leaving cert and a lot more is covered in first year

For first year, everything down to graphical solutions should be known from school excepting:
conic sections - the elipse
straight line laws
So it might be worth getting your hands on the leaving cert higher level syllabus as well

In first year we covered a lot of the vector stuff and some of the complex numbers, determinants, all of the matrix stuff, everything from limits down to RMS values (although you'll be expected to already have a working knowledge of this), partial derivates (first and second order), ordinary differential equations (not all of what's there)

This year we've covered the majority of the remainder by the end of october (except probability and statistics, some of which is covered in the LC).

Ask for syllabi from all the subjects. We covered some of that stuff in other subjects last year (like mechanics - basically applied maths) and it is being used in maths this year. You need to know all the maths stuff that was covered in all subjects.

googlehead

miss no stars wrote: »

googlehead, I'm in 2nd year in a different engineering course and we're working from Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud (not that I've looked at it cos I've been working from notes). However, a lot of first year engineering maths tends to be the same.

A lot of what's in that link is assumed knowledge from the leaving cert and a lot more is covered in first year

For first year, everything down to graphical solutions should be known from school excepting:
conic sections - the elipse
straight line laws
So it might be worth getting your hands on the leaving cert higher level syllabus as well

In first year we covered a lot of the vector stuff and some of the complex numbers, determinants, all of the matrix stuff, everything from limits down to RMS values (although you'll be expected to already have a working knowledge of this), partial derivates (first and second order), ordinary differential equations (not all of what's there)

This year we've covered the majority of the remainder by the end of october (except probability and statistics, some of which is covered in the LC).

Ask for syllabi from all the subjects. We covered some of that stuff in other subjects last year (like mechanics - basically applied maths) and it is being used in maths this year. You need to know all the maths stuff that was covered in all subjects.

i got a copy of Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud
so maybe i could study the link below to freshen up on my maths

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/jtm/contents.htm

and then study Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud

and that would mean i would know alot of the maths for 2nd year already?

i still have not got on the course yet, but i'm hopeful from speaking with them.

i will also email them and ask them what year 2 in maths entails

Darren1o1

googlehead wrote: »

i got a copy of Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud
so maybe i could study the link below to freshen up on my maths

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/jtm/contents.htm

and then study Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud

and that would mean i would know alot of the maths for 2nd year already?

i still have not got on the course yet, but i'm hopeful from speaking with them.

i will also email them and ask them what year 2 in maths entails

Thats sounds like a good idea. Personally I preferred Kreyzig but it is the same content. I would mainly focus on getting confident and up to first year standard. There is no need to overwelm yourself. Just work when you are going through it.

Turbulent Bill

googlehead wrote: »

i got a copy of Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud
so maybe i could study the link below to freshen up on my maths

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/jtm/contents.htm

and then study Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Stroud

and that would mean i would know alot of the maths for 2nd year already?

i still have not got on the course yet, but i'm hopeful from speaking with them.

i will also email them and ask them what year 2 in maths entails

I'd get the 1st year syllabus first and loan out whatever the recommended book is (just so the terminology is consistent with lecture notes, exam papers etc.). Diving straight into one of the big engineering textbooks will probably just worry you - you'll only need to know a small portion of it for entry into 2nd year. I wouldn't underestimate how long it will take to get up to speed if you haven't studied maths for a while, so you'll need to target the correct sections. The only goal is to get to end-of-1st-year standard.

TBH, I wouldn't bother with the maths sites. It's easy to follow through an explanation online and think you understand it, only to be stumped when you have to do one on paper. Maths (for me anyway) is a 'learning by doing' subject - you need to work through lots of problems on paper before you really understand the details. I'd pick up a textbook of whatever level you need and go through the problems in that instead.

Darren1o1

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I'd get the 1st year syllabus first and loan out whatever the recommended book is (just so the terminology is consistent with lecture notes, exam papers etc.). Diving straight into one of the big engineering textbooks will probably just worry you - you'll only need to know a small portion of it for entry into 2nd year. I wouldn't underestimate how long it will take to get up to speed if you haven't studied maths for a while, so you'll need to target the correct sections. The only goal is to get to end-of-1st-year standard.

TBH, I wouldn't bother with the maths sites. It's easy to follow through an explanation online and think you understand it, only to be stumped when you have to do one on paper. Maths (for me anyway) is a 'learning by doing' subject - you need to work through lots of problems on paper before you really understand the details. I'd pick up a textbook of whatever level you need and go through the problems in that instead.

That webpage is a book, just online. It is used by a Professor at University of Coventry who taught the engineering maths subjects at the college. At times in college when Shroud or Kreyszig was unsuitable or not adequate this resource was good. We were shown it by out second year Eng math lecturer. My advice would be to print it out and use as a book. It (along with Kreszig and Shroud) got me through my undergrad (including a mathematics inclined FYP). I would look at the notes before you comment on it and steer him in the wrong direction.

Turbulent Bill

Darren1o1 wrote: »

That webpage is a book, just online. It is used by a Professor at University of Coventry who taught the engineering maths subjects at the college. At times in college when Shroud or Kreyszig was unsuitable or not adequate this resource was good. We were shown it by out second year Eng math lecturer. My advice would be to print it out and use as a book. It (along with Kreszig and Shroud) got me through my undergrad (including a mathematics inclined FYP). I would look at the notes before you comment on it and steer him in the wrong direction.

Fair enough, point taken, it looks like a pretty good online book. In general I'm not a fan of online maths sites as they tend to be bitty (to suit particular maths courses). They also don't simulate the environment that you'll be tested in - clicking through explanations online isn't equivalent to sitting a maths exam paper.

For very particular areas (where general textbooks might be lacking) or for very broad syllabi (like the Coventry online book) I can see the usefulness of online resources. Otherwise a normal textbook offers everything you should need.

Darren1o1

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Fair enough, point taken, it looks like a pretty good online book. In general I'm not a fan of online maths sites as they tend to be bitty (to suit particular maths courses). They also don't simulate the environment that you'll be tested in - clicking through explanations online isn't equivalent to sitting a maths exam paper.

For very particular areas (where general textbooks might be lacking) or for very broad syllabi (like the Coventry online book) I can see the usefulness of online resources. Otherwise a normal textbook offers everything you should need.

I agree, I am also not a fan of mathematics websites, this page happens to be an exception and has a progression from algebra to ODES to Z transforms and Laplace. That being said it is not the be all and end all. I would buy Kreyszig also. I need to it like a book and work through examples hence my suggestion to print them and work through them.

We used them for ODE's and Z transforms in class I believe... Although it has been about 4-5 years.