Comments | mathsex: What I don't know that I don't know

pgadey in mathsex

What I don't know that I don't know

Dec 09, 2009 02:10

Hello,
I'm at a small liberal arts university studying mathematics. I'm particularly drawn to algebra. Group theory and its (co)homology seem interesting to me. The problem I'm faced with though, is that there are only two other people in my groups class, and one was the professor. The exact same thing happened in my rings class, my galois theory ( Read more... )

Comments 6

chezmax December 9 2009, 14:59:52 UTC

Hmm, I took Math & CS at UWaterloo, and the Rings class was about 15 people when I took it, and I expect a similar size for a groups class. Waterloo has a fairly large math program, so it's not surprising there are more students in the upper level math classes.

mothwentbad December 9 2009, 18:04:33 UTC

Hmmmm. Well, you have us, anyway. If you have a question... well, I won't be able to answer it, but someone else might ( ... )

pgadey December 10 2009, 02:29:45 UTC

Mm - I've been trying to be a little bit more than studious than the average bear: doing summer school, I giving talks at undergrad things. I still don't have a "holy shit"-GPA. I haven't written any papers or anything yet. I just don't feel like I know much about ... Frigging anything. Is that they way it was for most people?

mothwentbad December 10 2009, 05:34:18 UTC

I'm in my 5th year of grad, and I still don't get Stokes' Theorem, totally. Well, the machinery leading up to it, more so. But I'm not a geometer, so that's sort of ok. But only sort of.

But yeah, everyone feels that way. I mean, it's sort of an abomination. We're bashing our heads against the natural human limits of abstraction. If it were easy, then the pros would be doing something even more advanced and then it would be hard and confusing all over again.

andrylisse December 10 2009, 09:02:32 UTC

Calm yourself ( ... )

cheeser1 December 11 2009, 21:16:23 UTC

I have a similar situation as this person, minus Budapest, but plus good GRE scores.

I agree with the advice (from the above person, and the rest of the people) -- do not fret. Develop relationships with the professors in your department. Learn as much as you can. Push the limit of what you can do in the limited confines of the school you are in. You will get to grad school, and then those walls will all fall down and you can run free. You won't be left behind -- the small difference in background can be caught up fairly easily, I've found.