Teaching Myself Applied Maths

ride-the-spiral

Hey I just started 5th year and want to do applied maths. We had a student teacher who teaches it in our school but this year he was made a full time maths teacher so doesn't have the time to teach us and the now 6th years.

So i was wondering if i would be able to teach it to myself? I'm doing higher maths and higher physics and am one of the few people i know who like maths... Is it a viable choice to teach it to myself?
Also, the teacher in my school has said that he will be able to help us along as much as he can, and might be able to help more next year.

What textbooks would I have to get myself? Are there any notes i could get my hands on?

ch252

The book I use is called Fundamental applied maths and AFAIK its the only one. It's old with a brown cover by Oliver Murphy I think. If you have 2 years and are willing to put in a lot of effort then yes, but I tried and it was all a bit overwhelming. I get one class every saturday now for E300ish a term and I find it pretty easy now, it makes the mechanics part of physics so easy for me, I;d definitely reccomend it

JC 2K3

Depends how good at maths you are.

I did an after school class in 5th year and then taught myself the rest of the course in 6th year. Came out with an A2.

It's a very short course and definitely doable, even in just one year.

ch252

Yeah, if you are (as you are) doing physics at HL and maths at HL then it helps a lot and an A is very possible if you put in the work from what I can see with the exam papers

ride-the-spiral

alright thanks for the response

mardybumbum

I hate to sound like a broken record...........
But get your hands on roantrees notes.
Oliver Murphys book has some great questions at the end of each chapter for testing your knowledge, but I found that some things were not explained so clearly (my opinion).
Also, the fact that you enjoy maths is important.
The subject would be detestable otherwise.

JC 2K3

For the record, I didn't have Roantree's notes. Just Oliver Murphy's book and skoool.ie. I didn't find there was anything not explained properly.

But every little helps, I suppose.

Fince

don't wanna be a negative nelly, but i wouldn't advise it to be honest.

if your working from the exam papers and the marking schemes it can be heart breaking. the marking schemes take HUGE jumps without explaining them. now, maybe those notes mentioned above give solutions line by line, which would solve this problem (pardon the pun).

don't underestimate how much work it will take.

don't overestimate how much honours maths and physics will help you.

It's certainly doable. Get yourself Fundamental Applied Mathematics, and get the past papers published by Roantree, I think (they have the numerical answers to questions from the last ~25 years or so). The internet is a great resource, it's the one I used the most. I took the subject up... 5 months before the LC, and gave it very little time, at most 4 hours/week, and came out with a B1. It's a very short course, and if you've two years you'll fly it.

RexMundi

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

It's certainly doable. Get yourself Fundamental Applied Mathematics, and get the past papers published by Roantree, I think (they have the numerical answers to questions from the last ~25 years or so). The internet is a great resource, it's the one I used the most. I took the subject up... 5 months before the LC, and gave it very little time, at most 4 hours/week, and came out with a B1. It's a very short course, and if you've two years you'll fly it.

Just wondering, whereabouts can you get these Roantree papers? I haven't come across them..

RexMundi

RexMundi wrote: »

Just wondering, whereabouts can you get these Roantree papers? I haven't come across them..

Ooops, sorry, they're actually by Oliver Murphy. Here's the link (8th paragraph).