Why Maths and Quantitative Methods are not the same

We all had that one subject at school that was a love-hate relationship. Mine was Maths. After years of effort, intervention, extra work, the puzzle was still not coming together. But, four years after passing GCSE Maths, I am now doing a Quantitative Pathway at my university. Who would have guessed that?

When most people hear quantitative methods, they assume it’s the Maths that we are taught in school. Maths that is not used in the ‘real’ world. I used to be one of those people. When I started Sociology just over four years ago at my Sixth Form in East London, I wrote Maths off completely. My A-levels in History, Sociology and Politics had no direct involvement with trigonometry, algebra or any of the parts of Maths that I wanted to push to the back of my mind. A-level Sociology does not directly involve completing any research of your own, so while I began to understand the distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods, I still wrote off any involvement with statistics, data or anything else that came with numbers.

Like most of my peers in social sciences, I looked to take the qualitative route in Sociology. As the pandemic became my new reality in 2020, any involvement of Maths or quantitative methods was not on my mind as I dealt with the new reality of doing my A-levels from home. However, university would change the landscape of what quantitative meant to me.

As the initial stage of the pandemic ended, and I headed off to university, the quantitative space became more of a focus. At the time, I dreaded trying to understand statistics, data and more about quantitative research. But this dread turned into enjoyment and a challenge that I relished. My first year modules, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics and Producing Social Data, gave me this urge to understand how quantitative data was in the social world that I inhabit, but had been choosing to ignore. All the charts during the COVID-19 briefings, the charts I used to understand how COVID impacted GCSE and A-level grades in 2020 and 2021. All of this was produced through quantitative research methods.

Not only this, but the challenge that came from doing this really built me up. Not understanding certain terminology, not getting the calculations written, the wrong answers, made me hunger to learn more. I had been running from any involvement with statistics for a while, but now I was choosing to do the extra assignments, moving to office hours to understand how quantitative methods were done.

Because of the work that Dr Sally Stares, Dr Eric Harrison and Sandra Vucevic did during my first year, I decided to take on the Quantitative Pathway in my 2nd and 3rd year. While the pathway has not always been sunshine and roses, with many long sessions, office hours and frustrated times on campus trying to understand how to use SPSS and communicate data through Tableau, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do this. It has pushed me to be a better social researcher. It has pushed me to look at the different experiences available through learning quantitative skills. I can’t thank Professor Jackie Carter and Dr Matt Barnes enough especially during my 2nd year as they have both been so helpful in guiding me through this new experience.

If nothing has made any sense in my story into the Quantitative world, then what I am sure of is that you should not always write something off. You may believe that something is out of your reach because you did not achieve the best elsewhere, but taking that leap and trying something that seems hard can bring new opportunities and a life you would not imagine. But, you never know where you might go if you don’t try it.

Because of my decision to go into Quantitative Methods, I have had great opportunities to do work inside of the government, conducting analysis on transport. I have also had the pleasure to be a part of the TASO team and grow in my understanding of social research/policy, and what lies on the other side of graduation in 2024. Never did I picture this to be my life, but choosing that one pathway gave way for a whole different pathway in my life.

Miles has just completed a summer internship at TASO as a Research Intern. He is going into his final year of Sociology with Quantitative Methods at City, University of London.