타고난 사람들 틈에서Among People Born for It

I have not named the fellow students in this essay.

Called in from the library

I once got caught sleeping in the library at CMS, Cambridge’s mathematics building. I was called in by someone senior, though I cannot remember whether it was a dean or a warden. They asked why I had done it and whether I had a home. I said I had been studying. Before exams, I often stayed up almost all night.

I was a crammer. It is hardly an exemplary university routine for someone who now talks to students about study habits. But I cannot write that I got up at the same time every day and followed a steady plan. I worked through a lot of past papers in a short period and went over the problem sets, called example sheets, several times. That was the studying I actually did.

I received a First in Part IA and became a College Scholar at Trinity, an academic distinction. If I record only the result, the student called in for sleeping in the library disappears. Both were part of my university life.

What remains after finding the answer

In my first term’s supervisions, I became aware of what I could not do well. A supervision is a small class in which a few students sit with a supervisor and discuss problems they have worked on. Until then, I had concentrated on solving problems. I was used to multiple-choice questions and short answers, and struggled to carry a long, open-ended solution through to the end.

Being accustomed to finding an answer is not the same as being able to explain a whole solution. You must write down which definition you begin with and why you can take the next step. Doing well at familiar exams does not remove the need to learn when the form of the problem changes. In my case, those supervisions are one way to explain that difference.

There were also times when I disliked maths, when I had to study a subject that did not suit me. That does not contradict having liked maths since childhood. I could not enjoy every part of university mathematics equally.

Our course was the Mathematical Tripos, progressing through Parts IA, IB and II. I completed it and received a BA, followed in due course by the customary Cambridge MA. Those degree names take little space on a page. They do not mean that I always did well or enjoyed myself while earning them.

Maths over a meal

One fellow student kept talking about maths even while eating during the exam period. He was simply obsessed. He was always studying it. “Born for it” is the phrase that comes to mind, but looking back, what I actually saw was the time and enthusiasm he gave to the subject.

There were students who had represented their countries at the International Mathematical Olympiad, or IMO. Yet the student I saw finish top was not a gold medallist. That alone cannot explain the part talent plays. It did show me that prizes won before university did not settle every result afterwards. I also saw how people approached problems and how long they stayed with them.

I should not use my First to imply that cramming was a good method. Leaving study until just before an exam and repeatedly working through past papers and example sheets are things to consider separately. What I can explain to students now is what I practised. They need not copy the all-nighters or the sleeping in the library.

Picking up my studies again

The hardest part was the exams. At Cambridge, a year’s material was examined all at once. Before graduating, I had a year’s break in my studies for personal reasons, and catching up on my return was difficult. I am not particularly prone to loneliness, so that side was all right. The exams were still hard.

After spending so long bent over books, I also developed early symptoms of a neck-disc problem, for which I recently had a procedure. That is another reason I find it difficult to tell my university story only through marks and degrees. Alongside the successful results were time spent catching up and a problem that stayed with my body.

Another place I remember is the library with Newton’s books. Newton was a Trinity man, and his books are still there. The memory of studying somewhere like that sits alongside the memory of getting into trouble for sleeping in the CMS library. Neither alone describes my university life.

One thing I learnt at Cambridge that I still use in teaching is the process of learning definitions accurately, understanding them and applying them to problems. I cannot simply transplant its classes into a Korean entrance-exam classroom, though. University and entrance-exam courses have different purposes and different student-to-teacher ratios. Korea’s population density and educational setting also matter. What I learnt has to be worked out for the classroom here.

I had long felt suited to teaching. At first, I intended to teach at university. After my first year, I took the GRE Mathematics Subject Test with American graduate study in mind. It was the specialist test, not the general GRE, and I scored in the 99th percentile, the top one per cent. For personal reasons, however, I did not apply to graduate school. I returned to Korea after graduating and taught maths.

If I could say something to myself from those years, it would still be this: “You could have spent a little less time going out to tutor, and a little more time with people.” It comes to mind before any advice about improving my marks. I liked teaching and kept doing it, but I could have given a little more time to the rest of university life.

Back in Korea, teaching maths remained my work. Then I wanted to test the methods I discussed with students in exams of my own. This time I would do more than advise someone preparing for university. I took my own admission slip to the exam hall.