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Posted Jan. 15, 2014
Should Postgrads Brush Up On Their Maths?
Both masters and PhD students who have returned to education after a break have an advantage over undergraduates who are entering higher education for the first time. Put simply, this is life experience and you shouldn’t underestimate how much this can help you navigate life as a mature student. Work experience and even family life can be brought to bear in all sorts of area of study and, indeed, it can cause you to have a fuller perspective on your studies, depending on your chosen field of study, of course.
One area that many mature postgraduate students find that lets them down, on the other hand, is with mathematics and even basic numeracy. This, it should be pointed out from the start, is much less of an issue for postgrads who are studying mathematics or physics – in fact most of the natural sciences. Social scientists, historians, psychologists, geographers, food technicians and even medical students who are returning to studies in later life often report that they have needed to upskill with maths to get the best out of their course. Whereas recently schooled undergraduates tend to have maths lessons in their memory – even if they didn’t study it at A-level – mature postgrads all too often remember their maths classes poorly.
Brushing up on your maths may not be the first thing you think about when embarking on postgrad studies as there are so many things about university life for mature students to consider . Nevertheless, the chances are that you are going to need some maths skills to get through your course successfully. This is particularly the case when it comes to your ability to read and present statistical data. So much of your postgrad research work will rely upon your ability, not only to understand and interpret the statistics of others, but to collect and manipulate your own statistics in a meaningful way, as well. Few hypotheses are proven by theses that have statistical data in them that cannot be read and understood effectively, no matter how powerful the rest of you argument is.
If you are attending a university for your postgrad studies, then seeking help when it comes to your maths skills is not going to be too much of a chore. Most educational establishments will offer courses that can help you. Some will even be tailored to your field of study – maths for historians or statistics for medics, and so on. Nonetheless, it may not be so easy to get help – even informal assistance from another student – if you are engaged in distance learning . Under such circumstances, it is probably best to find an adult education class at a local college. Alternatively, it should be possible to find an online course that you can conduct at home and at your convenience which is pitched at the right level. Obviously, one of the things that you want to avoid, when it comes for revising your maths knowledge, is that the course content is either too simple for you needs or too advanced.
If you have a more basic need to improve you numeracy, then there are many government backed courses that you can attend – many of which are free. However, the majority of mature postgrads need to revise and refresh what they have already learned to some extent. A good tip is to buy a maths text book that is pitched at A-level students, particularly if it focuses on statistics. Let us assume for now that your field of study does not require you to know too much pure maths, algebra and so on. Check out the book for explanations and problem solving which will help to test your newly refreshed knowledge. If you are studying art or design, then geometry may be something worth working on, too. Knowing how to calculate dimensions of shapes as well as the difference between an ellipse and a parabola may stand you in good stead.
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One area that many mature postgraduate students find that lets them down, on the other hand, is with mathematics and even basic numeracy. This, it should be pointed out from the start, is much less of an issue for postgrads who are studying mathematics or physics – in fact most of the natural sciences. Social scientists, historians, psychologists, geographers, food technicians and even medical students who are returning to studies in later life often report that they have needed to upskill with maths to get the best out of their course. Whereas recently schooled undergraduates tend to have maths lessons in their memory – even if they didn’t study it at A-level – mature postgrads all too often remember their maths classes poorly.
Brushing up on your maths may not be the first thing you think about when embarking on postgrad studies as there are so many things about university life for mature students to consider . Nevertheless, the chances are that you are going to need some maths skills to get through your course successfully. This is particularly the case when it comes to your ability to read and present statistical data. So much of your postgrad research work will rely upon your ability, not only to understand and interpret the statistics of others, but to collect and manipulate your own statistics in a meaningful way, as well. Few hypotheses are proven by theses that have statistical data in them that cannot be read and understood effectively, no matter how powerful the rest of you argument is.
If you are attending a university for your postgrad studies, then seeking help when it comes to your maths skills is not going to be too much of a chore. Most educational establishments will offer courses that can help you. Some will even be tailored to your field of study – maths for historians or statistics for medics, and so on. Nonetheless, it may not be so easy to get help – even informal assistance from another student – if you are engaged in distance learning . Under such circumstances, it is probably best to find an adult education class at a local college. Alternatively, it should be possible to find an online course that you can conduct at home and at your convenience which is pitched at the right level. Obviously, one of the things that you want to avoid, when it comes for revising your maths knowledge, is that the course content is either too simple for you needs or too advanced.
If you have a more basic need to improve you numeracy, then there are many government backed courses that you can attend – many of which are free. However, the majority of mature postgrads need to revise and refresh what they have already learned to some extent. A good tip is to buy a maths text book that is pitched at A-level students, particularly if it focuses on statistics. Let us assume for now that your field of study does not require you to know too much pure maths, algebra and so on. Check out the book for explanations and problem solving which will help to test your newly refreshed knowledge. If you are studying art or design, then geometry may be something worth working on, too. Knowing how to calculate dimensions of shapes as well as the difference between an ellipse and a parabola may stand you in good stead.
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