This new and expanded edition is intended to help candidates prepare for entrance examinations in mathematics and scientific subjects, including STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper). STEP is an examination used by Cambridge Colleges for conditional offers in mathematics. They are also used by some other UK universities and many mathematics departments recommend that their applicants practice on the past papers even if they do not take the examination.

Advanced Problems in Mathematics bridges the gap between school and university mathematics, and prepares students for an undergraduate mathematics course. The questions analysed in this book are all based on past STEP questions and each question is followed by a comment and a full solution. The comments direct the reader’s attention to key points and put the question in its true mathematical context. The solutions point students to the methodology required to address advanced mathematical problems critically and independently.

This book is a must read for any student wishing to apply to scientific subjects at university level and for anyone interested in advanced mathematics.

This course describes discrete mathematics, which involves processes that consist of sequences of individual steps (as compared to calculus, which describes processes that change in a continuous manner). The principal topics presented in this course are logic and proof, induction and recursion, discrete probability, and finite state machines. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Create compound statements, expressed in mathematical symbols or in English, to determine the truth or falseness of compound statements and to use the rules of inference to prove a conclusion statement from hypothesis statements by applying the rules of propositional and predicate calculus logic; Prove mathematical statements involving numbers by applying various proof methods, which are based on the rules of inference from logic; Prove the validity of sequences and series and the correctness or repeated processes by applying mathematical induction; Define and identify the terms, rules, and properties of set theory and use these as tools to support problem solving and reasoning in applications of logic, functions, number theory, sequences, counting, probability, trees and graphs, and automata; Calculate probabilities and apply counting rules; Solve recursive problems by applying knowledge of recursive sequences; Create graphs and trees to represent and help prove or disprove statements, make decisions or select from alternative choices to calculate probabilities, to document derivation steps, or to solve problems; Construct and analyze finite state automata, formal languages, and regular expressions. (Computer Science 202)

This course is an elementary introduction to number theory with no algebraic prerequisites. Topics covered include primes, congruences, quadratic reciprocity, diophantine equations, irrational numbers, continued fractions, and partitions.