… by Owen / from Norwich / MMath Mathematics [2nd Year Entry] / 2nd Year (UG)
1) What even is Direct Entry?
If you’re not Scottish, you might not be familiar with the Scottish education system (I certainly wasn’t), where degrees usually last a year longer than those at English universities (4 years for a Bachelor’s degree, 5 for a Masters, etc). In Scotland, the first two years are more open which means you can take courses (modules) from outside your main degree subject to try out, and it gives a lot of flexibility to decide what you want to do. Because of this, some programmes offer “direct entry” or “accelerated” programmes, which basically means you go straight into Year 2 and do all the compulsory courses from Years 1 and 2 in one year. This is what I decided to do for my maths degree.
So if you do Direct Entry for a Mathematics programme, in the first semester you’ll be doing the Year 2 courses, along with ‘Accelerated Proofs and Problem Solving’ and ‘Accelerated Algebra and Calculus’. However the downside is you won’t has as much freedom for outside courses or other subjects. For example I was only able to do one outside course because of this during my first year.
2) Why would anyone do such a thing??
For me it was a mixture of all the possible reasons: As a born and raised Englishman I’d have still had to pay the £9000+ fees every year; I was pretty confident I wanted to focus on my maths so didn’t want to spend a year doing subjects I wasn’t that interested in; the fact that I’d had already done maths and further maths at A Level, (and while it isn’t equal to the first year at Edinburgh, as any maths student will tell you) after having read through the first year course contents I was confident I could handle the content in the accelerated fashion.
If you fit into any of these categories I’d definitely recommend giving direct entry a thought!
So when I got here, I requested to be put on the accelerated programme, and after the preliminary test that Edinburgh uses in order to gauge where everyone is at, I got put on it. And it was as easy as that. Many people drop down to first year entry in the first couple of weeks, so even if you’re unsure there is always a chance to drop back down if you don’t enjoy it.
3) The First Semester!
The first few weeks were fairly daunting. My lecturers for the accelerated courses very much liked to remind us how intense the course is (however according to one of them only 3 or so people in history have ever actually failed the course). Many people dropped down into first year in the first week, and the lecture sizes were decreasing each day. It eventually settled out at around 25 students. But what you’re left with is a close knit group of people where everyone knows each other because you all understand the difficulties of explaining to a humanities student that it’s your “first year but I’m actually in second year”, so you can’t be relied upon to know where anything is.
Concerning the courses, they are intense. There are assignments due every week; I had 3 every week, sometimes 4. But there is always help available. The School uses Piazza which is an online (anonymous) board where you can post questions and your lecturers/fellow students can comment with hints.
However, when I found myself in semester 2, I was pleasantly surprised with the difference in workload. The first semester definitely gets you into gear to work hard and you just blast through a year’s worth of maths. Without even realising it, you have something to be proud of, and because you have no other university experience to compare it to, it’s fairly straightforward to adapt to the workload.
I wouldn’t say there’s no time for other hobbies. I did music on the weekends, regular gym-ing and quizzes whenever they were on. It’s very possible to get whatever student experience you want with direct entry if you’re willing to work hard.
4) Regret or Recommend?
Personally I’d definitely recommend it to anyone considering it, or anyone that fits into the categories of reasons I listed earlier. The fact you’re interested enough to get this far shows how keen of a maths student you are, which is all you need to succeed on this course. My experience was wholly a positive one, and I haven’t heard from anyone that say they regret it. It’s an intense maths-y environment that is a lot of fun.
So if you want to give computing/physics/music (or any other interest) a shot, then stick with Year 1 entry. But, if you’re considering Direct Entry but aren’t sure, my advice would be to just go for it as everyone’s lovely and swapping is super easy.