What Are the Key Requirements and Areas of Study for Math & Physics Degrees?

[BadlyAddicted]

Hi guys. I have just started 6th form, meaning that in 1.5 years I'll be starting university and will have to choose a major. At 6th form, I choose Pure Math and Computing at Advanced Level and I choose Physics at intermediate level. However after a couple of weeks at school I'm realising that I choose subjects that I'm really good at rather than subjects that I really really love. So I'm regretting that i didn't choose Physics at A-level instead of Computing and the head of the school didn't allow me to change subjects. Anyway, fortunately, the University that i'd like to go to has these requirements for a course in B.Sc Math & Physics: It says that you need a grade C or better in A-level Pure Math and a Grade C or better in intermediate physics at least. So part of the problem is solved.

Now I've decided to study the A-level syllabus on my own, just to make sure that if i take the B.Sc Math & Physics course at Uni, i won't find physics too hard. However I won't have any certificate showing that i studied it which is part of the reason why I'm writing this thread.

Lets say i get a B.Sc in Math and Physics, if I want a to get a Masters degree somewhere abroad, i will only need to present that certificate, right? I won't be needing to present the A-levels i got.. i mean the B.Sc certificate would surely be more valuable.

2nd question is, i really want to know what areas of math and physics one could study. One of my biggest wishes is to expirement and discover new stuff, play with some high tech gadgets and solve real world problems or explain nature using complex math and physics. If you can, please don't just tell me atomic physics for example.. instead give me some specifics. I apreciate a lot. thank you!

 

[Asphodel]

At 6th form, I choose Pure Math and Computing at Advanced Level and I choose Physics at intermediate level.

See, this is why American high schools suck so much.

However I won't have any certificate showing that i studied it which is part of the reason why I'm writing this thread.

After you get a B.Sc, is anyone going to care what you did before that? Not unless they're writing you biography, and even then probably not. Even now, university admissions isn't going to care what you did in school when you were learning arithmetic and letters, right?

what areas of math and physics one could study. One of my biggest wishes is to expirement and discover new stuff, play with some high tech gadgets and solve real world problems or explain nature using complex math and physics.

Usually one waits on that kind of specialization until the graduate level, but many schools have a strong undergraduate research program. You may want to look at getting a lab position once you get there. Math research tends to involve fewer gadgets, though.

 

[ice109]

See, this is why American high schools suck so much.

i thought the british school system was having a crisis? what does advanced pure math and computing even mean at the secondary level? calculus and c++ programming? somehow i doubt he's over there proving the poincare conjecture

 

[PowerIso]

i thought the british school system was having a crisis? what does advanced pure math and computing even mean at the secondary level? calculus and c++ programming? somehow i doubt he's over there proving the poincare conjecture

Yea, Perelman is to busy not publishing the proof.