4. The First Year

 

The first year course is run as a joint venture with the Statistics Department. The official first year syllabus for the Preliminary Examination for 2025/26 is set out online at https://courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/. The lecture courses form a coordinated programme, ensuring full and careful coverage, avoiding unnecessary duplication to help you prepare for the examinations.

4.1 The Lecture Courses

The lecture courses in the first year are as follows:

Michaelmas Term

  • Introduction to University Mathematics 2 lectures
  • Introduction to Complex Numbers 2 lectures
  • Linear Algebra I 14 lectures
  • Analysis I 15 lectures
  • Introductory Calculus 16 lectures
  • Probability 16 lectures
  • Geometry 15 lectures

Hilary Term

  • Linear Algebra II 8 lectures
  • Groups and Group Actions 8 lectures
  • Analysis II 16 lectures
  • Dynamics 16 lectures
  • Fourier Series and Partial Differential Equations 16 lectures
  • Multivariable Calculus 16 lectures
  • Computational Mathematics 8 lectures

Trinity Term

  • Groups and Group Actions 8 lectures
  • Analysis III 8 lectures
  • Statistics and Data Analysis 16 lectures
4.2 The Computational Mathematics Course

In addition to the written papers for Prelims, students reading Mathematics or Mathematics & Statistics are required to follow a compulsory computing course “Computational Mathematics”. This course has been devised to acquaint mathematicians with the use of computers as an aid to learning about mathematics, and to give access to a useful mathematical software package. Please refer to the online course manual for further information.

The course is computer-based and uses the Python programming language. You may access the system through college or individual computers; for the former you should consult the computing support at your own college. Python may be installed and used on personally-owned computers. Further details on how to install Python are available at https://www.python.org/downloads/. Practicals are held in the Mathematical Institute and you will need to bring a laptop. Please make sure you install Python on your laptop in plenty of time. If you do not have a laptop you will be able to borrow one for the practicals from the Institute, please contact Academic Admin as soon as possible (academic.administration@maths.ox.ac.uk). 

The course is divided into two parts, one part in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms. The Michaelmas term work consists of preparatory work. Four practicals of two hours each are timetabled and you will be emailed the times of your college’s practical sessions. In Hilary term you work on two projects. The marks for these projects count for 1/11th of your Prelims grade. Candidates shall only be deemed to have passed the Preliminary Examination if they have satisfied the Moderators in all five examination papers and the practical assessment. Therefore, candidates who do not obtain an overall USM of 40 or above for their projects will be required to resit them. Details on submitting your project work will be provided in the course manual and notice to candidates. There are also 8 lectures for Computational Mathematics in Hilary term.

Students transferring into Mathematics from any other subject will still be expected to submit two projects (but may be granted extensions to deadlines).

These projects must be your own unaided work; you will be asked to make a declaration to this effect when you submit them. The University and Mathematical Institute regard plagiarism as a serious issue. Any attempt to submit another’s work as your own or to make use of published sources without explicit reference to them will be regarded as an infringement of University’s code concerning academic integrity. Your attention is drawn to
the Student Handbook (incorporating the Proctors’ and Assessor’s Memorandum), Section 7.7, “Plagiarism” which covers all forms of assessment https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/student-handbook.

It is important to observe the deadlines for submitting your Computational Mathematics projects. Projects will be announced in week 6 of Hilary term. For 2025/26 the deadlines are:

  • 1st project: 12 noon on Tuesday of week 2, Trinity term
  • 2nd project: 12 noon on Tuesday of week 5, Trinity term

If you are unable to meet the above deadlines you may ask your college to apply for permission to submit late. Where there is a valid reason, approval would normally be granted and no penalty applied to the marks. The scale of penalties agreed by the board of examiners in relation to late submissions of projects, without an accepted reason, is set out below.


Late Submission Tariff

  • Up to 4 hours = 1%
  • 4-24 hours = 10%
  • 24–48 hours = 20%
  • 48–72 hours = 30%
  • 72 hours-14 days = 35%
  • More than 14 calendar days after the notice of non-submission = Fail

Note: The penalty will be a percentage reduction of the maximum total mark available for the work. For example, if a 10% penalty is applied to an assessment given a USM out of 100 then 10 marks would be deducted. The final mark awarded after application of the penalty cannot be below 0. Failure to submit a required element of assessment, without an accepted reason, will result in the failure of the assessment. In this case, the mark for any resit of the assessment will be capped at a pass.

4.3 Important Dates

Below is a summary of important dates in the first year:

Michaelmas Term
Friday 10th October, 2pm: Undergraduate Induction
Monday 13th October (week 1): Michaelmas term lectures begin
Monday 27th October (week 3): Computational Mathematics practical sessions begin
Friday 5th December (week 8): Michaelmas term lectures end

Hilary Term
Monday 19th January (week 1): Hilary term lectures begin
Friday 27th February (week 6): Computational Mathematics projects announced
Friday 13th March: Hilary term lectures end

Trinity Term
Monday 27th April (week 1): Trinity term lectures begin
Tuesday 5th May, 12 noon (week 2): Submission deadline for first Computational Mathematics project
Friday 22nd May (week 4): Prelims preparation lecture and Trinity term lectures end
Tuesday 26th May, 12 noon (week 5): Submission deadline for second Computational Mathematics project
Monday 22nd June (week 9): Provisional start date for the Prelims examinations
Friday 26th June (week 9): Provisional end date for the Prelims examinations