Supervisions: Work to Do

Instructions

• For each supervision you need to do the work from the table below, and hand it in according to these instructions in advance of the supervision.
• There's advice on the advice page if you want it.
• If anything is unclear, please e-mail me on mds51@cam.ac.uk.
• Directions to the room are here. Remember to bring a copy of the question sheet with you to supervisions.
• If you'd like to re-arrange the time of your supervision you must ask me one week in advance. For anyone who is wondering whether this applies to them, I explain at tedious length at the bottom of this page.

  Work to Do: Michaelmas Term 2026

  I normally update this table on Tuesday evenings.

  Date of Supervision	Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
  	(Course A)	(Course B)
  12th-17th October	No work set.		No supervision this week.
  19th-24th October	All questions from sections A and B on the question sheet, except that you may omit A1 and A3 if you like.	Questions A1, A3, A4, A5, A7, A8, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B10, B11, and B13.	Questions 1-9 (optionally omitting 6).	Questions 1-6.
  26th-31st October	Sections C, D, and E.	C1(iv), {C3(ii) or X2}*, C4, C5(i, ii, iii), C7, C9, C10, C12, D1, D2, E2, E3, E4, F1(b, e, g, h).	Questions 10-14, omitting 11, from the first problem sheet, and questions 1-8, omitting 3, from the second problem sheet. (Or as many of these as possible once the second problem sheet is issued.)	Questions 7-12.
  2nd-7th November
  9th-14th November
  16th-21st November
  23rd-28th November
  30th November - 5th December

  General notes

  Where to find the questions

  • Resources for IA Nat. Sci. maths are on Moodle, and resources for Physics are on TiS.
  • If there are more questions on the examples sheet than I set, then you are welcome to do the extra ones; I'm happy to mark them.
  • For maths B supervisions, in some cases I've given a choice of questions in {curly braces}. This means you've got a choice of either a regular question or an X question. The X questions are to be found on this extra question sheet. They are only there in case you are really keen for an extra challenge: if not, stick to the choices from the lecturer's question sheet. (You can also try some of the X questions that aren't in the table if you want...)

  Computational questions in IB Physics A

  These questions are just as important as the algebraic ones. You need to be able to set up computational models. Furthermore, these questions illustrate important physics. I'd recommend Python, but you can use any language you like. Many of the questions can even be done with just a spreadsheet given a bit of determination.

  I only need to see the output graphs and your comments. If possible, submit this all on paper with the rest of your work, by printing the graphs out. But if it's inconvenient for you to print them out, you can e-mail the graphs to me instead, naming the files with a name that includes your crsid.

  I don't need to see your code if it works. If you can't get it to do anything useful, and it's in Python, you can send it to me by e-mail, along with any error messages you're getting, and I'll try to work out what's wrong with it. I'm not debugging languages other than Python; if you use them, you'll have to fix the problems yourself.

  What I will mark

  • I will only mark work from the course question sheets, attempts at questions from the extension sheet, and work set in the tables above. The work set will include some questions from past tripos papers over the holidays.
  • I will not mark other past papers, or anything else. However, if you want to check your method for specific past-paper questions, or talk about how to approach questions from anywhere else, then bring them along with you to a supervision, and if we have time we can go through them.

  Re-arranging supervisions

  I'm happy to re-arrange supervisions for almost any reason, providing that I have a week's notice. This means that you need to talk to me about it in the previous supervision (i.e. the supervision before the one that you want to rearrange), when all of the affected people are in the same place.

  There's no need to read the rest of this section unless you are looking to re-arrange a supervision with less than a week's notice.

  Sometimes students ask me to re-arrange their supervisions by e-mail, giving me less than a week's notice. The trouble with this is that it requires a number of e-mails to establish a possible alternative time that all three or four people affected can make, and sometimes for me to book a room. This series of e-mails usually takes a few days, by which point some possible rearranged times have already been and gone, and during which I have to allow not only for my regular timetable and the time of the rearranged supervision, but also for a number of hypothetical timetables based on rearrangements that might never happen. This is inconvenient, and if several students are asking for such rearrangements at once, can become impossible. And I don't think it fair to provide a flexibility to some students that I can't give to everyone. Furthermore, I consider that providing a reasonable amount of notice for rearranging supervisions is a basic level of professionalism with regard to their academic commitments that can reasonably be expected of students. Therefore I shall not re-arrange any supervision with less than a week's notice except for academic or health reasons.

  • In particular, I will not rearrange supervisions with less than a week's notice if the reason is...
    • rowing, even the "bumps". (If you're going to take part in a race whose exact time isn't set until shortly beforehand, then find out before the previous week's supervision all of the times that it could be. I can then try to find a time that doesn't clash with any of them.)
    • any other sport.
    • music, drama, or social events.
    • routine family visits.
    • a reason that you choose not to specify, even if you hint darkly at forces beyond your control.
    • another supervisor wanting to teach you in what is usually my slot, unless someone can explain to me why their time is so very much more valuable than mine.
    • an academic commitment that you have known about for long enough to give me a week's notice, but had forgotten about. (If you think that this is likely to be a problem, then e-mail me at least nine days before the supervision you want to rearrange, and I'll take on the responsibility of remembering to rearrange it at the proper time.)
    • anything else not listed below.
  • I may make re-arrangements at short notice if...
    • you are ill, or need to attend a medical appointment. Let me know as soon as possible.
    • your department requires you to do something at short notice as part of your course, or you need to attend a catch-up practical session because you have been ill. (This should happen very rarely, because normally you will have advance notice from the department.) I may want to check with the department. (It will be faster if you get them to e-mail me directly.)
    • your Director of Studies wants you to do something at short notice. In this case I'd expect them to confirm by e-mailing me directly.
    • you have an interview for a summer job or internship or similar which is arranged at short notice, with no alternative interview time, such that you will lose the post if you don't attend. Although I'm unconvinced that an organization that does this is going to be good to work for, I appreciate that you may be in something of a buyers' market, so I'll consider each case on its merits.
    • there is a reason why a re-arrangement ought to be made on compassionate grounds, e.g. because you are visiting a relative who is taken ill, or helping a friend who is in serious trouble. In this case you need either to tell me exactly what the problem is, or (if it's something that you don't feel comfortable telling me about) tell your Tutor or Director of Studies, who can confirm to me that there is a good reason.