A few weeks ago I attended the Cambridge CUSU Shadowing Scheme, which allowed me to stay at Kings College Cambridge for 3 days, where I would sit, eat, study and socialise with the current undergraduates at the College.
Obviously I shadowed Mathematics while I was there; attending 3rd and 4th year lectures such as Set Theory and Geometric Group Theory (very complex maths).
One of the first things that I was so astonished by when I arrived was the amount of people that rode bicycles! There were hardly any cars on the road, as they were filled with cyclists. Now I realise that Cambridge, being a relatively small campus was mostly accessible by bicycle and therefore it would be much more efficient for people to cycle; for increased speed and saving money.
Meeting 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even 4th year students from Cambridge; it has really opened my eyes to the actual size of mathematics and how inexperienced I am. I feel that there is infinite amounts to be learnt and still many more ideas to be revealed.
I liked the idea that it was also possible for students in the first year, and so on to attend lectures that they are not currently studying. For example: my mentor is currently in his first year at Cambridge, but attended lectures that were in the third and even fourth year (that is degree mathematics!). I felt that this; along with the absolutely enormous library that the Colleges had; really allowed students to maximise their productiveness in study time and allow them to develop an understanding of the topic that far outweighed the average.
From what I had gathered, I also found that the connection between students that were not at the same college was great. As they all have the motivational drive to work hard in their given subjects, it was easy for people to spark conversation and discuss complex theories that they had been recently studying.
Concluding; Cambridge is awesome!
No comments:
Post a Comment