School of Mathematical Sciences UG Student Handbook 2024/25

In place of the classroom teaching normally used in schools, we use lectures and exercise classes to teach most of our modules. You also need to spend time on your own studying and attempting exercises; we expect you to spend about 40 hours per week on your degree course, of which we timetable about 16 hours.

We will assess you by a mixture of exercises, coursework, in-term tests, project reports, presentations, quizzes and end-of-year exams/assessments; see module details for how we assess each module. For some of our modules, the assessment of exercises is summative, which means that it is intended to evaluate your performance and to measure your understanding of the set learning objectives of the module throughout the semester. Summative assessments will contribute marks directly to your final result for the module and will take different forms. Each module will be different so the relevant module organiser will explain this at the beginning of the module. This information will also be available on the relevant module QMplus module.

Modules will also use formative exercises, which means that it is intended to help you learn and does not contribute marks to your final result for the module. Formative exercises give you practice for the tests and exams and so are just as important as summative assessments that contribute marks directly to your final result for the module. If you work hard on all the formative exercises then you will do better in your tests and exams.

Queen Mary policy is that all teaching starts at 5 minutes past the hour and finishes at 5 minutes before the hour, which gives you a 10-minute break between classes. If any member of staff fails to adhere to these times (other than occasionally) then please complain; see Complaints Procedure.

Lectures

In a lecture, the lecturer stands at the front of the room and talks. The lecturer will normally also write on a board or visualiser and/or project slides onto a screen. The written information may include everything important or it may include only key points, depending on the style of the lecturer. You will need to take notes during the lecture. What you write is up to you but it will normally form your main record of what the lecturer has taught in the module.

You will generally need to copy carefully what is on the board or screen unless the lecturer provides full lecture notes on QMplus. Generally, notes provided by the lecturer are not a substitute for notes you take yourself. You should regularly review and correct your notes, check for any points you do not understand and try to resolve them, asking in the exercise classes if you cannot sort them out for yourself. Nobody will look at your lecture notes except you. It is very important that you keep up with each module since mathematical modules tend to refer back to, and rely on, material covered earlier. You should keep your lecture notes for revision.

It is essential that you do not talk while the lecturer is talking. Please be aware that we will take disciplinary action against any student who disrupts lectures in any way.

The module organiser will set problems as exercises. Working through the exercises is essential in order to understand each module. Moreover, we use your exercise solutions as a measure of your engagement with the module.

Exercise Classes

In a mathematical sciences undergraduate exercise class (tutorial/seminar/IT Lab), there will normally be several members of staff and PhD students to help you with specific problems. It is up to you to ask them questions (about any aspect of the module). However, their job is to guide you towards the solutions to problems, not just to tell you the answers!

You should try to solve the problems before the class by looking up the meanings of relevant terms in your lecture notes or appropriate textbooks or by searching the web. If you cannot solve a problem then make yourself a note to ask for help in the next exercise class. There is not enough time to write out all the solutions during the classes, but there should be time to ask questions about the things you do not understand provided you have thought about them beforehand. The exercise classes for some modules take place in a computing laboratory.

Tests

These are mini-exams, normally held in week 7 of the semester. Examination regulations apply to tests. The School of Mathematical Sciences uses it as a "consolidation, revision and test week". Week 7 has a different timetable from the rest of the semester, which will normally be emailed to your University email account.

Time Management

Ideally, you should make up your own study timetable, including lectures, and specify when you are going to read the lecture notes and do the exercises each week. Studying at university is a full-time job; the standard expectation of time spent by students studying for a degree is 1200 hours per year. That is equivalent to 150 hours for each 15-credit module and to 40 hours per week for 30 weeks of the year.

Submission of weekly/fortnightly coursework Exercises

The lecturer/module organiser will post all weekly/fortnightly coursework exercises via QMplus (on some occasions these may be set during lectures). The lecturer/module organiser will confirm this during the first lecture. It is your responsibility to ensure that you can find the weekly/fortnightly coursework exercises for all your modules and to contact the relevant lecturer/module organiser if you have any questions about the posting of the coursework exercises. The module organiser will set problems as your coursework exercises. Working through the exercises is essential in order to understand each module. 

You are expected to submit reports, exercises, essays, and other pieces of coursework associated with each module for which you are registered as part of your programme of study, by the individually advertised deadlines and methods of submission. These will be regularly spaced throughout the semester. 

For some modules this will be summative assessments and will contribute marks directly to your final result for the module and will take different forms. Each module will be different so the relevant module organiser will explain this at the beginning of the module. This information will also be available on the relevant module QMplus module.

Each lecturer/module organiser will tell you at the start of the module how to submit your weekly/fortnightly coursework exercises for that module.

Submission of Project Reports

Each project module organiser will tell you how to submit your project report, but normally you should submit an electronic copy to QMplus. This will be used for plagiarism detection, for which we currently use Turnitin; see Plagiarism and Referencing. You may also be asked to submit two printed copies to the Maths School Office (since your report will be read independently by two examiners). The Maths School Office staff will record the date they received them and give you a receipt. Keep this in case you need to prove when you submitted your report. You can print your report single or double sided, as you prefer, but your printed copies must be robustly bound so that they can be easily read without falling apart.

Project reports must have a title page showing clearly the module code and title, the title of your report, and your full name and student number. A project report should look like any well produced printed document and if it is a mathematical report then it should look like a well produced mathematics textbook. Content is more important than presentation, but presentation is also important. In particular, you may lose marks for poor spelling and grammar; most modern word processing or text editing applications provide a spelling checker, which you would be well advised to use. Divide your text into paragraphs that each deal with one idea or a small number of related ideas.

Unless you have been specifically instructed to the contrary, use normal single-spaced lines of text. Unless the document is very short, divide it into sections, subsections, etc, each with a clear heading, as illustrated by this handbook. If the document is longer than one page, include page numbers. You can draw diagrams by hand or by computer as you prefer, but make sure they are neat, clear, and annotated as appropriate. Tables should have captions above them and diagrams should have captions below them. Use of colour is optional.

Correct referencing of other people's work that you have used in your report is essential and will help avoid accusations of plagiarism; see Plagiarism and Referencing and Recommended Referencing Style.