Mathematics Premaster Course

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

The preamster mathematics course equips you with the mathematic tools necessary in many branches of chemistry.

Study materials

Literature

• E. Steiner, The Chemistry Maths Book, 2nd ed, Oxford University Press 2008

Syllabus

• Up-to-date materials for the lecture will be posted on canvas, on the syllabus page

Objectives

• The student can solve equations and evaluating limits.
• The student can differentiate and integrate functions of a single variable.
• The student can solve a several standard differential equations.
• The student can perform calculations with complex numbers.
• The student can solve systems of equations, operate with matrices.
• The student can compute the inverse, determinant of a matrix and also its eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
• The student can perform partial differentiation and use it to solve several problems.
• The student can integrate functions of several variables over simple regions.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar
• Self-study

Lecture: Each week, the teacher will introduce key concepts and walk through examples.

Seminar: In the seminar, we’ll go over the solutions to the weekly assignments and clarify any questions.

Self-study: Each week, you should work on the assignments independently at home. Your solutions will then be reviewed and discussed in the seminar.

Learning activities

Attendance

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendance is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

Assessment

The final grade will be composed of two partial exams. 

First written partial exam after period one, on October 15th.

Second written partial exam after period two, on December 9th

Assignments

The assignments are not assessed and do not count toward the final grade.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Contact information

Coordinator

• Arno Foerster

Arno Förster (a.t.l.foerster@vu.nl) co-ordinates the course and give some of the lectures
Mike Seidl (Michael.Seidl@physik.uni-regensburg.de) will give some of the lectures.
Erik Verzijl (h.verzijl@vu.nl) will co-ordinate the seminar.