9 JUNE 2023

2022/2023 STUDENT-LED

MATH YEAR 3-4

MODULE
REPORT
 Composer: Daniel Lin
EMAIL: [email protected]

INTRODUCTION
T
his is a collection of modules evaluations for year 3/4 Mathematics modules
(modules code MATH6XXXX or MATH7XXXX) at Imperial College London. it is
based on around 50 one-to-one interviews with the year 3 or year 4 students in
January and May of 2023.

Since there are over 60 elective modules for year 3/4, choosing modules could be a
di icult task! So I interviewed people asking for their opinions on the modules they
chose, in terms of module structure, consistency, coherence, practical values,
teaching style, di iculty etc. And whether they recommend that module or not. I hope
these information would give you a better idea on how to choose modules.

O icial Lecture notes:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WKnIVfsfxbiLhUJtaXHbC-S8zeJb_DU8?
usp=sharing

Useful resources of some of the modules (written or collected by students)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/
12m5Q7IytAqgmQE1j7eDDznQobEhJz94C?usp=drive_link

Recruitment: If you ind this report useful, and wish to take my role for the next year,
please drop me an email and I will give you the interview materials for reference

REMINDERS
ff
ff
ff
f
 1. Module structures, contents are constantly changing, because for most modules,
the professor teaching changes frequently. So this module report is only valid for
the Professor/Doctor stated.

2. Do NOT choose modules based on previous years’ exam marks. Because the
exam setter could be di erent the next year, even the same setter could suddenly
choose a di erent style or raise di iculty. This has happened frequently this year.
So please choose modules based on your personal pursuit or interest instead of
exam di iculty.

3. This is only a reference for choosing modules, the evaluations are from students
taking the modules. We do not take any responsibility if you ind the module is
di erent from described in the report. But after all, you do not have to inalise
modules for exams until middle of spring term. It is recommended that you choose
8 modules in the beginning of the term (4 modules for credit each term), and then
gradually pin down to the ones you like.

4. Some modules have less number of recommends simply because there are less
people choosing the modules.

INSTRUCTIONS: Module Name

The following is an example
Professor/Doctor in charge

Recommends Dis-Recommends

MATH60000 HAPPINESS DANIEL LIN +99 -0

A module that teaches you how to be happy

Basic
information • Entertaining
10 people mentioned
• Meaningful for life (10) this
if no number written,
only one mention
Good
Points
• Teaching fellow very kind and helpful.

• Wait, this is not a math module!

Things that could be improved/points to pay attention

ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
f
f
This report has 4 sections: Applied Math, Statistics, Pure Math, Mathematical Physics.

SECTION1: APPLIED MATH

MATH60005 OPTIMISATION DR D. KALISE +22 -1

Introduction to the basic algorithms and ideas for optimisation.

• Essential for areas like Machine Learning, Deep learning etc.

• Helpful for Methods for Data Science and Mathematics of Business and
Economics. (modules are written italic)
• Clear learning targets, very systematic
• Clear Lecture notes and explanations (9)
• Professor willing to answer questions, fully prepared for lectures. (3)
• Content entertaining, useful (3)
• Reasonable level of di iculty (2)
• Reasonable amount of course content and after-lecture works(2)
• Problem sheets it well to lecture contents
• reasonable coursework di iculty, kind marking
• no background knowledge required

• Contents for the last two weeks are more di icult, an may be less organised
• Practice questions given are not enough. Exam questions are harder than
practice questions.
• Professor has accent, and writing not very legible

MATH60023 NUMERICAL DR I. +1 -0
SOLUTIONS OF ODES SHEVCHENKO
Coursework 100%. 4 courseworks

• Has broad range of use

• Rational length of time for courseworks
• Professor very passionate
• Marks are distributed among 4 courseworks and weekly tutorials
• Plan you term to not miss deadlines
f
ff
ff
ff
MATH60024 PROF. +5 -14
COMPUTATIONAL LINEAR C. COTTER
ALGEBRA
Introduction to the basic algorithms for linear algebra problems using python.

Coursework 100%. 3 courseworks

• Relatively good course structure, clear and useful course content (3)
• Practice questions are good enough to enhance knowledge
• could extend in many directions, people with interest can study deeply
• Many overlaps with Numerical Analysis in year 2 (2)
• Professor is kind and willing to give marks if you try to argue (4)
• Relatively easy to obtain high marks.
• Helps improve coding skills. Equip you with many methods relating to
NumPy Arrays.
• Algorithms learnt are essential for NumPy built-in functions.

• Computer set-up instructions in week 1 are not clear, and problems can
occur
• last few chapters are very messy with loads of typos (3)
• requires good python coding skills.
• Lecture recordings are not clear, all in-person sections are problem classes.
• No solutions for practice questions (2)
• Coursework questions are written poorly, di icult to understand. (e.g.
coursework 3 has 60 clari ications added afterwards and 120 Discussion
forums questions) (7)
• Professor may be drunk when writing the questions
• Length of coursework is too limited (3-4 days), cannot even sleep during
the days (11)

MATH70130 STOCHASTIC
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS IN PROF. D. BRIGO +1 -0
FINANCIAL MODELLING

• can learn useful knowledge in inance

f
f
ff
 MATH60007 DYNAMICS OF DR I. +1 -2
LEARNING AND ITERATED SHEVCHENKO
GAMES
Mainly about game theory. You need to write a paper.

• Di icult but entertaining content

• Professor very kind
• Flipped classroom: learn before lectures, go through questions on lectures
• Lecture notes are less organised, not quite related to game theory
• Very abstract, hard to understand. Large amount of linear algebra
• Professor’s teaching ability is not high (2)
• the deadline is after Christmas, so have to work during Christmas

MATH60019 THEORY OF PDE DR E. ZATORSKA +2 -0

• Overlaps a lot with PDE module in Year 2. Good chance to pick up for those
who didn’t choose PDE in year 2.
• High-quality teaching, clear explanations
• Lecture notes easy to understand

• Professor sometimes invite students to talk on platform

MATH60006 APPLIED DR S. BRZEZICKI +2 -0

COMPLEX ANALYSIS

• Interesting contents
• High-quality teaching
ff
 MATH60014 DR E. KEAVENY +4 -0
MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY
Learning many biological models using math

• Reasonable level of di iculty (2)

• Not abstract, closely related to reality
• Interesting, high-quality teaching (3)
• Professor answers questions very quickly

• No problem class, limited practice

• Not very practical
• You need to know well about PDEs

MATH60004 ASYMPTOTIC DR G. PENG +1 -0

METHODS

• Mainly calculations
• Teaching is detailed, clear
• Professor actively helping

• Quite di icult

MATH60009 PROF. D. +0 -1
BIFURCATION THEORY TURAEV

• High level of di iculty

• Professor has accent
ff
ff
ff
 MATH60027 SCIENTIFIC DR P. RAY +1 -2
COMPUTATION
Mainly about optimising algorithms. Coursework 100%, 3 courseworks

• Interesting content
• Reasonable amount of coursework
• Broad contents: optimisation, data science, Fourier analysis, PDE etc.

• Teaching quality not very high, teaching too fast

• di icult to get high marks
• coursework marking starts with 100 and then deduce marks. Di erent
markers deduce marks at di erent strengths.
• Second coursework is much more di icult than the irst one.

Side note: for coursework 100% modules, you cannot quit after submission of the irst
coursework.

MATH70134 FOUNDATIONS OF DR A. BOROVYKH +3 -0

MACHINE LEARNING
Coursework 100%

• Small amount of work required, courseworks do not take long time (2)
• some edge-cutting theories included
• teaching is clear, easy to understand compared to methods of data science
(3)
• Edstem updates and explanations are clear
• Courseworks are practical, can use built frameworks from PyTorch.
ff
ff
ff
f
ff
f
 MATH60026 METHODS DR P. THOMAS +17 -7
FOR DATA SCIENCE DR B. BRAVI
Quick, rough introduction to common algorithms in data science. Uses Tensor low,
but mainly NumPy.
Coursework 100%. 2 Courseworks

• Easy to get high marks (14)

• the teaching fellows are friendly and willing to improve from student
feedback (3)
• Rich, interesting, useful contents (11)
• Clear module plans, reasonable pace (3)
• Jupiter notebooks published weekly are very useful for courseworks, you
can copy them (2)
• reasonable amount of coursework (2)

• Should be familiar with python coding (OOP not required)

• Computer set-up not friendly for macbook
• Lecture notes readable, but many jumps in logic and abuses of notations.
Not logically rigorous.
• Teaching is not clear, you need to learn many thing yourself (10)
• No intuitions/motivations for algorithms given in lectures
• Too many algorithms to learn, no time to dive deeply in each algorithm.
• Course material not well connected to courseworks
• Three teaching fellows are not well-coordinated, their teaching styles di er
too much
• GTA cannot explain codes clearly
• Teaching fellows have poor coding skills, no comments/docstring given,
coding style not consistent.
• Solution not given to explanation questions in weekly practices. But these
questions do appear in courseworks.
• Coursework questions not written clearly. (3)
• also explanations and clari ications on EdStem(student forum) are not
clear.
• have some hidden requirements that are not written in coursework
speci ication. But these are credited.
• Large amount of work, long commitment time required (11)
• Could con lict with courseworks of other modules
• for the second coursework in last three weeks of Spring Term, prepare
at least 7 full working days for this.
• about 3 times amount of works compared to other modules
f
f
f
ff
f
 MATH600013 MATH OF DR I. +13 -3
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS PAPATSOUMA

Mainly focusing on microeconomics

• Connection between chapters are strong, module design is coherent

• logics of the module easy to follow
• useful in practice (2)
• Reasonable amount of content, basically only have to remember de initions
• Reasonable level of di iculty (7)
• Problems are similar, easy to prepare exams
• Professor’s teaching is clear (2)
• Professor is kind and friendly (2)
• Interesting content

• This is not one of the “hard core” math modules

• Helpful if you have learnt A-level Economics. Otherwise some concepts may
not be familiar
• large amount of memorisations for exams
• Connection between lecture notes and exam questions is weak
• Many mathematical proofs included (3)
• Not very interesting (2)
• Complete typed lecture notes only released at end of term
• Professor makes mistakes on lectures, some contents are not clearly
explained (2)

MATH60008 DYNAMICAL PROF. J. LAMB +0 -3

SYSTEMS

• Lecture notes not clear, can only use recording to learn

• high level of di iculty
• hard to ind reading materials
• tests during the term too di icult (many people only got 40%)
• all in-person sessions are problem classes
f
ff
ff
ff
f
MATH60012 MATH DR P. +2 -2
FINANCE: OPTION PRICING SIORPAES

• useful in practice
• Professor is kind
• interesting contents, easy to learn
• enough amount of practice given
• Large amount of content
• Lecture notes not very clear
• Teaching pace too fast
• professor sounds like reading notes
• solutions to exercises are not explained clearly

MATH60022 FINITE ELEMENTS PROF C. COTTER +2 -0

DR D. HAM

• Teaches many common methods in numerical analysis

• good module structure
• clear lecture notes
• 50% coursework: using python.
• You should be familiar with OOP
• theoretical part requires some functional analysis knowledge
• content very speci ic, not suitable for general

MATH60025 +0 -2
PROF S. MUGHAL
COMPUTATIONAL PDE
Coursework 100%

• Materials well-prepared
• Useful contents
• Teaching not very clear (2)
• Coursework release date changed, causing change in schedules (2)
f
SECTION 2: STATISTICS

MATH600045 APPLIED PROF. A. +28 -0

PROBABILITY VERRAART
Mainly focusing on Markov chains. Very theoretical module (even
though it is called “applied” )

• Clear teaching, easy to follow (11)

• Good classroom atmosphere, professor has vigour (4)
• good teaching pace
• professor has rich experience
• lecture notes complete, consistent, almost no typo (9)
• coloured marks in lecture notes
• reasonable level of di iculty (9)
• Rich content, useful in practice (3)
• Materials given on time, enough amount of practice provided (3)
• Reasonable level of in-term tests
• close to Problem sheet styles
• Many past year papers for reference

• Large amount of memorisations

• no student forum, must go to o ice to ask questions
ff
ff
 MATH600043 DR K. RAY +11 -0
STATISTICAL THEORY

• can solve many puzzling questions remained when learning

statistics in year 1, 2 (3)
• many proofs and deductions, rigorous logic (2)
• but avoided di icult proofs e.g. the ones requiring measure
theory
• Useful for understanding concepts in other statistics modules
• Many examples given in lecture notes
• Almost no typo, very rigorous
• Reasonable amount of content
• Clear teaching, good pace (7)
• Professor provided revision notes, very useful for exam revision (5)
• EdStem reply is fast and detailed
• problem sheets provide enough amount of practice
• Reasonable coursework length and di iculty (2)

• lack of motivations in some places. May be boring

• Examples are put after theorems, you can read examples irst
• Chapter on decision theory rather abstract and di icult
• Problem sheets 3, 4 very challenging.
ff
ff
ff
f
 MATH60047 STOCHASTIC DR. D. AKYILDIZ +8 -1
SIMULATION
25% Coursework, 75% Exam

• Useful in practice (3)

• Lecture notes very detailed
• reasonable di iculty for Coursework (11)
• Inspiring contents, interesting (5)
• First few weeks may seems confusing, but this will improve soon
• Professor willing to give high marks (2)

• First year of teaching for this professor, may not have good pace (6)
• Cannot quite understand course content

MATH60131 CONSUMER DR. A. BENCHIMOL +1 -3

CREDIT RISK MODELLING
25% Coursework, 75% Exam.

• Easy content. Useful in practice (3)

• Intersting content
• Professor is kind and willing to give marks (2)
• Not much math included (3)
• Professor’s irst year teaching, pace not very good (2)
• No coursework feedback, marking criteria is vague (4)
• Professor seems to be reading powerpoint. Not high quality teaching (3)
• Only PowerPoint slides provided, no typed lecture notes (3)
• Many contents are covered in data science and survival models
• Many time spent on theories, too little practice.
• Problem Sheets not enough.
f
ff
MATH60046 TIME SERIES DR. E. COHEN +11 -1
ANALYSIS
essential for people entering inancial mathematics. Preliminary: Statistical
Modelling I or strong statistics background.

• Useful in practice (6)

• Clear teaching (11)
• student forum answers on time
• Many motivations given in lecture notes. Interesting contents (3)
• Teaching materials well-prepared. Lecture notes complete and coherent.
• reasonable amount of content
• 5 problem sheets will all be explained in lectures

• Many calculations and deductions, understanding is also required

• Lecturer seems to be reading notes (3)
• content not well organised. May be easier to self-study
• actually a block was left for self-study
• Not rigorous enough. Not well-balanced between practical and theoretical
parts. Hard to follow
• Coding required for courseworks. But coding is not taught in lectures. (2)
• Last coursework is very di icult (6)
ff
f
MATH60049 INTRODUCTION +4 -1
PROF. G. MASON
TO STATISTICAL LEARNING

• Motivations of each model clearly explained, combined with some real

examples
• serves for Methods for Data Science, as there are some overlaps but this
module explains things much better.
• interesting contents. Each algorithm has R codes to play around
• appropriate metaphors given for better understanding
• good teaching pace (2)
• experienced but cute, humorous professor. Even playing songs in
classroom (4)
• Easy to get marks for coursework.

• Some algorithms went through too fast. Need more self-study

• Theoretical part more di icult than Methods for Data Science (2)
• No typed lecture notes given, only PowerPoint slides (2)
• slightly less organised module structure
• R is the main coding tool. Should be familiar with R

MATH60048 SURVIVAL +4 -0
PROF. A. CANDY
MODELS

• Only one coursework during the term, reasonable amount of work

• interesting content
• coherent, logical module design.
• good teaching pace, detailed explanations
• lecture notes very clear
• professor is experienced.
• helpful for people entering actuarial industry
• not quite coherent
• Last part of module very challenging
• codes in PowerPoint slides not legible as font size too small and no text
explanation
ff
MATH60044 STATISTICAL DR. C. +6 -3
MODELLING II HALLSWORTH
Coursework 25% (1 coursework), Exam 75%

• Professor very kind and friendly (5)

• EdStem questions answered in detail
• Clear lecture notes, clear teaching
• R tutorials are very useful
• handling real-life examples
• Do NOT need Statistical modelling I as preliminary
• Reasonable pace of teaching.
• Reasonable amount of work
• Useful in practice (5)

• Explanations not clear, too many contents, module structure is loose (2)
• No coherent links between chapters
• High level of di iculty
• Coursework is a report, marking criteria is vague.
ff
 SECTION 3: PURE MATHEMATICS

MATH60041 NUMBER DR A. PAL +2 -0

THEORY

• Lectures are like talkshows, Professor likes chatting (2)

• Reasonable level of di iculty
• Reasonable di iculty of coursework

• EdStem questions are not answered

MATH60035 ALGEBRA 3 DR J. +1 -4
NICHOLSON

• Content very abstract, but the professor is good at explaining (2)

• useful content, rings and modules are essential concepts for further study
• Exams very di icult (4)
• Problems have high level of di iculty
• Some parts in lecture notes and solutions to problem sheets are too brief,
no details given.

MATH60033 ALGEBRAIC DR J. LAI +2 -0

CURVES

• Many examples given, not too abstract

• vivid lectures, good lecture notes

• Very di icult
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
 MATH60036 GROUP +1 -1
PROF. M. LIEBECK
THEORY

• Interesting content, good module design

• Release of notes too slow
• exam problems not quite reasonable

MATH60132 +1 -0
PROF. D. EVANS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

• Interesting content, good module design

• Complete, coherent lecture notes (3)
• Very interesting, provides a new way to understand math logics (2)
• Professor not active, lectures bit boring (2)
• di icult content, should be good at analysis (2)

MATH60029 +2 -1
DR. P. RODRIGUEZ
FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

• clear explanations in lectures (2)

• useful content
• reasonable level of di iculty
• no typed lecture notes, only hand-written ones.
• Large amount of content
ff
ff
MATH60031 MARKOV PROF. N. +0 -1
PROCESSES BINGHAM

• messy module arrangements

• not easy to communicate with professor
• exercises given not enough
• coursework not related to module content
• many contents are covered in Applied Probability already

MATH60028 +1 -1
DR. I. KRASOVSKY
PROBABILITY THEORY
recommended reading: Durrett, Shiryaev

• good connection made with previous modules

• contents not coherent, too little exercises provided

• lectures are given in recorded videos only

MATH60040 +1 -0
PROF. K. BUZZARD
FORMALISING MATH
cw 100% module

• clear lectures, considerate for students

• professor easy to approach, very kind
 MATH60032 GEOMETRY +4 -0
DR. D. CHERAGHI
OF CURVES AND
SURFACES

• One of the more basic modules in Pure math

• professor explains contents vividly with aid of clear drawings
• good pace of learning
• provides many useful intuitions for geometry
• lecture notes complete, useful
• reasonable di iculty: learning every lecture already gives you a high mark

• Problems in Problem sheets are not enough

MATH60038 GRAPH +3 -0
PROF. A. IVANOV
THEORY

• Small amount of content, quick to learn

• Reasonable di iculty (2)
• professor very kind
• interesting content (2)

• You need to do many proofs that requires intuitions

• New notes in 2022-2023 have typos
ff
ff
MATH60042 ALGEBRAIC +1 -3
DR. A. PAL
NUMBER THEORY

• Not very useful content

• lectures are boring
• two types of lecture notes given, one simpli ied, one detailed. But simpli ied
notes is too short, detailed notes are long-winded (2)
• high level of di iculty
• requires Algebra III as preliminary

MATH60034 ALGEBRAIC +1 -1
PROF. A.
TOPOLOGY SKOROBOGATOV

• vivid teaching, good lecture notes

• Interesting content

• high level of di iculty, some places very abstract

• exam questions have di erent style to lecture notes, examinable contents
not clearly stated
• Pace of teaching too fast for the last few weeks

MATH60039 GROUP +1 -0
DR. T. SCHEDLER
REPRESENTATION THEORY

• vivid teaching, good lecture notes

• Coursework requires large amount of work

• high level of di iculty
ff
ff
ff
ff
f
f
MATH60030 FOURIER ANALYSIS +1 -0
AND THE THEORY OF DR. I. KRASOVSKY
DISTRIBUTIONS

• unique teaching style: make students write on boards

• content very useful

• closely related to functional analysis

• one of the less popular modules

MATH60037 GALOIS +2 -0
PROF. A. CORTI
THOERY

• vivid teaching, complete lecture notes (2)

• rich learning materials provided
• lecture recordings from previous years are provided to aid study

• relatively hard (2)

SECTION 4: MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS

MATH60011 CLASSICAL DR C. FORD +17 -0

DYNAMICS
essential for people studying mathematical physics. Mainly about classical
(Newton) mechanics

• Reasonable level of di iculty (7)

• Intersting, coherent module content (7)
• good learning pace
• professor well prepared (6)
• explanations are clear (5)
• Detailed lecture notes, good board writing
• reasonable amount of work (3)
• tests are consistent with practice questions, easy to get high marks (8)

MATH60001 FLUID +1 -1
PROFESSOR X.
DYNAMICS I WU

• reasonable di iculty for coursework (2)

• professor works responsibly, solutions to problem sheets are detailed

• lecture notes have no example

• explanations not clear (2)
• high level of di iculty, large amount of work
• requires understanding of physics
• many problem sheets given
• teaching pace too fast, not well-organised
ff
ff
ff
 MATH60015 QUANTUM DR. E-M. GRAEFE +5 -1
MECHANICS I
introductory level module to quantum physics

• reasonable level of di iculty, even suits beginners (3)

• interesting, rigorous teaching (2)
• lecture notes detailed (3)
• it su ices to only learn through notes
• very patient in o ice hours (2)
• professor has rich experience (has taught for 10 years) (2)
• reasonable amount of work
• learn before lectures and discuss on lectures, many chances to ask
questions
• assessed quiz every week, helpful for keeping up (2)

• you need to watch videos before lectures (2)

• hard to understand the physics meaning behind formulae without physics
background
• teaching not clear

MATH60016 SPECIAL +0 -1
RELATIVITY AND DR. G. PRUESSNER
ELECTROMAGNETISM

• Professor is kind but not good at teaching

• no typed notes, have to read a reference book
• lecture not organised well, answering student’s questions for most of the
time
• coursework, exam, lectures not consistent
• Special relativity are also covered in Tensor Calculus & General Relativity
module, this module is not a preliminary
ff
ff
ff
 MATH60002 FLUID +1 -0
DR J. MESTEL
DYNAMICS II

introduction to modern luid dynamics

• professor is very patient

• coherent lectures, good learning experience
• high level of di iculty
• preliminary: luid dynamics I

MATH60018 QUANTUM +0 -1
MECHANICS II DR. R. BARNETT

MATH60010 GEOMETRIC +0 -0
PROF. D. HOLM
MECHANICS

• professor is strong in this ield, very kind person

• interesting content

• high level of di iculty

• preliminary: Lie Algebra, Sympletic Geometry, Hamilton’s equation, Euler-
Lagrange etc.
f
ff
ff
f
f
 MATH60017 TENSOR CALCULUS
DR C. FORD +10 -0
AND GENERAL RELATIVITY

useful for people entering math physics

• good teaching, vivid explanations (3)

• professor well-prepared (2)
• reasonable amount of work
• many possible extensions/further study directions given
• clear module structure, coherent (2)
• clear lecture notes
• reasonable level of di iculty (7)

• physics meaning too abstract, not explained in lectures (3)

• you can only learn without understanding. Do more exam questions to
prepare.

BPES

BUSI60043 FINANCE AND

DR S. +1 -0
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
SUNDARESAN
suitable for people interested in inance

• coherent content, mainly qualitative understanding

• interactive classroom
• professor well-prepared
• can answer student’s questions outside lectures

• no o icial lecture notes, you need to take notes yourself

• 30% group work included
ff
ff
f