Prepare for University

Stage: 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

This page is for anyone about to embark on a degree course in science or engineering.

Firstly, congratulations and good luck!

Secondly, you should not underestimate the level of mathematics and mathematical thinking involved in a typical science or engineering degree. Being well-prepared mathematically can make all of the difference between a smooth and a rocky start.

To help, we have collected a set of problems to work through which will cover the main mathematical skills required in a typical degree course. These are more than just a collection of A-level problems and have been chosen to cover the mathematical overlaps between school and university.

Working through these not only will help to get your brain working at tip-top performance, but might also highlight a few areas where you might benefit from a little extra preparation!

Simply choose from the subjects below, arm yourself with a pencil, paper and spreadsheet and off you go


If you want some help getting started, each problem has solutions and hints. Of course, there is often a lot of overlap between disciplines at university, so you might want to try problems from $2$ or $3$ areas. They are taken from our main stemNRICH pages, where many more problems can be found.

You might also benefit from our article on core university study skills and also the record of one sixth former who spent a summer working through the problems from the stemNRICH site.



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