Starting University in the Covid Era

My ordinary week consists of approximately 10 lectures from 5 subjects and of 5 Problem Sheets that follow. The lectures are prerecorded and it is up to us how we organise our time in terms of watching the lectures. All of the lectures are of high quality, so there is no problem in understanding English. Apart from that, we may use the lecture notes by our lecturers. There are 6 to 8 problems in each Problem Sheet, and the task is mostly to prove some statement, which I love.

Some may think that maths students are constantly hidden in their own rooms, but let me argue that the opposite is true – we are amongst the most sociable creatures in the University. Together, we contemplate the various different approaches to solving a particular problem and we share our ideas. Now this was a little bit of an exaggeration – mostly it is the case of finding any solution at all. In the Covid era, face to face communication is rather limited, so we substitute it with cooperation via chat or video calls with shared whiteboard. Furthermore, in each of the "college households", which are basically the same as family households, there is at least one other fellow maths student, with whom we can talk (not only) maths without having to keep our distance.

Perhaps the most important part of our studies is the tutorials. Nowadays, they are all virtual, but they are still helpful. There are only three of us in a tutorial group, which allows the tutors to have very individual approach to us, so we have the opportunity to discuss any problem which we did not understand or could not solve at all. The atmosphere is very friendly and in the end I often feel that (at least for a little while) I understand the subject matter.

Obviously, we all face a lot of challenges related to the demanding nature of the course and to the additional measures due to covid. The workload is high, I feel like my course is both crazy and amazing. But it is possible to manage the workload while at the same time staying sane, or at least I am trying to make it possible. Also, it is more complicated to get to know people because when I can finally meet someone, it is with the face mask, or additionally through a plastic screen, which makes understanding rather difficult, especially for me. Our College is, however, doing their best to enable us to enjoy the student life as much as possible while keeping us and others safe, by organising weekly Online talks, socially distanced outside activities (such as the erg challenge, 1000 origami cranes challenge, Halloween pumpkin carving, walking challenge), and also the regular services broadcast from our beautiful chapel.

To sum up, I am delighted about my College and my course. I am very grateful to be able to study here, also thanks to the support from the foundation. As I would never have imagined this a year ago, I would like to let all the students who may be considering studying at Oxford know that it is possible and worthy all the hard work. Should you be interested in anything concerning studying maths abroad, feel free to drop me an email, I am happy to answer.