MST121 Using Mathematics
This is, at present, just a brief, general description of the course. Once I've finished the entire course I'll do a more comprehensive overview.
Should I start here?
There was quite a bit of discussion in the course conference [which is an OUSA forum and therefore open to all students] about whether people should start with this course or with MU120 – Open Mathematics. All I can say is that having done a [Scottish] higher and scraped through a general first year university maths course thirty years ago I haven't found anything beyond my grasp. And as you can opt to “change down” to MU120 if you find the going too tough, I'd suggest starting here if you have ever studied maths to a similar level.
What's it all about?
It doesn't exactly say it on the tin but this course has a large component of mathematical modelling. You don't have to create any models for yourself but models for, say population growth, are used to illustrate mathematical techniques in action. For me this is one of the great strengths of the course.
At school I learned maths in a vacuum – I didn't really know what you could do with it. Which made maths seem a bit disconnected from real-life. This isn't the case with MST121.
Another great strength is the way that the course is organized so that how different pieces relate to one another. [Circles, triangles and trigonometry for instance.] Again, this is different from how I remember doing maths at school – I never saw any relation between algebra and geometry then.
At the halfway stage
After having completed two blocks [out of four] I can say that I think this is an excellent course, and one that I'm enjoying enormously.