Numento ! The collection software •
Happy New Year!
Sessions will continue in the week beginning January 27th for Year 12 students and in the week beginning February 3rd for Year 13 students. The Spring Term welcome letter including all the dates of the King's Factor is available here.
This year, thanks to increased funding from the College, we will be running three sessions each week. The full calendar is available on the page here.
The team has expanded to include as academic leader Dr Paul P. Cook. Dr Cook has been lecturing at King’s since 2008. He is a very effective and popular lecturer who this year received the College’s prestigious Teaching Excellence Award. He received his PhD from King’s in 2006 for a thesis on ‘Connections between Kac-Moody Algebras and M-Theory’ and continues his research work in theoretical physics.
Angela Gould continues as Project Manager. Angela has a maths degree from King’s College, so that as well as organising the sessions, including the very popular catering, she is also able to join in as everyone grapples with the maths questions.
Professor Alice Rogers will continue as chair of the King’s Factor steering group, and will normally lead one of the three weekly sessions, with Dr Paul P. Cook leading the other two.
The team also include selected King's College London mathematics students (Arsheen Aneja, Simon Chu, Martin Hong and Craig Poku) who will act as tutors at the sessions.
News
What is the King's Factor?
The King’s Factor is a recent mathematical initiative, offering a complementary experience to classroom study (which of course is essential!), giving you the opportunity to tackle challenging maths problems which enrich and develop mathematical thinking, and bringing you together with students from other schools and colleges who share your enthusiasm.
The problems we offer are designed to encourage serious mathematical thinking, and gives great satisfaction when eventually cracked. But such problems may initially defeat even experienced teachers, PhD students and maths professors! This means that you should feel relaxed about admitting you are stuck and discuss together ways of tackling a problem. It is important not look at the solution to a problem until you think you have solved it. You will be surprised at the problems you can solve once you learn how to begin to think about a problem where it isn’t immediately obvious what method to take, and where you may have to use ideas from several areas of mathematics.
While we are of course eager to attract good students to King’s, this club is not restricted to just those who intend to apply to King’s, or just those intending to study mathematics at university – it is for all those who enjoy mathematics. One of the main messages we wish to convey is that maths is valuable in ways which are not always immediately obvious.
This club was set up as the new university fees regime comes in. Various bursaries will be on offer to those wishing to attend university and we hope to assist eligible students to successfully apply for these. We will encourage students to take STEP and/or AEA papers even if these are not part of a UCAS offer, because we believe that working for these papers increases the chances of obtaining good grades at A-level while developing greater mathematical understanding which will be useful in the future. It is also more fun than simply practising past A-level questions!
a club for students taking A-level who relish Mathematics
set up by the Mathematics Department of King’s College London
The King's Factor
The King's Factor
