Lecture Courses
The Part III lecture courses are all taken from Mathematics or Physics. These courses consist either of 24 lectures (for a 3-unit course) or of 16 lectures (for a 2-unit course). Each course takes place in the Michaelmas or Lent terms with a typical lecture load consisting of an average of nine lectures per week per term.
Each student may take up to 15 units of lecture courses for examination. It is usual to take more courses than this at the start of each term and then cut down to those of greatest interest. A typical total of 12 units requires that you prepare fully for examination on about two-thirds of the courses for which you have attended lectures. There is no requirement that students restrict their choice of courses to those given by one Department and courses may be selected freely from those available, within the constraints of the lecture timetable. It is not possible for students to sit examination papers in two courses that are lectured at the same time as defined by the lecture timetable.
The majority of courses you choose for examination must be drawn from our Recommended Course List. However, you may also choose to be examined in one additional course (maximum 3 units) from either the full suite of Part III Mathematics courses or the Part III Physics courses. It is your responsibility to ensure that any course not on the recommended counts a maximum of 3 units.
All lecture courses will have their own site on Moodle, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment. Students will be able to self-enrol on these Moodle sites at the start of each term. Further information on how to access lecture course resources on Moodle will be provided to students at the Introductory Meeting. Where lectures are recorded, recordings are expected to be available via the Moodle site within a few hours of the end of the lecture.
Much of the course administration carried out by the Physics Teaching Office takes place via their in-house web database, the Teaching Information System (TIS). Students will automatically be registered on the Physics TIS pages for all our recommended courses at the beginning of Michalemas term. Should you wish to gain access to a course that is not on the Recommended Course List, please contact the IoA Undergraduate Student Coordinator (undergraduate.admin@ast.ac.uk).
Useful Links
Examples Classes & Supervisions
Supervisions and Examples Classes in Part III are given either by the lecturer, a PhD student, or a post-doctoral researcher. Lecturers are expected to provide some form of learning support, but the form it takes will be dictated by both the Department and the individual lecturer and the sessions will be diverse in style, in recognition of students’ advanced independent learning abilities and the complexity and variety of the material in the courses.
Registration: Mathematics
The arrangements for examples classes are made by the Faculty and not by the Colleges. You will be asked to indicate on Moodle which courses you wish to attend examples classes for at the beginning of term. You will be sent an email when registration for examples classes opens and may change your selection of courses at any point leading up to the deadline. It is essential that you register for the appropriate classes by the deadline. The complete examples class timetable will be published by the start of Week 3.
If the examples classes for a course are given in more than one group, you will be assigned to a specific examples class group at the time that the examples class timetable is drawn up. You must attend the examples class group to which you have been assigned. Except for exceptional circumstances, it is not possible to change to a different examples class group. If you cannot attend a particular class, you must email the instructor at least 48h in advance of the class.
Any queries about the examples class timetable and group assignments should be sent to examplesclasses@maths.cam.ac.uk.
Useful Links
Registration: Physics
The lecturer may choose to announce arrangements during the first lecture, or may announce them through the class email list. The class email list depends on each student signing up for the particular course on the TIS. You will be reminded about the sign-up before the start of both the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. If you decide to change options during the term, you should make the necessary change on the TIS, and also notify the relevant lecturers directly.
Any queries about the supervisions in Physics should be sent to undergraduate-office@phy.cam.ac.uk
Useful Links
Feedback
Questionnaires will be distributed at the end of each of the lecture course, giving you the opportunity to tell us, and the lecturers, what you thought of each course. The questionnaires contain questions to help elicit your opinion, along with space for you to add extra comments to anything you wish. The questionnaire results will be read carefully by the Course Coordinator and the Head of the Teaching Committee, and will also be reviewed by the course lecturers themselves. There is also a Part III meeting during the Easter Term with Course Coordinator, Senior Examiners and the Head of the Teaching Committee, where you can give feedback on your course overall.
However, if something needs changing, we encourage you to tell us about it as soon as possible. Tell us over coffee, contact the Undergraduate Student Coordinator or mention it to your Representative for the IoA Teaching Committee.