Get your maths right

Updated on: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mathematics is about logical thought and reasoning and higher studies in the same requires a sound base in the subject besides analytical skills.

Students who entered the university in or after the year 2009 and opted for mathematics honours as an undergraduate , irrespective of their choice of electives, shall attain a BSc honours in mathematics. This is unlike earlier, when students who chose their electives from the humanities stream were conferred the degree, BA honours in mathematics and students with electives from the science stream, obtained a BSc honours in mathematics.

A common degree does attract more students to opt for mathematics, especially in colleges that do not offer science courses. Mathematics as a subject entails a lot of academic rigour. Hence, some students, especially those with a science background, felt that the kind of investment of time that the subject demanded merited a BSc degree.

Though essentially psychological, the fact that this problem existed cannot be dismissed. But with this very positive aspect of choosing a career in maths also came the new syllabus and a new approach with the number of papers spanning all three years becoming three, four and five. While earlier each paper carried a maximum marks of 50, now it is 100. The scores of the credit courses are totalled with the marks secured in the mathematics papers to determine the final-year score. The new course also lays emphasis on teaching mathematical concepts in a computing environment. In other words, some topics within specific mathematics papers shall be taught through computer-aided software.

New syllabus

Another significant change in terms of the new syllabus was that the final year offered only one optional paper whereas earlier, there were two optional papers. And now as we enter the academic session 2011-2012 another major change especially in terms of the examination system has been introduced and that changes things in a significant way both for faculty and students. Even though the bridge between pure and applied mathematics, as also the intellectual and pragmatic , is getting significantly reduced and certain changes are welcome, the rigour becomes almost two-fold .
But the course content in the earlier optional papers of number theory, linear programming and discrete mathematics is almost the same even though the time allotted to the teaching of these papers in the semester mode has been brought down to 50%. The other annual-mode papers are more or less divided into two parts and distributed over different semesters. However, the practical content in some papers like calculus and differential equations has gone up and would carry 150 marks instead of 100 as the other papers do.

Sound understanding

For students, most of who are day-scholars there would be no scope for relaxation as the commuting time and distances lead to an inherent fatigue factor. Mathematical concepts need time to be absorbed especially the abstract ones which are distinguished by their rigour. Absorption at a superficial level and memorising theorems without a sound understanding of concepts proves disastrous.

The syllabus and the semester system would match the same in most premier universities and students successfully qualifying for the honours course would definitely have an edge over others besides having more options of pursuing different avenues at the postgraduate level. At the same time students opting to major in the subject must make sure of their reasoning skills, aptitude, knack to absorb and assimilate analytical concepts and their earlier sound grounding in mathematics.

Times of India

Get your maths right

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