Reading List - Mathematics Undergraduate Admissions
Preparing for a Mathematics course
If you are holding an offer here you may still be busy with examinations and you should certainly be spending your energy on these.
However, once they are all over, it is a good thing to prepare yourself for your university mathematics course by doing some preliminary reading.
Difference from A-Level Mathematics
University mathematics is rather different from A-Level mathematics, with much more emphasis on precision and on proofs.
- Definitions (even of relatively familiar terms like ‘limit’) are stated carefully in order to formulate concepts unambiguously and concisely.
- Beginning with a small number of basic definitions and assumptions (the axioms), everything else is rigorously proved.
This rather abstract development leads to powerful methods for solving problems that are inaccessible by the more direct methods of A-Level mathematics.
It makes it possible to learn about mathematical objects of which we can have no sensory experience - for example, objects in spaces of dimension greater than 3.
Suggested Reading
The following four books below can serve to introduce you to university mathematics.
Browsing through any of them will give you a flavour of what mathematics at university will be like, and doing the exercises will prepare you for the kind of thing you will be asked to do once you are here. But there is no need to read them systematically before you arrive.
Optional Further Reading
The books in the next list are not textbooks, you should be able to get hold of at least one of them through your school or public library.
They are fun to read (at least in parts) but do not expect to read them as you would a novel. In particular, you may choose not to read them from cover to cover but to browse through the chapters and select sections which grab your attention.
Approaching the reading
Do not be discouraged if you become confused during the first reading.
Read on; new ideas are usually easier to assimilate at a second or third reading. Getting to grips with mathematical ideas requires many hours of careful reflection. Be patient, and persist until enlightenment dawns!
Further preparation for studying with us
We will be contacting you again in September, after it is confirmed that you have gained a place on one of the Mathematics courses at Warwick, with further details on how you should prepare yourself for coming here.
Studying Mathematics at Warwick
Our Courses
You are free to do 100% maths, or if you prefer, we offer the opportunity to choose options from several other world-class departments at Warwick.
Our Teaching
The Library
Entrance Exam
If you are applying to study any Undergraduate Mathematics course at the University of Warwick we ask many of our applicants to sit the TMUA, MAT or STEP exams.