- #1
Fineman
- 3
- 0
Hi guys,
So in my current situation it is pretty rare to come across people who are mathsy/physicsy, which is why I'm venting here for the advice of some like-minded people. I took a gap year pre-university to work, travel and generally get my head straight but am starting to worry about the effect it will have on my maths/physics ability. I got A*A*A at A-level (Maths, FMaths, Physics) however I'm increasingly wondering whether I was actually good at physics or just good at passing exams; I know how different university is to sixth form. I have always found the easy problems a breeze once I understood everything but always struggled with the more abstract ones (like derivations, proofs etc) which I know will be the majority of the course at uni. I always enormously enjoy these but am basically helpless once I get stuck (my college friend now at uni told me he got asked to integrate e-x2 (gaussian?)... I would never in a million years be able to figure out a method as brilliant as that!) I should say I have been offered a place at Imperial College London but I don't think I'll be able to handle a course that intense anymore - I'm trying to do a couple of STEP (cambridge maths entrance exam) and simple undergrad level problems but never manage to lock down a logical route through the question like I used to be able to, and haven't gotten through even a single question to date.
Will a year break irreversibly change my brain or something? I feel like all my curiosity and perseverance is still there but I get frustrated/stuck a lot sooner than I used to on these problems. Probably more importantly, will a year gap hinder my job prospects after graduation? Career-wise I am thinking of either joining an R&D/engineering department (somewhere like the innovation company would be heaven), doing complex systems analysis/city planning or perhaps becoming a patent attorney. Basically a job in which I'll be creating and manipulating equations rather than just subbing numbers into them.
Thanks!
So in my current situation it is pretty rare to come across people who are mathsy/physicsy, which is why I'm venting here for the advice of some like-minded people. I took a gap year pre-university to work, travel and generally get my head straight but am starting to worry about the effect it will have on my maths/physics ability. I got A*A*A at A-level (Maths, FMaths, Physics) however I'm increasingly wondering whether I was actually good at physics or just good at passing exams; I know how different university is to sixth form. I have always found the easy problems a breeze once I understood everything but always struggled with the more abstract ones (like derivations, proofs etc) which I know will be the majority of the course at uni. I always enormously enjoy these but am basically helpless once I get stuck (my college friend now at uni told me he got asked to integrate e-x2 (gaussian?)... I would never in a million years be able to figure out a method as brilliant as that!) I should say I have been offered a place at Imperial College London but I don't think I'll be able to handle a course that intense anymore - I'm trying to do a couple of STEP (cambridge maths entrance exam) and simple undergrad level problems but never manage to lock down a logical route through the question like I used to be able to, and haven't gotten through even a single question to date.
Will a year break irreversibly change my brain or something? I feel like all my curiosity and perseverance is still there but I get frustrated/stuck a lot sooner than I used to on these problems. Probably more importantly, will a year gap hinder my job prospects after graduation? Career-wise I am thinking of either joining an R&D/engineering department (somewhere like the innovation company would be heaven), doing complex systems analysis/city planning or perhaps becoming a patent attorney. Basically a job in which I'll be creating and manipulating equations rather than just subbing numbers into them.
Thanks!