Blog posts

Where You Should Eat In London

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

I love food (in case you hadn’t guessed) so I thought I would share my favourite places to eat in London. If you’re up in London for interviews or just getting fed up of the Gloucester Road Nandos and East Side Bar, check out some these fantastic eating establishments!

1. Ottoman. Ottoman is on Fulham Palace Road, so maybe slightly out of the way for anyone in halls, but if you end up living out West at some point, make sure to go to here. Any evening out that begins or ends with someone suggesting ‘Ottoman’s?’ is bound to be a good one and my friend group in particular love it.

RAG Week!

MBBS Medicine

Each year at Imperial students organise events around college for ‘RAG’. It took me many years to work out what this was, but it is ‘Raising and Giving’- events organised to raise money for a local charity, picked each year.

Events this year in South Kensington ranged massively again, including bungee jumping from Queens Tower and many cake sales. This year also saw many new, fantastic events from the medical school. As news often takes a while to drift from zone 2 to zone 1, I thought I would bring you all up to speed on some of the best events!

A page from my calendar

Dora profile

MEng Chemical Engineering

People say ChemEng is a tough course. Let’s see why they might have this impression: here is my calendar for the next 13 days… [And – as everyone always talks about these anyway – I put how much each thing contributes to my grade this year in brackets] May the coffee be with me!

14th March: Mastery sheet 5 [-]

14th March: Lab report (conclusion + evaluation) [2%]

17th March: Rig building design, first part [-]

18th March: Thermodynamics deliverable [0.25%]

22nd March: Properties of Matter project [0.875%]

23rd March: Final rig building design [2%]

23rd March: Business Ethics essay [6%]

23rd March: Complete lab book [2%]

But no matter how many deadlines we have, ChemEng is still the best course!!!

Haskell Driving Test

Amanda Koh profile

BEng Computing

We had our first driving test in week 6 of our first term… it was really quite daunting, but we got a practice test a week before to get us used to the process and the test environment. Since then we’ve had another one for Java and recently we had our final Haskell driving test. The whole process has become rather routine, but driving tests as a concept are a difficult thing to get your head around as an examination method when you’re used to the pen and paper exams that access content retention we take in high school.

A driving test basically tests your practical programming skills, challenging you to solve a problem in a time pressured environment and without access to aids like Google.

Not long now!

Harry profile

MEng Mechanical Engineering

Hi!

Not too much has been happening in the past few weeks. As the Easter holiday slowly approaches, my course-mates and I have begun to realise that a) we don’t have long until our end of year exams and b) we have a lot to do before we get to that point. So I shall be treating myself to an over-the-top Easter revision timetable made on excel! The argument with Mechanical Engineering is that the first year does not count towards the final grade. This is totally true, but I will still do as best as I can, because that’s really the only way I know how to, and it sets a good precedent for the next three years anyway.

Voice of the Future

MSCi Physics

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in the Houses of Parliament- more specifically a building linked to the Houses of Parliament called Portcullis house. (It really is physically linked by an underground walkway for MPs.) The reason I was there was for an event called the Voice of the Future organised by the Royal Society of Biology.

I say ‘event’ because it was a strange set up. The whole thing was meant to be like a select committee– it took place in the actual rooms where select committees are held. Lots of scientific organisations sent young representatives to ask questions of an array of different politicians.

How to stay financially okay in London (3 TOP TIPS):

MBBS Medicine

Living in London is amazing. There are so many opportunities and such an incredible atmosphere, however it is a massive burden of cost.  Having been at uni for 3 years now (still 3 more to go…) I have a 3 TOP TIPS on how to save money living as a student in London (especially in South Kensington…so expensive)

1-Travel: Make sure you have signed up for your student oyster and linked it with your railcard to save 1/3 on travel! https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/adult-discounts-and-concessions/railcards

2- Social: Make sure you sign up to the Times Student. It has saved so many of here at Imperial.

Woodwarder in 4 acts (and counting…)

Dora profile

MEng Chemical Engineering

Act 1 – The casual resident

When I started Imperial, I wanted to focus solely on my studies. I did many “other stuff” in high school, but university is obviously a lot more difficult, so I decided to “stay out of any trouble” and just study-study-study. Well, I managed to do it for a couple of weeks… In the first few weeks, I only applied for the position of the Year Representative, but I didn’t get it, and looking back, I am actually glad. Being a year rep is mainly about arguing with the lecturers to extend a deadline or record the lectures.

That Third Year Life

Isobel profile

BSc Biology with a year in Europe

Nostalgia seems to be the key word of this year. I swear that only yesterday I was taking my seat in a giant, air-conditioning-lacking lecture theatre in the Sir Alexander Fleming building to have my first ever lecture at Imperial College. Then I remember that was nearly two and a half years ago and I cry a little inside remembering how quickly time flies, how many amazing times (and sad ones) I’ve had since then and also how I’m going to 21 soon which tips me definitively into the ‘twenties’ bracket. Man I feel old. Third year is more than half way done now and I’ve just begun the final course of the year.

PICOCON 33 and I got older

Ksenia profile

MSci Physics with a year in Europe

Picocon 33: Origins has now happened and the SciFi library has stopped looking like a frantic booklet folding factory. For those who aren’t aware, Picocon is a tiny ComicCon, i.e. a mini ultimate nerd fest organised by ICSF. It included talks from guest authors, silly games, readings and viewings of hilariously terrible content with the chance to bid money to make it stop and destruction of dodgy merchandise with liquid nitrogen and big hammers. The one thing that most certainly didn’t occur was a fish duel and I most definitely did not have salmon stored in my fridge, stinking out the kitchen.

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