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Undergraduate study

Undergraduate study

Studying Mathematics at Royal Holloway is not just about collecting skills and information for a future career (though of course that is important). It is about developing a feel for the subject in many different, often small, ways, and becoming part of a community of people who care about the subject.

We aim to provide a stimulating environment for you to study and which will encourage you to follow your strengths and interests in order to achieve the best possible degree.

Our compact size helps promote a friendly and inspiring atmosphere where students are known as individuals. Staff are always ready to give help and advice, and a member of staff is also assigned to you as a Personal Adviser.

Your Personal Adviser will help you with any queries or difficulties (academic or otherwise) and guide you in your choice of courses. Typically, your Adviser will be the person who writes your job reference in your final year.

Read our Mathematics Undergraduate study brochure here (PDF)

Teaching and learning

In a typical week, students will attend 12-15 hours of formal teaching, lectures, tutorials, workshops and computer classes. Outside of this time, you’re expected to work on worksheets, which help you practice your Maths skills, revise for exams and prepare projects.

We employ a variety of teaching methods, with first year courses being taught through a combination of lectures, problem-solving workshops and tutorials in groups of four or five students. In the second year, we concentrate on lectures and workshops while the third and fourth year (MSci students) comprises mostly lectures.

You’ll also get the chance to work on your own Mathematical projects boosting your employability skills in the process. In your second year, you’ll work in a small group to prepare a report and oral presentation on a Mathematical topic of your choice. In the third year two courses (Mathematics in the Classroom and one Mathematics Project course) are assessed entirely by project work.  A supervised project forms a quarter of the work in the final year of the MSci.

As well as the projects mentioned, all courses are assessed by written exams in the Summer term.

Find out about English language support.

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