ADVANCED PROBABILITY

Examination notice (added 17 May 2008)


Several students have asked, completely reasonably, about the examination. I am cautious in replying. Firstly, I am on sabbatical leave, and am not responsible for the exam (though I had a hand in setting the draft paper). Secondly, any information must be available to all students, and thirdly, I do not want to mislead anyone inadvertently. The standard advice is banal: if you are reasonably well acquainted with the material in the lecture notes, and understand the example sheets, then you are in a good position to do at least quite well in the exam. It is helpful to spend some time doing past examination papers (but see below).

Syllabus. Remember that the syllabus of a Part 3 course is defined best by what is said in the lectures. There are generally differences from year to year, and these may be reflected in the examination questions. For example, the courses of the last three years have been different in various regards from this year. Part of the material in these last three exams would not be appropriate for this year. When practising on past papers, be selective about the questions you attempt.

Type of question. A good question might test knowledge of some standard material, and also contain an `unseen' element. There is only a limited extent to which one may expect successful attempts at substantial unseen material. My own exam style is probably closer to the exams of 2002-2005 than those of the last three years.

I may update these comments if asked further questions, so keep in touch.

And the very best of luck!

Part 3 course, Michaelmas Term 2007

MWF at 11am in MR5, beginning 5th October

This will be a supervised course with supervisions available by arrangement with Angus Brown, Neil Walton, and Jakob Björnberg. There will be a meeting to arrange supervisions at 3pm on Thursday 11 October in the common room of Pavilion D. Students desiring supervisions should attend, and also inform their Directors of Studies of the subsequent arrangement.

This course will be a rigorous introduction to modern probability theory and its applications. In order to get the flavour of some interesting probabilistic phenomena, try these links:

or take a look at some of my recent papers:

The blurb for the course is available here. Also the problem sheets: