Archived-Undergraduate » New Student Information

Congratulations on gaining a place in the 2019-entry MORSE, Mathematics and Statistics or Data Science degree programme!

We look forward to welcoming you to the Department in September. In the meantime the resources provided here will help you to know what you should be doing before you arrive, and what you will need to do in your first week at Warwick.

The University's Welcome to Warwick pages provide a wealth of general information about your arrival and first few days here. The information below is more specific to Department of Statistics students.

Department of Statistics Welcome Letter

Induction meeting

On Tuesday 24th September you should ensure that you come to the Department of Statistics Induction session at 10am in the Zeeman Building, room MS.02; please try to arrive 10–20 minutes early so that we can start promptly. List of topics to be covered at this Induction session.

There will be a second induction meeting for first year students on Thursday 26th September at 2.30pm in MS.02.

A link to the Welcome Week events can be found here

Course Guide

There are separate Course Guides for Data Science, for MORSE and for Mathematics & Statistics. The up-to-date version of your Course Guide is maintained online. You should aim to familiarise yourself with its contents, and to read at least the Introduction and First Year parts in detail, as soon as possible.

Meeting with Personal Tutors

Immediately after the induction meeting on 26th September you should meet with Personal Tutors from the department. The role of your Personal Tutor is explained in the Course Guide. Your Personal Tutor will arrange to meet with you individually at some time during the first few days of term.

Start of lectures

Your lectures begin on Tuesday 1st October. You should ensure that, by the end of the first day, you know your timetable.

Registering for Modules

There is no need to register for modules before the start of term, and it is in fact probably better to wait until you arrive at Warwick, and have met with your personal tutor before doing this.

Preparatory reading and diagnostic test in Mathematics

Please spend time on these — as much time as you can! — before coming to Warwick in October. All time that you spend on this preparation will be amply repaid during your first year here.

Preparatory reading

Many new students find that the mathematical parts of these degrees are surprisingly different from the sort of maths they have done previously at school. Reading through this book will help you make the transition to university level mathematics by gently (and humorously) introducing you to rigour and abstraction:

Introductory Mathematics: Algebra and Analysis by Geoff Smith. A sample chapter can be found on Google Books, here.
How to Think Like a Mathematician: A Companion to Undergraduate Mathematics by Kevin Houston, a former Warwick University Student. Check out the slide show 10 ways to think like a mathematician by the same author.
How to Study for a Mathematics Degree by Lara Alcock. Sample chapters are available on Google Books here (for the similar American version of the book).

You would also benefit from getting more practice in advanced mathematical problem solving. Tackle some pure or applied problems from one of the following resource pages.

NRICH enriching mathematics is a comprehensive and inspiring collection of pure and applied maths problems and examples. Of particular interest for the transition to university are their Advanced Problem Solving Modules.
You may have opted to concentrate on your A-levels and not to STEP at the time, but solving STEP questions now can get you into a mathematical problem solving mind ready for your first year at university. Past papers and some solutions and links are available at the STEP preparation website.

If you are one of the offer holders who did not take Further Maths A-level (or only completed some of it), we recommend you consider resources that address this material. Our paragraph for applicants taking only Single Mathematics on the Offer Information page links to online resources.

Diagnostic test in Mathematics

You have all achieved good A-level results in Mathematics. This short test aims to identify any parts of your mathematical background that are not as strong as they need to be for you to do well in the first year of your degree course. Please go to the following page, and follow all of the instructions carefully (including the preparation that's needed before you can usefully complete the online test):

Maths diagnostic test (Note: you will need your Warwick student login name and password in order to be able to access the online test itself; but don't wait for that before doing the preparation!).

The diagnostic test is provided solely for your benefit; your test score does not count at all towards your degree but is a means to allow you to assess your background. You should complete the test once you have a Warwick student login and certainly before the end of week 1 of term (Friday 5th October). If there are parts of the test where you find difficulty or you perform badly, you need to work on those areas urgently: most often this will mean revising some part(s) of your A-level syllabus, and you should aim to find suitable exercises to do to help you with that. If, after arriving at Warwick, you are still unsure about how best to remedy any problems identified by the diagnostic test, you should talk about that with your Personal Tutor during your first one-to-one meeting with him/her. Your Personal Tutor will be provided with your test results.

Statistics Undergraduate Support Officer stats dot ug dot support at warwick dot ac dot uk