duringthesemester

Useful videos about life at Heriot-Watt

Dates	Activities
16th September to 6th December	Semester 1 teaching
9th December to 20th December	Exams
23rd December to 10th January	Christmas holidays
13th January to 3rd April	Semester 2 teaching
6th April to 24th April	Easter holidays
27th April to 22nd May	Exams
TBA	First-year Progression Board
6th to 14th August	Resits
TBA	Resit Progression Board

Maths Department website

University v. School

The are a number of differences between university and school. But the most important one is that you are expected, without being told, to do whatever work is necessary in your time to follow the courses you are taking. As a rule of thumb, for each hour spent in a lecture you can expect to do two hours of private study on average.

Progression into the second year

This is not automatic: if you do not meet the required minimum standards you will not be allowed to continue studying mathematics.

You can find the details in the links above but put simply you need a minimum of 6 grade D's and 2 grade E's and you need at least D's in any courses that are prerequisites for the second year. Grades E and F are fail grades: the only difference between them is that grade E carries credit whereas grade F doesn't. If you get any E's you might need resits whereas if you get any F's you will need resits.

All teaching support takes place in Semesters 1 and 2. Staff are not required to teach students over the summer in order to coach them on the resits. This means that if you miss tutorials and lectures in those semesters, then you have missed them for good.

Attendance

You are expected to attend all lectures and tutorials and to carry out any assignments: that's what you signed up for when you enrolled. If you are frequently absent, I shall want to know why. If your reasons are not satisfactory then you can be excluded from the exams.

Illness

Taking the odd day off due to illness is not a problem and you certainly don't need to inform me when you are away with the flu. But if an illness (or anything else) begins to get in the way of your studies then you do have to tell me about it. I will need written evidence from you if you wish to cite illness (or anything else) as a reason for poor performance in an exam or test. However, please note that this information is used to, for example, give you an extra chance at an exam; it is not used to enable you to progress without showing evidence that you can do the key courses.

VISION

This is a Virtual Learning Environment, where it is the environment which is virtual not the learning. You will have access to this via Desktop the University's computer system. Essentially, for each course you take all the information about that course will be found on a set of specially constructed pages that you can access both here and at home.

Careers

Graduate level jobs usually require at least an upper second class degree and in addition will require evidence of other skills. The Mathematics Department has close links with the Careers Service here at Heriot-Watt and even during your first year there are things you can be doing to enhance yourn CV. Developing these skills is part of the Problem-solving course in the second semester.

Class representatives

Two such representatives are needed to attend meetings of the staff/student committee.

MACS undergraduate common room

As a student in this School, you have free access to the so-called Learning Zone on the first floor of the building that joins on to Colin Maclaurin.
Some students think this is only for CS students --- it's not: it's for all MACS students. You can use this for relaxation, working alone, or working in groups. Don't forget that there are also quiet study areas in the Library.