The Mathematics Reading Room · Free · By application

A quiet place to do mathematics, together.

There are two hours in a week that are very hard to find on your own. You sit down with mathematics, nothing is due, nobody interrupts you, and you work. Time like that is worth more than a week of hurried homework, and almost nothing in a school timetable makes room for it.

The Mathematics Reading Room is those two hours, held open every week. Students come from the IB Diploma, A Level, AP and olympiad preparation, and each one brings whatever they are working through. For most of the session we work quietly, side by side. Near the end we take one question and think it through together, out loud, the way mathematicians actually talk about mathematics.

It costs nothing, and it is not a class. There is nothing to hand in and nobody is marking you. You come with your own work, and you leave having done some of it in good company.

Free · Once a week · Two hours
Online · Admitted by application

A warm reading room with a wall of books and two armchairs side by side

The session

What two hours actually looks like.

Most of the session

Quiet, independent work

You bring your own mathematics. A problem set, a past paper, a proof you cannot get past, a chapter you would like to read properly for once. Everyone works on their own thing, in the same room, which turns out to be the part that makes it possible. Cameras are optional and nobody is asked to perform.

The last stretch

One question, together

We take a single exam-style question and work it through as a group. Not a model answer read out. The real thing: what the question is asking, what we try first, why that does not work, and what we try next.

No lectures. No homework. No pressure.

Who it is for

Students who already like mathematics.

The room is for students who want more mathematics than a timetable allows. Most are working through one of these.

IB Diploma Mathematics, Analysis and Approaches or Applications and Interpretation
AS Level and A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics
AP Calculus and AP Statistics
Olympiad preparation
Or any problem you are working through and would like company with

You do not need to be ahead of anyone, and you do not need to arrive with something impressive. You need to want the time. Members are fifteen or older.

A magnifying glass held over a page of integrals in an old mathematics textbook

Apply to join

Ask for a place.

I read every application myself and write back either way. If a parent or guardian is not sitting with you, please fill this in together with one.

The student

First name

Name you would like to be known by

What are you studying?

School year

Country

Two questions

Answer these in your own words. There is no length I am looking for, and no right answer.

Why do you want to be in the room?

What made you go looking for something like this?

What is your relationship with mathematics like?

It does not have to be a simple answer, or a flattering one.

A parent or guardian

Parent or guardian name

Parent or guardian email

If a place is offered, I write to this address with how the room is run, how it is kept safe, and the joining link. Nothing is sent to the student directly.

I am fifteen or older.As a parent or guardian, I consent to my child joining The Mathematics Reading Room, and to the closing discussion of each session being recorded. The independent study is not recorded, unless my child is the only member present, in which case the whole session is.Send me The Rooted Mathematician, the MathBridge journal and newsletter.

There is no fee and nothing to pay, now or later. How we look after your information.

Thank you. I read every application myself, and I will write to the parent or guardian address you gave me either way.

Come with your mathematics. Leave having done some.

Apply to join