santos123:
how much did you embezzle after you got the post?

BluntTheApostle:
For me, it was differential geometry.

I studied everything from Lagrangian mechanics and Hamiltonian mechanics all in a bid to apply this aspect of mathematics.

I thought I had mastered some of its many convoluted subtopics, but when I saw the questions, I went blank. I was never one to ask for help in the exam hall, I proceeded to answer the questions I could, and left with the hope that I would be favored, and given at least an E (let my people go).

When the results came out, I got an F. I saw my F, and cold catch me.

Being a first class candidate, I was broken. I could not eat nor socialize for some time. My close friends, all of whom carried the course as well, tried to cheer me up. They were not chasing first class, so they didn't bother themselves as much as I did.

Fast-forward to the day I retook the course. I had never been as scared of writing a paper as I was of retaking differential geometry.

Naturally, this course is one of the hardest in mathematics, maybe to people like me whose mastery is in applied mathematics. Even now that I am a mathematician, with solid interest in the mathematics of space, I still find differential geometry a hard nut, although not as always when I was an undergraduate.

Anyway, my hand shook almost throughout the exam. But I didn't find it as difficult as when I did it the first time. But the anxiety was there. The fear that if I failed this course again, I would have an extra year. This fear did not allow me calm down. But I managed to answer many of the questions.

When the result came out, I had an A.

In the end, I graduated with a first class.

Good day. I don't know of you will reply this mention, but I still haavego ask anyway. Do you mind sharing any important tips for a prospective Applied mathematics students, who intends to make a first?

The5DME:
Good day. I don't know of you will reply this mention, but I still haavego ask anyway. Do you mind sharing any important tips for a prospective Applied mathematics students, who intends to make a first?

I don't really have any important tips, though.

In my first year, our seniors gave many tips: 14 hours straight reading, practise, bla bla.

My own tip is to know what you want from mathematics.

I didn't go to study mathematics primarily to make first class. In fact, it was in my 3rd year, first semester that I began to bother about finishing with first class.

I went to study mathematics because I wanted to develop my critical thinking skill. Pure mathematics helped me become a better thinker. It also helped me to be able to apply mathematics better than just merely calculating and enjoying it which was what pre-university mathematics was.

So, I don't really have any important tips.

I did a lot of practice. It took weeks getting into concepts.

I read wide beyond the curriculum, reading a whole lot about mathematicians like Pythagoras, Pascal, and many others.

Just study hard, do your homeworks, prepare well for tests and exams. Practise what you have learned. Try to apply concepts to real world.

For example, the Richter scale (for measuring earthquakes) is an example of applying logarithm. Understanding the link between the logarithmic function and the magnitude of earthquakes will make you a better mathematician.

And that was what I wanted to be when I applied to study mathematics. And I achieved it.

The first clasd degree is just like a bonus.