How is M.Sc. Mathematics at BITS Pilani?

What are positives and negatives of M.Sc. Mathematics?

Courses and concepts:

Quite different from the regular math we’ve done till now. Concepts get more abstract in nature. Loads of theorems and proofs. In fact, two-three courses are full of it. But not all of it is like that, some of the courses are really interesting.

You’ll have courses like Graphs and Networks, Discrete Math- more logical. Others like Optimization have no proofs, just problem-solving.

Grading: Differs from campus to campus. Since I’m from Hyderabad campus, I’ll just talk about that. Not very difficult. Yeah, attend classes regularly, go through the kind of problems the prof. gives. That totally helps. No point in sitting with the textbooks trying to figure out things on your own. Some textbooks aren’t that easy to understand.

Overall, if you’re the kind who disliked math earlier. Don’t go for it. You wouldn’t like to spend a whole year doing just math. Those who enjoy math, can go for it. I actually enjoy math, so I didn’t mind the abstract concepts too much.

What you will learn in M.Sc. Mathematics, and what are the nearest JEE topics to them?

Doing well in these courses, doesn’t really depend too much on how good you were in your school or 11-12th math. Concepts are quite different. Most of the things are entirely new.

Nearest JEE topics:

Probability and Statistics.
Calculus-(solving integrals and other basic concepts)
Logic- (symbolic logic, truth tables etc.)
Differential Equations.

What are good dual options with M.Sc. Mathematics and why?

Math+CS. A well known combination.
Common courses like Discrete Math.
Definitely some of the algorithms and concepts learnt in courses like Graphs and Networks, Discrete math are helpful.
Math along with ECE, EEE, EnI is said to get a bit hectic. Yet, it’s not such a problem. These branches also require a little math. So not a disadvantage overall.