The Hiatus is Over

Hi all!

Gosh, I really have been away for a long time. I knew I'd left it a while since last posting, but only just now realised that it was way back on 4th July that I last wrote anything.

Many things have happened in the meantime, the most significant of which is that I got married on 12th August. It was a great day except for the New Forest weather which tried to ruin things right around the time the photos were to be taken. Some of you may appreciate that me and Kim have Mobius wedding rings. While it doesn't do it justice, I've added a picture of mine below (please excuse the state of my fingers, I had a fight with a ferret a couple of weeks ago...)

My M381 TMA was, unfortunately, due around this time. My tutor was kind enough to give me an extension because of the wedding, which certainly helped matters, as I had a few large projects to get finished in my work as well. The M337 TMA was due a few weeks earlier, but again, poor timing on my behalf meant I spend the whole weekend preceding, camping with my brother and a few friends. So I had to get that one out over an intensive all-nighter after getting back. Fortunately, I got good marks on both of these.

In September, we went to New Orleans for a week for our honeymoon. Again, TMA deadlines almost perfectly coincided with our departure, and as you probably know, there is no scope for extension on the final assignments. I managed to complete my M337 TMA in Portsmouth after driving our dog there so my parents could doggy sit while we were away; I only got about two hours sleep though because I spent the whole time trying to get my head around conformal mappings and fluid flows (the Mandelbrot set questions were easier at least), which made the prospect of a four hour drive back a little worrying. Alas, this left me little time to finish my final TMA for M381; I was actually working on it at the airport on the morning we left, but had to post it more than 2/3 unfinished. I thought it would be better at least, to send something, however short, than to skip it altogether. I was quite upset at having to do this, but tried to put it out of my mind, and focus on the fun and exciting (but hot and expensive) week ahead. I was under the slightly deluded impression that I'd be able to study while out there, so I took practically all my textbooks with me, as well as past papers and previous TMAs. Ultimately this just added about 15kg to our luggage for nothing, as I did not one minute of study.

After getting back, it was time to begin thinking about the exams. I am rather annoyed at myself in this regard as I put it off and put it off, and started much later than I should have done. The exams themselves were very hard, though I doubt starting my revision earlier would have changed that too much.

The M337 exam started out okay, but I was behind schedule by the time I got to Part 2, and when faced with the optional questions, quickly realised that I was only really qualified for one of them. You'll have to forgive me because I cannot remember now which that was. My second choice was on generalised circles and Mobius transformations, and I doubt I got many points on that one at all. I left it thinking that I'd probably got a Grade 2, but would not be overly surprised by a Grade 3. A twinkle of hope for a Distinction arose in my mind a few times over the ensuing month and a half but I made a point of quickly extinguishing that each time, as it would only lead to tears.

The M381 exam started out badly and then got worse, or at least that's how it felt. I probably did better than I felt I was doing at the time, when in the throes of mid-exam despair. I got off to a bad start when I took almost half an hour over a question involving a proof by induction. The problem was that I knew I could do it. I knew that if I fiddled long enough I could get the two sides of the induction step to match and therefore complete the proof, so I kept on going until I did. Not the most efficient way of tackling an exam, that's for sure. By the time I'd finished, I had only done eight questions, and since they take your best nine answers across the two topics, that did not bode well either. I can't really recall much of the content; probably a psychological defence mechanism. But I do remember my final question being one where an incomplete formal proof is given and you have to fill in which assumptions (or was it the rules, or both, I'm not sure?) were in use at each step. By the time I got to that point, I had about two minutes left. I tried to to ignore the time and tackle it normally, as I was quite good at this when I did similar questins before. But in the end I had to quickly scrawl out some answers in the hopes I'd score some points by luck, or indeed by hoping my subconscious would do the work for me. Anyway, I left that exam very very depressed. I've not had an exam go so badly since my module on Modern Japanese History in my 2nd year at Sheffield University... at least I didn't leave the M381 exam half-way through knowing that even what I did write was little better than gibberish! So I was hoping for a Grade 2, but expecting a Grade 3 (remember also, I'd only done a small part of the final TMA, and as useful as the substitution rule is, it can't fully counteract something like that!).

Anyway, as some of you must know, the results came out on the night of the 30th. That's almost two weeks earlier than my M208 one last year! I was relieved to find that I'd managed a Grade 2 in both cases. I'm in shock regarding the result of M381, and I keep checking back to make sure they haven't changed their minds on me. I like to think they're not allowed to do that, but I still worry.

I've just signed up, over the phone, for M338 Topology, and as a bit of a diversion (as well as a step back, hopefully, in difficulty) S282 Astronomy. I may even be tempted to get out my telescopes over the winter to get me in the mood; there's already been some very starry nights here. I expect Topology to make M337 and M381 look like child's play, but I've been looking forward to the course itself for a long time, as the topic really interests me. Hopefully that, along with the (presumable) lack of weddings and honeymoons next summer, will help me to do well in it.

I hope everyone else who was awaiting results, has got what they hoped for!
If I don't post again in the meantime, have a great Christmas.

Neil