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This year I started at the University of Cambridge to study Maths. I was very unfortunate to contract a serious infection early on in the term, and as a reult it has been mutually decided between myself and my tutors that I should defer entry and return next year. Essentially I have taken a forced gap year.

It is preferred, at least in the UK, not to take gap years in Mathematics so as not to 'go stale' - that is, to lose one's ability through inactivity. With this in mind, I'm trying to explore what I can possibly do with the time.

I have a dilemma: I don't want to go over the material in my course because I'll certainly be covering it next year, and so I'll be wasting my time in the future (and risking getting lazy then!). I'm struggling to find internships or jobs involving mathematics which don't require more advanced knowledge than I have. Sure, I could get an unrelated job (or none at all; I'm not desperate for the money) and just look at problems that interest me, but that seems like a waste of the opportunity - it doesn't really count for anything to anyone else.

So essentially my question is this: Is there anything I can do, as a Junior Undergraduate, relating to Mathematics, which will be recognised by others?

Caleb Stanford
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preferred_anon
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  • Teach yourself some stuff through online books, notes, and maths forums; sod what other people think. It'll pay off in the long run :) – Shaun Dec 09 '13 at 23:29
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    @Shaun As much as I'd love to agree, it's other people's opinions that determine whether or not I get a job after my degree! Besides, there's no reason I can't do that in my free time - going through maths textbooks 12 hours a day would drive anyone mad. – preferred_anon Dec 09 '13 at 23:33
  • @DanielLittlewood if you are that concerned with getting a job at this moment , then apply for some banking spring weeks (if you are into banking) or equivalences in other sectors. Just tell them a half lie that you are in your first year. No one actually checks. And yes, getting an internship as a first year is very difficult. (and you are not really a first year) I would not put too much hope on this. I am sure you'd make an adequate intern in many areas, but they want people who can stay there for a job the following year if they want them. – Lost1 Dec 10 '13 at 00:15
  • there are some jobs people get for gap years, but that boat has sailed a long time ago... probably you needed to apply before the summer. – Lost1 Dec 10 '13 at 00:16
  • Mathematics is enormous! If there is something you don't want to study because you'll later take a course on it, pick something else. – Omar Antolín-Camarena Jun 10 '16 at 20:53
  • Please do not use the [tag:undergraduate-research] tag. It is being removed. – Caleb Stanford Jul 24 '16 at 17:56

3 Answers3

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It turned out my answer was too long to be a comment

tbh, I'd try to cover the material in the first year during your year off. Unless you got an IMO medal and go to Trinity, I very much doubt you will find first year a breeze. This comes from a ex-Cambridge student. I think it is very hard to do any meaningful research without good foundations, unless it is something which does not need a lot of undergraduate knowledge like combinatorics or graph theory.

I am not sure how many weeks you spent in Cambridge, but like try to learn 1 course from a textbook and see how many questions you would be able to do on your example sheets or past exam papers. They are not easy....

Lost1
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  • I didn't get an IMO medal, but I do go to Trinity. I don't imagine the first year will be easy, but I certainly don't think I'll need an extra 10 months of background to be able to handle it. I was only in for about 2 weeks, and self-studied a further 3. I never tried an exam paper, but the problem sheets I'd done the material to complete weren't too bad, with usually 2 or 3 extremely hard ones. – preferred_anon Dec 09 '13 at 23:03
  • @DanielLittlewood well, maybe you are the better half of Trinity mathmos, unlikely myself – Lost1 Dec 10 '13 at 00:09
  • Well, it turns out this is (mostly) what I've ended up doing! :') – preferred_anon Jan 22 '14 at 10:15
  • @DanielLittlewood good boy, when you get back, you can go straight to 2nd year lectures... – Lost1 Jan 22 '14 at 10:19
  • Yeah, that was basically what I decided – preferred_anon Jan 22 '14 at 10:22
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It might be a good idea to go ahead and learn the material you would have covered had you been in school. It's possible that if you obtain a very good understanding beforehand, administrators and professors would let you test out of those courses, and let you take the next course in the degree sequence. If not, then you'll at least be very well prepared for the subject for when you return.

Lame-Ov2.0
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  • 'test out of those courses' - I don't quite know what you mean, but Cambridge does 4 end of year exams. All courses in first year are compulsory. However I agree with studying university material. – Lost1 Dec 09 '13 at 23:01
  • I apologize, i'm not too familiar with the UK school system. I meant that there could be a way for you, upon demonstrating sufficient understanding of the material, you would be able to take an exam that covers the topics in the course you would've been taking and if passed, then you would be allowed to skip that course entirely and claim credit - we do that here for various intro courses. – Lame-Ov2.0 Dec 09 '13 at 23:25
  • @Lame-Ov2.0 I'm pretty certain that's impossible here, at least at Cambridge. – preferred_anon Dec 09 '13 at 23:35
  • @Lame-Ov2.0 nah, not going to happen at Cambridge, pal – Lost1 Dec 10 '13 at 00:08
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you can always do some type of independent research! and also you can keep reviewing the previous course work you've taken, and make sure you have a good thorough understanding of it, before you continue your studies. I'm sure you can find certain professors you can work with, and help them with research!

waj cheema
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