Level-2 maths subjects

[Ahmad]

 

[humph]

I think probability theory makes a lot more sense once you've done a course on measure theory (or if the connection to measure theory is really emphasised), otherwise it can be very ad hoc in nature. Like Ahmad, I'll be doing a 3rd year probability subject next year (though not really out of choice, but because I've run out of other maths subjects to do, and I have to do four of them over the course of the year...). Hopefully the course will be at least reasonably rigorous. I really can't see it being that useful to me to be honest, though I do occasionally stumble across interesting areas of (pure) mathematics that have connections to things like probability measures, the central limit theorem, distribution functions, and other notions from probability theory, so clearly it's not completely unimportant.

By the way, Ahmad, did you apply for a Vacation Scholarship?

[Ahmad]

I totally agree with measure theory being emphasized!

I applied but was unfortunately rejected.

[humph]

I totally agree with measure theory being emphasized!

I applied but was unfortunately rejected.

Ah, that's unfortunate. From what I remember about the number of applications vs. acceptances last year (I asked Peter Taylor, incidentally), I think about 40 applied and only 20 were accepted, and of those there were only about 4-5 second years. Did you apply anywhere else?

From what I've seen so far though (I've been reading a few ebooks to brush up), undergrad probability theory is basically applied measure theory. The only problem is that there's a very annoying difference in terminology between probability theory and measure theory, so you very much have to concentrate on unifying two ideas that are introduced differently but are actually the same thing - e.g. random variables are really just measurable functions, probabilities are really just positive measures with total mass 1.

[Ahmad]

I didn't apply anywhere else.

May I ask what subjects you've done, I'm curious.

[humph]

I didn't apply anywhere else.

May I ask what subjects you've done, I'm curious.

ALL of my subjects? That's a pretty long list But since you asked, from this website I've done the maths subjects (prefix MATH, obviously)
1042, 1116, 2320, 2322, 2405, 2406, 3062, 3228, 3301, 3320, 3325, 3342, 3345
Also a bunch of Advanced Studies Courses on various areas of pure maths, a couple of physics courses, one astrophysics, one linguistics, one traditional grammar (intro to latin and ancient greek), and on exchange right now I'm doing a course on Fourier analysis and one on algebraic topology. Oh, and I did UMEP maths, which is equivalent to MATH1115 at ANU.

[Ahmad]

Needless to say I'm jealous

1. I have to do 6 breadth subjects.
2. Since my year was the first with the Melbourne Model I could only do subjects in my own year level (no others were available).
3. Melbourne Model means many undergrad maths subjects were scrapped (or rather moved to masters).

[humph]

Needless to say I'm jealous

1. I have to do 6 breadth subjects.
2. Since my year was the first with the Melbourne Model I could only do subjects in my own year level (no others were available).
3. Melbourne Model means many undergrad maths subjects were scrapped (or rather moved to masters).

Ah that's really rubbish. I did a 2nd yr and a 3rd yr subject in my first year, and four 3rd year subjects in my second year. I've pretty much taken it for granted that I could accelerate my studies as much as I wanted, which I guess you really don't have the freedom to with the Melbourne Model. You're not even allowed to get special permission to do some Masters subjects during undergrad? (For example, the subjects I'm doing right now on exchange are all Masters subjects, because the Bachelor ones would've been too easy or I would've already covered everything.)

[Ahmad]

I've never heard of it done at UoM before. It wouldn't really make a difference to me from now onwards though since I'll be doing the maximum number of maths subjects possible next year (was mostly first year where I had to do physics and chemistry to fill in slots).