CATAM

Optional? Eh? confused now. I thought they were compulsory Emperor

Ah yes, the maths department's definition of "optional" as "you don't have to hand anything in for this".  There's no alternative way of getting the marks back from anything else.  As optional as, for example, turning up for an exam.

Optional as in, you can drop these and still pass.  I thought it was quite a good bit of the course actually. - Kazuhiko

It was a good third of mine total exam marks.  As this is greater than the proportion most others seem to get, I view CATAM as a GoodThing.  --Angoel

Turning up for an exam isn't optional.  Being awake during it is. -- Senji

Yeah, ok - so they're not actually as bad as some of us make out...  Just that a few weeks before the deadline most projects get branded evil.

Oh, they're not so bad.  A mixture of maths projects for which a bit of computing power is helpful and computer projects which happen to use a lot of heavy math.  There's something for everyone!  As long as they don't mind the basic computer tutorials being, well, crappy.  Still, there's always a CompSci somewhere ;)

Optional as in you can optionally spend all Easter writing them, I think.