>>6368
Not him, but I've heard clearing is now a buyer's market since they lifted the cap on the number of university admissions.

>>6368
I'm not going anywhere fancy, mate. Likely the only reason I got in was because I'm vastly overqualified for the school but not enough so to even scrape into anywhere with any actual academic standing.

>>6368
You didn't apply because you thought you'd need at least A Level maths? Why didn't you just check the entry requirements? Maybe you do need to look further down the league tables.

>>6371
What gives you the impression I didn't check them? I did, at a couple dozen unis. Where do you think I got the idea that A Level maths is indeed very important? I don't see your point.

>>6373
>Where do you think I got the idea that A Level maths is indeed very important?

On the requirements for pretty much every course outside (and sometimes within) clearing. "ABB including English and Maths" and the like isn't uncommon at even supposedly shite unis.

>>6361

Any job.

>>6362
Financial advice. To get the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning you need to pass five multiple choice tests and one two hour written test which you can bullet point. The bar isn't set overly high and you can qualify in about a year or two.

Demand exceeds supply in the industry so, with a bit of report writing experience, you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to never earn less than around £25,000 -
£28,000 ever again but you can walk into a job paying up to £40,000 if you're any good at it; the highest I've heard of a Paraplanner being hired for is £55,000 and that's in Yorkshire. If you go on to be an adviser then I believe the average salary is about £90,000 but earning six figures is feasible.

>>6360
Speak of an open question, mate, and it really depends on your target income and luck.

A friend of mine got his CSCS, put in the graft for a bit and build some connections then financed his forklift license. The connections were necessary to get the required hours on a forklift to get a decent job doing that. It's a "once you have it, you're fine" kind of deal. It's a very relaxed kind of job for ~£35k.

Through a previous job (warehouse monkey in an electrical wholsalers) I met a few electricians. If you're good and get the qualification out of the way, you can do alright at £30-£40k. If you find an SMB and you are the site electrcian, expect £40-£50k while having a bunch of possibly interesting responsibiilities. Others more well versed in these industries can advise you better, I defected to IT.

>>6350

Just following up on the links you posted. These textbooks are fantastic, thank you, genuinely. If this thread is still around by the time I finish my course, I'll stick in another update then.

>>6365
Yeah, me too, thanks >>6350 - I don't know why I didn't know about libgen before, but I'm glad I do now.

>>6344

Not sure it is quite as bleak as you paint, but I mostly agree we live in an age of people being compelled to quantify their decisions so the best candidate is the one who can be most easily justified on paper rather than the one whose personality suits best.

The more public facing the institution the more true the above statement.

>>6346

I just mean that if he's on the reserve list, that means whatever decisions they do make have already been made.

To give an update, and for the sake of having double-Bugs, I'll bump to say that unfortunately it looks like I wasn't selected.

It also seems like the university is under no obligation to give me a definitive "yes" or "no", as the programme has already started and the admissions website still says I'm number X on the list.

Strange, but I'll have to live with it and continue applying to other universities ready for next year.

Onward and upward, lads.

>>6375

As it turns out, I was offered a place on a very similar programme by the same university. Whether this was down to my persistence, I don't know.

Never give up hope, I guess.

>>6376

Nice one la. Have fun!

What's wrong with Jstor?

Well last time I checked Google scholar was good for showing what's available without a licence

There's that subreddit where people exchange journal articles.

Also libgen.

And then there's this http://aaaaarg.fail/

>>6338

Everything is available without a license. Just copy the DOI and paste it here:

https://sci-hub.tw/

For health related stuff, PubMed and UpToDate are fine sources of information, as long as you read a bit about the structure and flaws of our current methodology for clinical trials so you know how to pick out potential bollocks.

Thing is with journals, they're often so mind-bogglingly specific you'd probably be best off saying what your exact interests are.

>>6325
Dunno how it compares to the usual but I was told there were around 1500 applicants for 90 places.

Holy shit. I fucking did it, lads. They accepted me unconditionally. I'm ecstatic.

>>6327
Good on that man, purpz activate the confetti!

>>6330
Thank you, bro. I know people were saying Uni isn't everything but I've been searching for my passion for years and finding a way out of my current situation. To find that and then be accepted to my dream uni is quite frankly, fucking unreal. Y

>>6327
Well done ladm8!!

>>6311

You might as well ask how a collection of cells makes a person? Seemingly impossible tasks are just a series of possible tasks put together.

>>6311
But that's my point about needing to find a reason to do it - the point of entry is thinking "this is a problem I want to solve" - in the early days of learning programming you have to contrive that. With practice, you'll create more complex systems that actually solve a real problem and if you can keep doing that, you will be a real programmer who earns money doing this, solving other peoples actual problems.

What is the most popular word over five letters used on .gs? How many minutes per month do you spend here?
You have a folder on your computer full of images, music and text files - how would you create a simple way of browsing them?
Your hobby is bird watching, how would you create a database that records what you observe, with images?
Your local kids football club needs a way of managing all their players and statistics for games
You and your mates play the same video game every Friday - how do you record the scores and performance every week to create a league table?
You setup a webcam that points out your front window - create me a simple HTML page you view in a browser that shows all the colours of the different cars that pass by? Bonus points - you recognise all the number plates.

I don't know what the fuck you're interested in, but whatever it is, you can create programs to help you. Start on that path, initially they will be contrived and fake, but with practice, they will become real.

>>6313

> Your local kids football club needs a way of managing all their players and statistics for games

Now then, now then.

>>6311

If you've already completed an introductory course in programming, I'd recommend Codewars. It's a series of real-world programming problems presented a bit like a puzzle game. You complete each "level" when the code you've written passes a set of pre-determined tests. Once you've solved some of these problems, you should start to see how your skills can be used to solve real problems.

https://www.codewars.com/

If you haven't completed a beginner's course, then pick a good one that's based on practical project-based learning. For example, Udacity's Intro to Computer Science course teaches you how to build a basic search engine and social network using Python. Other courses structure their teaching around games or mobile apps. Learning how to break down an apparently insurmountable problem into lots of little chunks is arguably the most important skill in software development.

https://eu.udacity.com/course/intro-to-computer-science--cs101

>>6313

>How many minutes per month do you spend here?

Well that's got to be my first 'solo' project for sure. I don't think I truly want to know, mind.

I do appreciate the way you talk about this stuff, though, it definitely inspires me, for lack of a less poncy word. Expect a few related question posts sneakily targeted at you over the coming few months.

>>6266

You need to talk to your GP mate.

>>6266
You're too thick to go to university, and thats saying something.

>>6267

"Do some exercise, and here's a prescription for some tenner a pop pills, but only if you beg and repeatedly state how suicidal you are. We don't want to be helping you before you're absolutely, positively, irreversibly at rock bottom."

>>6268

No, I'm plainly too angry to apply for university. It's a totally different set of circumstances, idiot.

>>6269

Go back and keep going back until you get the treatment you need. GPs aren't psychic - if they prescribe something and don't see from you again, they assume that the prescription worked.

May have gotten a bit wound up last night, my mistake.

>>6248

This is because you come across as a retard.

>>6250
If doing a graduate degree in math looks retarded to you, you must be doing some really groundbreaking quantitative research my snaggletoothed friend

>>6251
Go away, do some basic research, and then come back with a thread whereby you don't have to lob insults and rely on bits of paper to give anyone the impression you're not retarded.

>>6252
I actually did all that but the userbase felt like pretending I hadn't

If you were hoping it'd make you look smart...

>>6253

Jesus Christ. You are the reason America is going down the shitter. All hail our Chinese overlords!

The main problem I have with economics isn't that the models are inaccurate, it's that the models are implemented by financiers and politicians who have zero appreciation for their context as nice but ultimately useless mathematical formulae. These people cherry-pick the economics models that fit their agenda, sing them as gospel and subsequently refuse to acknowledge any evidence or alternative models that prove them wrong.

It's not the science itself, but the people who misuse it. Now that I think about it, this is a good argument in OP's favour. People won't see through the bullshit unless they are taught to.

>>6143
I get what you're saying, but really only in particular sciences such as terrestrial physics, chemistry, materials science and cell biology can phenomena be practically isolated in a lab. Once you get to say evolutionary biology, environmental science, geology, astrophysics, cosmology or parts of sociology phenomena cannot be isolated in this way, yet they are for the most part still considered sciences because they follow the scientific method.

Fundamentally, the argument over whether economics is a science or not depends on how it is approached - if it is approached using the scientific method, it is by definition a science. If it is approached in other ways, it isn't.

I did a GCSE in economics and have since discovered that most of it was total bollocks. Economics is little more than numerical theology, and anyone who disagrees is the economic equivalent of the religious cunts in this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gm9hoTw6Y

Yes. Good,

>>6135g

My brother has a PhD in economics from the top-ranked Econ department in the country (last time I checked).

In America it's mandatory for anyone in business/engineering and I think mathematics.
What's interesting about Econ to me is how quickly it gets extremely mathematical. It's cool, uses a ton of theoretical math that no one besides physicists care to use. But for that reason I don't think it should be taught to everyone. Technical concepts ain't everyone's bag and it can get misconstrued (like it often is in my country).
I think statistics would be a much more worthwhile subject to make mandatory for everyone and I don't know why it's not. Econometrics is just statistics after all, so i think it would help people interpret information much more wisely.

>>6229
Become an impressionist.

It's mostly about learning to listen to yourself. Have you ever noticed that your voice sounds weird on a recording? People are often shocked or embarrassed by what their voice actually sounds like. We tend not to pay much attention to the sounds coming out of our mouth, because we're busy concentrating on what we're about to say next. You can't use your voice effectively if you're not really listening to it, so that's what you need to practice first and foremost.

Use the voice recorder app on your phone. Start off by recording whatever comes to mind in your normal speaking voice, then listening back. Describe your day, tell an anecdote, list the contents of your fridge. Do this for a while until you're used to the sound of your own voice. Pay attention to your own speech. How would you describe your accent to a foreigner? Which sounds are most characteristic of your accent? What aspects of your voice are unique?

Listen to a recording of the accent you'd like to learn and practise imitating one short sentence at a time. Record and play back your attempt, listening carefully to each consonant and vowel sound. Hone in on any syllables that sound wrong, comparing the recording you're imitating with the recording of your own attempt. Pay attention to the movements of your mouth and tongue as you speak. Write out sentences phonetically and take notes on the patterns you identify in the accent. If you're particularly dedicated, learn the International Phonetic Alphabet.

>>6229

Study linguistics. In particular phonology. and practice the different associated sounds. Essentially there are huge differences in how different accents make sounds to say the same words that we take for granted. British English is actually amazingly varied for this in a way American accents aren't. Once you understand how the sound is differently made depending on who says it for the exact same word, you can analyses and imitate it better.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvIwkL8oLc

>>6232
>>6231
Good stuff, thanks lads.

>>6230
I've said this before, but my favourite impressionist moment was Jon Culshaw on the One Show. He was surprising a woman in a call centre by pretending to be Alan Carr. He snuck up behind her for the big reveal and the disappointment on her face when she saw it was him instead of Carr will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Roehampton and SOAS.

>>6213
I'm doing postgrad at Cumbria. There's a lad on my course who did undergrad at Roehampton and they said "Roehampton is one of the shittest unis in the country but it's still loads better than this shithole".

Finished my masters degree in Oxford couple of months ago. To be honest, in terms of education it really fell short of what I was expecting, same with the quality of the student body (should've realised something was off when they let me in). The city is nice though, and a nice place to be in as a student.

Can't provide a good view of other unis as I'm a foreignlad and don't know much. Except that I'm supposed to talk shit about Cambridge from now on.

Manchester massive represent

>>6226
I have a m8 at Oxfam currently doing a master's and from what I gather it's a really strange place.

>>6226
I always find it odd when the world's top professors in various areas congregate in Cambridge, Oxford, wherever and people expect them to do quality teaching.

>>6216
Oh thanks! I wasn't aware.

>>6219
I was checking out ebay and came across roll-up keyboards that can plug into a USB slot. They cost about £35. I don't want to blow over £60ish on something I don't know how to play.

I can't pin down my own music taste, it is too varied. Classical, Bluegrass, film scores, Disco, House, Hip-hop, Rap, Pop, Rock from the 80s and 70s, obscure mashup (like Future Funk) producers on soundcloud and bandcamp, etc.

I thought about getting a second hand guitar, but I think the keyboard is probably the best.

>>6220
Any USB keyboards are likely to just be controllers, so you'd need to install software on your computer to actually produce the sound output for headphones. A quick google suggests that the following might help: http://www.synthfont.com/links_to_soundfonts.html.

If you'd rather just get a self-contained keyboard, then I'd suggest looking up some Casio ones. They tend to be cheaper than the other dominant brand, Yamaha, and though not typically as full-featured would be fine for basic learning/practice.

>>6220
>I was checking out ebay and came across roll-up keyboards that can plug into a USB slot. They cost about £35.
That'd be a waste of £35, the roll-up thing is a novelty. You should be able to find a passable keyboard with "expression" (responds accordingly to the pressure at which you hit the keys, like a real piano would) for around the same if you dig around some second-hand shops, over the coming months especially, as people do the post-Christmas "you need to get rid of that old thing"/spring clean toss-out. There are a lot of keyboards out there, and you'd be hard pressed to find one without a headphone socket. (Exceptions include the aforementioned MIDI keyboard, which is just an input device, or at the other end something like a full-size electric piano, which you won't find for £35). Assuming you've got the space to store one, it shouldn't be difficult to find something cheap to mess around with, and whatever you decide you don't like about it will probably be as valuable as what you learn on it.

>>6220

USB keyboards don't work well unless you also buy an audio interface. The problem is that ordinary soundcards have quite a lot of latency, so there's a delay between pressing a key on the keyboard and hearing sound from the computer. More than about 40ms of latency is basically unplayable, but most built-in soundcards have about 250ms of latency. Macs are the exception to this.

The roll-up keyboards are absolutely hopeless. You can buy a perfectly playable USB controller keyboard for about £60 - an Alesis Q49 or Acorn Masterkey would fit the bill. The cheapest usable audio interface is the Behringer UCA222, which costs about £25.

Using a controller keyboard and an audio interface is a big faff if you just want to play the keyboard, but it does open up the world of audio production. If you're willing to invest the time in learning, this route would allow you to compose and record music using software synthesisers and samplers. I'm happy to advise on the basics of computer-based music production if this interests you.

If you just want to play the keyboard, have a look on eBay for a Casio or Yamaha keyboard. You'll find plenty around the £60 mark. If you're at all serious about learning piano then you'll outgrow one of these keyboards fairly quickly, but they're a decent starting point. Look for something with full-size keys; If you can find something with "velocity sensitivity" or "touch sensitivity" at that price, all the better.

>>6220
One thing I will say as you mentioned the possibility of getting a guitar: if you get an electric, you can buy headphone-only amps very cheaply from most music stores or online. Guitar itself will typically be a bit more of an investment but might be worth bearing in mind if you spot anything second hand you fancy trying.

Just some suggestions from a fellow humanities graduate lad:

-Most big firms like KPMG/PWC hire tax people and similar roles from any degree background as long as you can pass the maths tests
-Same with the Treasury jobs and schemes
-Same with most banks - JP Morgan hire analysts with literally any degree as do most, including the Bank of England

You also might be better off doing a masters. Have you tried using your skills to get into communications? Money isn't amazing, but it's better than that once you get going and all you do is write press releases all day, which after the first few, are just copy and paste jobs.

Thanks for your replies, some good options there I hadn't thought of before.

>>6192
A maths degree should open your options up a lot more. I recently graduated with a degree in maths and I'm now working in risk management for a major airline. However, I would not recommend starting a three year degree now just to improve your career prospects a bit unless you have a very specific goal in mind.

If you are considering teaching then do NOT start a three year degree right now. There are a few ways you could go about this but getting into teaching does not require you to have a degree specific to your subject. The degree that you have will suffice to get onto a PGCE course, all you will then have to do is demonstrate subject knowledge, which the maths A-level should go a long way towards, although many institutions may require something more, this could involve tests on interview day or a more extensive subject knowledge enhancement course. Either way, none of these options will be anywhere near as intensive as a three year degree and will result in you becoming a qualified teacher within a year or two. Teacher starting salaries are around £23k but they rise pretty quickly, and with career progression you could be looking at £30k within a few years and £40k+ within 7 or 8 years. You will also be in heavy demand as a maths teacher. Also your PGCE training year will grant you a huge bursary that only seems to be rising each year, it's something to look into.

Just for the record I don't think you should go into teaching unless you're sure it's what you want to do, I've seen too many people ruin themselves with a career that isn't right for them and teaching is one of the prime suspects. But at the same time, for many people it is incredibly rewarding.

What's your CV since uni? How useless was the degree?

I'm not sure doing a maths degree would necessarily change a huge amount, I would instead advise doing it part time with the Open University if it's something you're set on.

>>6198

>Teacher starting salaries are around £23k but they rise pretty quickly, and with career progression you could be looking at £30k within a few years and £40k+ within 7 or 8 years.

I am currently on £25k (which I know is pretty good especially up north). I like the idea of teaching but doesn't seem worth it for the hours. I currently earn £25k for 9-5 Monday - Friday. As a teacher £35k for 8-6 Monday - Friday (if i'm lucky) with additional work on the weekends doesn't seem great.


>>6210

Management mostly, some private sector but currently in public sector (HMRC).

I went to Reading and loved it. Close enough to the rural bits for bike rides and rowing while keeping fast train connection home to the smoke. Plus the careers centre and other student support services there are absolutely fantastic.

>>6202
>in the sun

Not very useful when the undergrad year runs from late September to May-June is it though?

>>6206
Summer is the middle couple of weeks in October these days.

>>6204
Well English is full of little weird things that you just get used to and they only seem weird when you actually think about them. I doubt your example is a one off.

>>6204>>6208
Using "off" in that way is particular to Britain, not English in general. There's quite a lengthy discussion to be found here:
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=179067