Not long now

It has been over a month since I last posted anything here and I thought it was time for an update. The course itself is drawing to a close as, by now, we should have finished all the coursework (bar the last two TMA's). As such I am beginning to feel that slight frisson of anxiety about the impending exam in October and it is starting to get me interested in past papers.

One of the things I did do in the last week or so was to read through the specimen exam paper carefully and see if there were questions that I didn't know how to approach. This was quite useful as it highlighted some holes in my knowledge about infinite quotient groups, which I have since rectified. Also, if there are methods which I suddenly think to myself "how the hell do you do that again" I have been looking them up and adding yet more examples and notes to my handbook. One of these was the counting theorem which I would like to get off pat before the exam and I think I will have to test myself with some examples.

Generally things are going ok. I am keeping up my 100% score on the TMA's which keeps me happy and I am still ploughing on with the further questions in the course text. I stopped doing these at random and instead went for the more consistent approach of tackling a block at a time. I have done about half the questions now and they keep highlighting areas where the material hasn't sunk in very far. Strangely enough, the material I feel most comfortable with is analysis as I think I have a good feel for what's involved. Some parts of group theory and linear algebra still have the ability to cause me problems. Ideally, when I get to the exam, I would like to feel that there was no part of the paper that I couldn't do, so that it gives me confidence right from the start. I think my game plan for the first 12 questions will be to do them in order as I did in MS221. It will mean I can avoid wasting time deciding which to do first. I can't wait until around mid September when I will start doing the past papers properly and really testing out my knowledge.