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Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:06 pm
by Charlie Reams
Well, I can never remember who has which exams when, so I thought I'd start a topic as a reminder to myself. I've definitely missed people so do let me know.

Good luck to at least the following:

Jason Cullen (GCSEs.)
"Young" Conor Travers and Ben Pugh (AS levels)
Stewart Scott (Scottish Highers)
Martin Gardner (first year undergraduate exams, I think)
Michael Wallace (MSc)
Paul Howe (Part III Maths. For those not familiar with the Cambridge Tripos, Part III Maths is the like the hardest thing you can possibly imagine, but much harder (obviously you can't imagine that.) )

Good luck chaps, hope it all goes well.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:54 am
by Michael Wallace
Wow, didn't realise Paul Howe was doing Part III - that means we were in the same lectures for 3 years (well, ignoring the fact that a) we can choose subjects after 1st year; and ii) I hardly went to any lectures).

If you want a more comprehensive list, feel free to add me (MSc Statistics) to it :P

edit: although now I realise that he may well have done part III without having done parts IA,IB and II immediately prior (or indeed at all)...

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:08 am
by Howard Somerset
Good luck to all listed there, and to all others too, including:

Charlie Reams (finals)

I'm just glad it's many decades since I had to do my last exam. :)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:49 am
by Charlie Reams
Michael Wallace wrote: edit: although now I realie that he may well have done part III without having done parts IA,IB and II immediately prior (or indeed at all)...
Yep, exactly that. I think his undergraduate degree was in computer science, which everyone knows is a doss compared to maths.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:25 am
by David O'Donnell
Good luck to all.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:48 am
by Jon Corby
I wish luck to Conor & Paul because I've met them and consider them friends, and Charlie because (as mentioned elsewhere) he is a god in my eyes.

Everybody else I'm fairly indifferent about :)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:51 am
by Michael Wallace
:(

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:07 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Good luck to everyone who are taking exams soon :).

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:04 pm
by Paul Howe
Charlie Reams wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote: edit: although now I realie that he may
well have done part III without having done parts IA,IB and II
immediately prior (or indeed at all)...
Yep, exactly that. I think his undergraduate degree was in computer science, which everyone knows is a doss compared to maths.
It was actually a mix of maths and computer science, with slightly more of the former than the latter. And Michael, I think about half the people doing part III come from outside Cambridge (I was at Warwick, but have also travelled a bit and had a proper job since graduating).

Good luck to everyone for their exams though, I for one am certainly going to need it :D

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:19 pm
by Ben Pugh
Thank you very much, good luck to you in your finals and to everyone else in their exams.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:03 pm
by Michael Wallace
Paul Howe wrote:I think about half the people doing part III come from outside Cambridge.
Yeah, I always forget that... have fun with your exams, I know from various friends of mine how horrendous it looks (although it's not as cool as the stats MPhil where you get to do a 3 day computing exam - which is what I'd probably be doing now if I hadn't decided that I'd had enough of hard work and buggered off down here for my masters, come to think of it... :P)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:16 am
by Conor
Thanks mate, and good luck to everyone else too.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:05 pm
by Stewart Scott
Taking my Highers next month (I don't know the respective equivalents wherever everyone is, I think A-levels is my best guess) in English, Maths, Drama, Classical Studies and Chemistry - never liked exams but needs must :) Wish me luck!

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:46 pm
by Charlie Reams
Those of you who follow the unfolding drama of my life might be pleased or moderately indifferent to know that I just got offered a PhD place at Cambridge, so (barring disasters) I'll be here for another three years or so yet. This forum is hosted on a student server here so indirectly it's good news for everyone else too...

PS. Paul, do you know what you're doing yet?

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:17 pm
by Dinos Sfyris
Thats excellent Soo. Congrats :)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:16 pm
by Jon O'Neill
Yay, well done! :)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:51 pm
by JimBentley
Well done, Charlie, that's great news. I always knew you were clever enough to do it, despite what those other people said.

Of course, this is just an excuse to put off getting a proper job, isn't it, you workshy fop? ;-)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:00 pm
by Ben Wilson
Nice one Charlie! :)

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:36 pm
by David O'Donnell
Well done Charlie! :D What's the topic for your thesis?

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:05 pm
by Charlie Reams
David O'Donnell wrote:Well done Charlie! :D What's the topic for your thesis?
Cheers all, I'm delighted too, and slightly relieved for reasons which I think Jim has already well summarised. The topic of my proposal is "Language challenges in the multicore era", which is very vague, and my eventual thesis title (to be decided this time next year) might well end up being totally different. We'll see.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 8:25 pm
by Jon Corby
Oh right yeah, well done Charlie. Sorry, I don't really understand the whole university thing so I wasn't aware that was such a big deal.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:47 am
by Charlie Reams
Corby wrote:Oh right yeah, well done Charlie. Sorry, I don't really understand the whole university thing so I wasn't aware that was such a big deal.
Basically, it means I'll be Dr Reams at some point in the future. Of course you will all have to refer to me by that name.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 11:07 am
by David O'Donnell
I am not sure what the competition is like for Computer Science studentships but in philosophy a studentship is generally only awarded to someone with a first (or in my case, hopefully) a good master's degree. In addition to having the title Dr., which will subsequently only be used for professional purposes, your PhD provides the basis for your first book. Given that young Mr. Reams is taking his PhD at Cambridge, a prestigious location for such studies, it would seem to suggest that he is taking his first tentative steps on a career of academia: so, kudos! I think Corby's point may be referencing a prevailing notion, that previously existed, that taking a PhD meant you couldn't find a decent job. My Dad did a Computer Science degree in the 80s and they were basically chucking PhDs at anyone to whom they would stick; I suspect the academic landscape is now rather different.

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 11:46 am
by Martin Gardner
Yeah I am first year undergraduate doing French and politics with Spanish as an elective subject. I think everything'll be fine although I'm quite nervous, luckily there are no exams in the third year as that's my year in France!

Martin

Re: Official exams good luck topic

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 4:13 pm
by Paul Howe
Charlie Reams wrote:Those of you who follow the unfolding drama of my life might be pleased or moderately indifferent to know that I just got offered a PhD place at Cambridge, so (barring disasters) I'll be here for another three years or so yet. This forum is hosted on a student server here so indirectly it's good news for everyone else too...

PS. Paul, do you know what you're doing yet?
Congratulations, richly deserved I'm sure :)

I don't know yet, and won't until the exams have been marked as you need a very high ranking in the exams (relative to the other people doing part III) to get funding. Personally, I'm not sure that I'm clever or dedicated enough to get this, but we shall see.