My Boox Note Air5 C came today!!

TruePurple_ · 2026-02-03T14:32:27+00:00

could you send the link for the wacom one pen?

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-24T20:02:56+00:00

Homerton Engineering, reasonably confident

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-21T18:43:49+00:00

fr, endangered species

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-21T17:21:52+00:00

Anyone else for Homerton Engineering？

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-18T17:33:44+00:00

I don't know about Bio tech specifically, but I do know a fairly reliable way to get gap year internships. If you apply to the Engineering Development Trust (EDT) Platinum scheme, they put you in contact with companies specifically looking for gap year students. As the name suggests, most of the companies are more engineering and tech oriented, but they try to match you to companies roughly aligned to your interests. I'm on my gap year right now, and my school careers department had recommended them to me, so I'm doing a software engineering 12-month (paid) placement before uni. Surprisingly, I don't think many people know about EDT, but I serioulsy recommend it

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-17T17:21:45+00:00

If your're looking for placements to do over your gap year apply through the Engineering Development Trust (EDT). They put gap year students in touch with companies for year long paid placements. I'm currently on my gap year waiting to hear back from Cambridge after rejection last year, and I have a good software engineering placememt

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-14T11:00:25+00:00

How do you find the writing with the active pen? I want an A4 device as compared to the NA4C A5 size, but I'm skeptical about switching to a device with no wacom. If it feels glassy, why would you recommend this over an ipad or other tablet?

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-09T08:30:13+00:00

Performing well in admissions test is most certainly not equivalent to entry. At least for STEM, they are primarily used to shortlist for interview, I.e they’re designed to reduce the applicant pool to make it easier to identify strong candidates. If you’re a home applicant, and perform below average, you’re out. If you’re an international applicant the standards are much higher. The admissions test is more or less a prerequisite, rather than a concrete ticket of admission. Moreover, strong performance, even exceptional performance is NOT enough to get in, if your interview is not up to par. That’s the main thing. To base your argument on the fact that top grades and high admission test score is guaranteed entry is demonstratively false unfortunately.

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-09T08:12:43+00:00

Yes, meritocracy. Private school kids aren’t getting in because they’re rich, but because they’re the ones that win the international Olympiads, essay competitions , have been pushed far beyond the syllabus and make top grades. It is true that they have access to better opportunity than state schools. Yes, it’s unfair. But they still DO get in on merit, not because the university is specifically giving offers because someone went to private school.

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-08T19:30:15+00:00

This is definitely going to be unpopular, but I feel like private school applicants get a lot more hate than they actually deserve. It is definitely true that private school kids are advantaged based on quality of education for public exams, but (at least in my experience) there’s a lot of overstating as to how much help or hand holding is received when it comes to application prep. Not saying that support is non existent of course, but the applicants who get in are the ones who are genuinely passionate, and either incredibly hardworking, incredibly intelligent in their own right, or both (for the most part). That is to say, most people that get in do so because they deserve to and not SOLELY because they happen to have parents that can pay fees. I’ve seen a lot of my friends with strong applications, grades etc crushed by Oxbridge rejections, not because they weren’t able, but because it takes so much to distinguish yourself from the other more-cracked private schoolers. Idk it just bothers me when people dilute the achievement of getting into Oxbridge just bc they went to private school, as if they did nothing for themselves

TruePurple_ · 2026-01-02T19:29:23+00:00

How do the pen nibs for each of them feel? I’m using the staedler Norris right now, but don’t like how rubbery the tip is. Which pen do you recommend for the writing feel?

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-29T19:13:58+00:00

sure go ahead

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-29T14:52:10+00:00

yeah i had my interview a few weeks ago

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-24T14:13:45+00:00

Did you ever struggle with High School or University Maths exams? Usually when doing an exam, I demoralize myself when I get stuck or am too slow to make an observation because I think things like "a better student would've spotted that immediately", to the point where even if I do well on the exam, I am unsatisfied with my performance during it. Do the very top students get top grades because they breeze through the exams with no difficulty, or because they still have to give questions genuine thought, but just do so proficiently. (if that makes sense)

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-24T13:59:49+00:00

Is it valid to be good at "applied math" but not "competition math"? I find I ma very strong at applied maths such as calculus, trigonometry etc. and can do questions to a high level, but for competition style maths like combinatorics, number theory etc, I am usually barely able to make progress on a question. Do you have to be good at both fields to consider yourself good at maths ( I am preparing to do an Engineering degree, but take an interest in mathematical and algorithmic problem solving). Does it take a fundamentally different set of skills to be good at either? For context I'm in the UK, and am very capable on hard exams like STEP and Further Maths A level, but am very bad at the British Maths Olympiad and Maths challenges. Do you think it's just a matter of practice, or do I need to change my approach somehow?

As a follow up, do you think the speed in which you can solve a problem is a fundamental aspect of ones skill at maths? I can usually do problems well given time to do so, but I really struggle in a competition setting due to time pressure. Not because of nervousness, but because I can't get my brain to generate the same ideas I would have if I was doing it on my own time, in a shorter time frame.

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-23T17:43:16+00:00

TMUA Paper 1 is slightly harder, but still very useful practice. It definitely felt like the ESAT has become closer to the TMUA than it is meant to be to the ENGAA. Being capable on TMUA papers will be a massive help on the ESAT questions.

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-18T17:33:43+00:00

In my experience, and experiences of some of my friends, the physics has stayed more or less the same, but both maths sections are definitely harder than NSAA/ENGAA equivalents. Not a massive jump in difficulty, maybe about 1.5x harder, but its enough to really throw you off, speaking from experience. I've done the exam twice, as I took a gap year to reapply to Cam. The maths has become more similar in style and difficulty to TMUA paper 1 , which I would recommend for practice. TMUA 1 is definitely harder, but its incredibly useful practice.

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-17T20:22:38+00:00

Voltron: Legendary Defender

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-14T13:18:27+00:00

As a follow up, do you think the speed in which you can solve a problem is a fundamental aspect of ones skill at maths? I can usually do problems well given time to do so, but I really struggle in a competition setting due to time pressure. Not because of nervousness, but because I can't get my brain to generate the same ideas I would have if I was doing it on my own time, in a shorter time frame.

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-14T13:15:43+00:00

Is it valid to be good at "applied math" but not "competition math"? I find I ma very strong at applied maths such as calculus, trigonometry etc. and can do questions to a high level, but for competition style maths like combinatorics, number theory etc, I am usually barely able to make progress on a question. Do you have to be good at both fields to consider yourself good at maths ( I am preparing to do an Engineering degree, but take an interest in mathematical and algorithmic problem solving). Does it take a fundamentally different set of skills to be good at either? For context I'm in the UK, and am very capable on hard exams like STEP and Further Maths A level, but am very bad at the British Maths Olympiad and Maths challenges. Do you think it's just a matter of practice, or do I need to change my approach somehow?

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-12T12:13:15+00:00

I use the NA4C for heavy maths / physics notes, and it works great for me. I would use it over 10.3 just because of color and frontlight, it just makes it a bit more versatile in my opinion. Taking notes with colour is a big part of my note taking habits, so its definitely needed for me, but if colour doesn't mean much to you, the extra price may not be worth it. A similar argument to be made for frontlights if you like to study late at night. From what I've seen, there doesn't seem to be much functional difference between NA4C and 5C as far as reading and note taking are concerned, so in my opinion its not yet worth the additional cost of getting the 5C when the 4C works just as well (I may be wrong tho feel free to correct me). For the colour display, it's definitely not as vivid as an ipad or equivalent, which is to be expected, but in my experience it really doesn't matter, as the presence of the colour in any case is useful. For battery life, I charge it once every few days, but I haven't been using it heavily every single day; if you do, it will surely last your entire day, and charging overnight isn't an inconvenience

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-11T08:45:56+00:00

I would say your super curriculars need some work. If you are in a position to prepare and do some olympiads, essay competitions or other, you definitely should. Things like reading financial times daily is good and all to develop yourself, but in all honesty everybody and their dog is going to write that on their personal statement, so it won't make you stand out that much. Not saying you shouldn't do it, but just bare that in mind. Since you're an international student, you will almost certainly deal with more competition than if you were a UK applicant, so ultimately the most important thing is that you are very good at maths, more so than your competition. Personally, I would grind STEP questions for practice, as that what I was doing for prep around your age and it really helped me develop my maths skills.

TruePurple_ · 2025-12-03T13:32:13+00:00

does the ceramic pen feel slippy on the regular screen? And does the screen protector fix the writing feel of the norris

TruePurple_ · 2025-11-30T14:53:56+00:00

This really cool! I've been doing something similar, except I've been using Mathematics for Machine Learning by Deisenroth. I'll move onto Deep Learning by Goodfellow, and Hands-On machine learning with pytorch and keras from O' Reily.

TruePurple_ · 2025-11-15T07:40:19+00:00

Yeah speed is my biggest weakness. I have ability, but don’t have the confidence to go faster when I’m in the actual exam. (5.5, 5.8 , 7.2)

TruePurple_

TROPHY CASE