Saturday, 1 November 2025

MST124 Essential Mathematics 1

I'm seriously considering studying MST124 Essential Mathematics 1, which starts in February of next year. It will overlap with S283, which is a good thing, because everybody knows that studying two 30 credit modules simultaneously is more demanding than a single 60 credit module. With S283 running between October 2025 & June 2026, and MST124 running between February 2026 & September 2026, the short period of overlap makes the whole thing manageable. MST124 is a prerequisite for MST224, which is essential (not to mention compulsory) for higher level study, including the Diploma of Higher Education in Physics. I'm hoping there are more tutorials in MST124, because I feel a bit deprived of them at the moment. S283 doesn't seem to have very many.

I've also been working on the completion of TMA01, especially the question on craters as I have just finished the chapter on this topic in the Solar System textbook. The crater calculator is a very useful interactive tool on the module website, and is used for Question 4 on this assignment. By the end of last week I reached a stage with TMA01 where I consider it to be more or less a 'release candidate' for submission. The cut-off date is Thursday 27th November. There is a tutorial connected with TMA01 timetabled for Friday 14th November, so I won't even think about submitting it until I've had this.