Contrary to most peoples view of maths as something theoretical and removed

from ordinary life, with technological advances, the demand for Mathematics is
increasing exponentially, and it has incalculable impact on daily lives and limitless
applications. What intrigues me most about Maths is how the gap between its
theoretical and practical aspects is narrowing. After struggling through Chaos:
Making a New Science by James Gleick, I was amazed by the range of applications
chaos theory has had; from forecasting the weather to population modelling. I was
particularly fascinated by the relation between chaos and fractal, which led me to
want to study more how it works in the actual world.
The countless applications of statistical and probability methods in our world
notably fascinates me within the wider field of mathematics providing extra
incentive to study mathematics at university level after having attended numerous
lectures. I particularly enjoyed the lecture given by Dr. Hannah Fry at 6 th form
Mathematics Celebration Day, and how crime hotspots can be created by building a
mathematical model. Although building suitable mathematical models for real life
situations are intricate, applying those makes our lives easier to describe
unexpected areas of our lives.
I love to challenge myself and overcome my limit by solving complicated maths
problems and the moment of great pleasure when I solve these problems. Ingenuity
required for maths fulfils my passion for problem solving and logical thinking.
Participating to several maths competitions gives me excellent way to advance my
mathematical intuition and maintain deeper insights in maths. I participated in
Kings-Exeter Team Maths Competition, and our team won the award. I became
aware that maths is not only focused on independent studying but also requires
teamwork and can be discussed with others, which contribute to improve my ability
to listen carefully to others and organise ideas. During the competitions, we
searched on how to find Pythagorean triples by using Euclids formula and its proof,
which greatly helped me to acquire researching and communication skills. I was also
selected as a school representative for the UK team maths challenge and
participated in a Regional Final.
Work experience at Samsung Life Investment (UK) Ltd offered me a remarkable
opportunity to experience the atmosphere of a working environment. I learned
different kind of investments such as hedge fund, private and public equity and real
estate investing. These jobs involve lots of mathematical and statistical analysis to
reduce risk for volatile world economies, for example, the Black-Scholes model can
be used to calculate Greeks. However, humans psychology factors cannot be
estimated by mathematical methods, which makes the future difficult to predict
accurately, thus I became aware that investors need to think broadly and flexibly.
This also sparked my curiosity of the relation between chaos theory and financial
markets since decision making from consumers and producers is similar to chaotic
behaviours in a sense of complexity. I was extremely eager to listen to what they
were working on and the conversations I had with them reinforced my desire to
study mathematics and statistics dramatically since mathematics improves the
ability to think imaginatively. In addition, it gave me a realistic insight into my future

career and the work ethic I would need. Moreover, I learned time management and
cooperation skills from work experience.
Such desire for me to be a part of this developing industry have led me to study
mechanics, statistics and decision modules at A-level in order to get grip of diverse
applied maths. These have contributed to my understanding of mathematical
methodology and principles as well as analytical skills, which I believe will
substantially benefit me in learning new and various areas of mathematics at
university. I am also studying economics which helps me to obtain high level of
evaluative skills.