Approximate 2

Big decision at the start of this post; keep it light, or try and write down my meandering thoughts? An entertaining (probably overlong – all the others have been!) sideways glance at Australia, or more as to what I’ve been up to?

That was just another question to drift across my mind this morning, another layer of fog added to my thoughts, and I would’ve probably gone for the former if I hadn’t woke up to find that my mental fog had spread across the rest of Burton & Garran Hall.

As you might be able to tell, the seriousness of study has rolled around, and it is difficult. I spent the night battling with Complex Analysis, a mystifying assignment full of needlessly-difficult-to-draw Greek letters, notation that seemingly makes no sense, and open-ended questions that you need to be psychic to draw the right answer from. This always was going to be the most difficult course, but to explain why I’m doing it, I feel I need to start at the beginning.

Applying to study in Australia is extremely time-consuming. The University of Sheffield has links with 7 universities in Australia, and I had to go on the website for each (and anyone who has been on a university website knows how horrendously difficult it is to navigate), and try to devise a study plan based on what I thought I wanted to study 8 months prior to flying out. Trying to match course titles, and content I barely understand was tricky, but I finally had it nailed. My personal tutor was happy that I had seemingly perfectly matched up courses at either Sydney or Queensland universities, and that I should be able to scrape along in most of the other 5. Then came the tricky personal statement, now aimed at the study abroad department, where I pressed the importance of going to a university where I could continue to study the Maths that means the most to me.

So, obviously, I’m here at the ANU – a university which doesn’t actually have a Maths department. I think I pointed this out in my personal statement. I love having this opportunity, and I don’t mean to appear ungrateful, but really? No Maths department? Possibly not the smartest choice.

Anyway, still 7 months before flying out, and they do have a smattering of courses. I was sure I could find 6 for the first term which seem reasonable, then ANU would decide which of these they are happy to put me in for. And here we encountered a problem. Of the six, I was only eligible to join three of them, rather than the necessary four. So, Complex Analysis came to the rescue, and took me on with the ominous warning of “You might find this harder than you think“. Alongside this was Number Theory, an almost entirely repeated course which I passed in Sheffield, but apparently taking it again is acceptable. Matrix Optimisation, a tedious course which barely passes as what I define as Maths, but something I can accept regardless, and Mathematics of Finance, an area that did interest me so until the first lecture. I tried to change it, but all my choices were gone. Unless I repeated another course I’d already done, I was stuck with Finance, so it remained on the timetable.

So here I am now. Enjoying being in Australia, but wishing I had a Maths department to turn to. Almost 4 hours I spent on the Complex Analysis paper, and still I think I’ll be lucky to take half marks. You might describe my actions last night as a ‘crisis of confidence’, or if you were so inclined, a ‘mathematical breakdown’. I opened my email several times without knowing who I wanted to email, or what for. I thought about emailing Sheffield, and explaining what was happening, but couldn’t find the words. I read pages and pages of Mathematical articles, looking for clues as to how to do the next problem. I eventually settled on emailing my lecturer and asking for more worked examples and model answers. Hopefully that might help me find my feet here.

My head has cleared now. I eventually took to looking at my other courses, which thankfully are full of worked problems and past papers. I even did a few once I’d finally given up all hope of even deciphering question 4 of Complex Analysis – I didn’t even understand how he was using the notation anymore. While there are still questions, I think everyone has moments where everything seems to be slipping away. I certainly had one in first year of university as well.

So, in short, don’t worry about me. I think I just needed somewhere to rant for a while, and write things down. Blogging is certainly the new stress-release. I’m thinking of setting up a twitter so I can force my opinions on famous people (namely Miles Jacobson and Jake Humphrey). I’ll be back with another post later in the week which will be much lighter in nature – my upcoming trip to New Zealand for a start.

And finally [because I want And finally to be a regular feature], look whats happened outside since I started writing this blog!

It’s not perfect, but it is much improved :)

* Edit – Seriously, I’m fine. I just needed a rant to clear myself of it. University life is good.

* Edit 2 – The title is in reference to another Maths question – we were given an approximation to x, then told to judge the stability of approximating (x + x)/x, which is 2. I thought that 2 was approximated enough in all honesty (Maths joke FTW!)