Is it too early to be thinking about going back to university? It’s that weird time at the end of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s, when no one really knows what day it is or what they’re supposed to be doing. In this time I find my thoughts keep coming back to the start of Term 2, which is just one week away now.
Firstly, I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas, whether you spent it at home with your family and friends or here in London exploring the city. With New Year’s Eve coming up and then Term 2 starting just a few days after that, here’s some tips for making the most of the last week of the holidays.
If you have spent most of your time so far working and catching up on lectures from last term, make sure to give yourself some time off. It is the Christmas Holidays after all!
Equally, if you have done no work at all, it might be an idea to dust off those lecture notes and have a quick recap before heading back so that you are starting the new term fresh and ready to learn more.
Make the most of the sales! Student budgets can be tight, so if there is anything you think you might need for the new term, try and grab yourself a bargain by getting to the shops before you head back to see what’s on offer and reduced.
On the topic of New Year’s, have you thought of you New Year Resolutions yet?
Personally, I don’t tend to set any because I know they only last about a week, two if I’m lucky, but if you are one for starting the new year with a new mindset and goals then get thinking of your aims for this year. Make sure to make them achievable and apparently if you tell people your goals you are more likely to stick to them.
Finally, if you have spent the holidays at home, make sure to make the most of the last week with your family, you might not be seeing them again until the Easter break. Also, make sure to show your parents how grateful you are of them looking after you at home, nothing beats a home cooked meal and I’m sure you’ll start to miss them once you’re back to cooking yourself most nights.
I hope the thought of the new term hasn’t put a downer on your holiday spirits, but remember you do still have a week of free-time left before we all move back to London.
Make the most of it and I wish you all a very happy New Year!
Universities have a wide range of students, each of them with their own personality and opinions. However, there’s one thing in common among them all, something that all of us look forward to and that is spring “break”.
The quotation marks on the word “break” are, by no means, a typo, but a way of expressing the sweet and sour flavour of such a time.
The Cambridge Dictionary describes break as a time away from work or your regular activity, or a holiday.
It will be appropriate to say that our spring break could be described using half of this definition. It is indeed a period of time without lectures (our regular activity) and it also a time away, as most of us go back home for the month.
However, can we consider this break a holiday? Definitely not.
Although we do not attend university for all of April, we have to study almost every day. After all, by the end of that month, we need to show that we have somehow absorbed the knowledge that we were taught and that we can proceed with our degree.
Having a month without classes can be quite difficult to manage. The lack of an enforced routine makes it harder to focus. It is at this time that our will comes into play.
Let me share with you how I managed to have a (kind of) fruitful break.
Academic wise
Sitting down at your desk and thinking about all the studying that I had to do was overwhelming, so I decided to go step by step, little by little.
I first gathered all of my paper notes and organized them properly into folders. Then I started doing a thorough read on the lecture notes and summarizing topics. I found this to be extremely useful, as writing out my own notes helped greatly in the understanding process.
Once I had revised the content of a subject, I went on and did the tutorial sheets and, lastly, I attempted past papers.
This slow process meant that I would be doing past papers rather late on the break, however, learning from the winter break, I realized that it was much more useful to start them once I had some knowledge on a subject.
To obtain the most of each past paper, once finished and corrected, I wrote some conclusions on a post-it. These post-its would contain things like important errors or theory to be remembered. That way, keeping them will allow me to revise them prior to the exam and avoid doing the same errors again.
Social wise
Being home means that you are closer to your loved ones, closer to your friends. It is inevitable to want to spend time with them, while at the same time it’s tough not to feel guilty for not spending that time studying. The solution I found to this dichotomy was to meet up with friends for lunch or dinner. Knowing that I was meeting someone later on that day encouraged to work harder and stay more focused, having in mind that my reward would be a nice meal with a loved one.
This was a common practice most days. Others I would not work at all and give myself a complete break (which is very much needed). Others, I would spend the day home just working.
Mentally wise
I found this break to be quite an uncertain time, having mixed feelings of relaxation and burden. On one hand, I was relieved from the tension of uni. On the other, I was very much aware of what was about to come.
During the bad days, those in which tension was the protagonist and focusing felt like climbing Everest, I opted for a lighter studying. This consisted of the revision of rather “light” topics, mainly the ones that I had already understood but I still needed to go over.
Contrarily, on the good days, when I felt that I could run the world, I went ahead with the most challenging subjects, those who were still puzzles to be assembled.
If anything, this first-ever spring “break” has taught me how real life will taste like when no one will be on top of me scheduling my life, but when time is at my complete possession, to be organized as wished.
For those of you who don’t know me and I mean really don’t know me (anyone who has ever met me will now be rolling their eyes) I took a gap year. At school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was nearing the end of two highly turbulent years and the last thing I wanted to do, was have another three years of the same.
As a child of an accountant and a political activist it was presumed that I would go to university, so I applied at the same time as everyone else, filling my personal statement with platitudes about my love of pure learning and the importance of education and clicked the submit button. It could be said that I lacked enthusiasm for tertiary education. My one act of defiance was to tick a wrong box. And just like that I had a year which was, for the first time in my life, entirely my own. I waited tables for 4 months and worked in Senegal for 8 if you are interested. And you know what I found (apart from myself)? I found that there are people who would kill for a chance to go to university, let alone Imperial. I saw what life without a degree is like. I remembered why I had once been a nerd, reading ahead in the textbook for the sheer thrill of knowing and understanding more about the world. I heard the stories my school friends were telling about being surrounded by intelligent and exciting people and I thought I might just like a piece of that.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved my year off. I grew up more in that year than I had in the four previous ones and made friends and memories that will stay with me long after I have forgotten everything that I learnt at university. If you offered me the chance to go back and do it all again I would in a heartbeat, but I must be honest. As an 18 year old school leaver I felt very small in, what I learnt was, a very big world. What did I have to offer? A-level biology seemed pretty useless as you try to remember who was allergic to pepper and where to put the steak knife. In comparison, university, where my grades meant something, sounded easy.
Sure I was worried about having fallen behind but I think that only made me keener and more eager. Unlike people who had come straight from school I was hungry and didn’t take lectures for granted. I wrote up notes each evening and took advantage of everything London had to offer. I realised that the time I had at university was precious because I had seen the alternative.
So my advice for anyone reading this is simple: Go and do crazy amazing wild things after school. Maybe you will want to come back to university, maybe you won’t. If you do though, you will be able to appreciate the opportunity you have much more because you have tried life off the conveyor belt and your time will be much better spent because of it.
One of my highlights this year at Imperial has been the honour of holding the role of Year Representative. All in all, it has been a lot of work. But it has been immensely rewarding nonetheless.
Here’s the actual job description for a Year Representative:
Act as a voice for your Year Group in Staff-Student Committee Meetings
Collect feedback from your year group
Inform your year group of the department’s response
Liaise with lecturers about tutorials and any other matters
Organise summer revision sessions
Your reward: Free Lunch during Staff Student Committee Meetings (Twice a Term)
Here’s what I’ve got up to, with the help of my fellow Year Rep, Anthony (AKA A Bold Ant):
The actual roles stipulated above and…
Setting up in an informal events committee
Starting a Weekly Update (newsletter featuring tutorial work, exam dates, social opportunities, puns + a fun picture showing what members of our year have got up to that week)
Obtaining content for the weekly update
Emailing the Student Office
Visiting lecturers officers if they haven’t replied to an email
Messaging MatSoc Committee members to check when events will be happening
Creating polls to help MatSoc know which events our year are interested in
Promoting said events via the Weekly Update
The truth is, you put in as much as you get out. There was definitely no obligation to do all of this, but it’s been a lot of fun to do, so why not?
Costume Day No. 2
I also mentioned the events committee. It’s essentially a facebook group chat of 10 or so people. When someone suggests an event, 2-6 of us will pitch in to bring it to a reality. This is the usual process:
1st Pre-lecture Breakfast
Events we’ve run this year have included:
2 x Pre-lecture Breakfasts
2 x Fancy Dress Days
Chinese New Year Celebrations
Christmas Jumper Day & Secret Schanta
Valentines Day Pick Up Lines (Materials Related of course)
Pub Crawl**
Hall Crawl **
Black Tie Cocktail Night** (One of our own in a qualified bartender)
**Definitely not in tandem with the department
Chinese New Year and Christmas Jumper Day
Other events I’ve organised include:
A Christmas Dinner Trip to China Town
A Weekend Trip to Spain 🙂 (Why, you ask? Why not?)
China Town and Materials in Santander 😀
Most of these events have been run completely independently from the department (besides obtaining the room booking for them). But the department was so impressed by our turn out from our first pre-lecture breakfast that they fully subsidised our second pre-lecture breakfast. #materialslove
It’s an amazing privilege to be able to give back to the department and support my fellow students; so much so, that I light up with joy each time I look back on the last two terms. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve had a fantastic time thus far, and I can’t wait until next term.
“Here’s your first summative assignment.”
03/11/15
“1st term’s over! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!”
18/12/15
“Welcome back. How were your holidays?”
11/01/16
“This term’s tough. More assignments and labs!”
15/02/16
“Yeah, I’m going home for Easter.”
23/03/16
“How are exam preparations coming along?”
25/04/16
“The first exam actually went pretty well.”
29/04/16
“I’m really glad they’re over.”
01/06/16
“Congratulations on passing the year. See you in the 2nd.”
19/07/16
I finished my 1st year at Imperial several months ago, and it truly went by too fast. Maybe it’s because as I’m getting older, every other year is a lesser fraction of my life, but who knows in fact.
Besides that, I tried to make the most of it, and in some aspects, I did. That makes me really happy, but there are other things that I wanted to try out or accomplish (like rock-climbing or a more regular club attendance), but did not in the end.
Of my first year at least.
So, from all my highs and lows over this past, eventful and simply wonderful year at Imperial, here are 11 tips for you to own your 1st year.
1.Be the one to say “hi” first
At Imperial, you will come to meet lots of new people from many different places, and make some pretty good friends. I say, be the one to muster up the courage to walk up to the cool guy or pretty girl you have your eyes on, and simply introduce yourself without expecting anything in return.
Be as glamorous as you need to be.
You may end up as friends, or you may not click with that person. Anyway, you will come to develop your courage and conversational skills. Soon enough, you’ll learn how to approach different people and how to start and lead a conversation.
2.Try as many new things as humanly possible
If you’re moving to a large city like I did, then there will probably be many more activities or opportunities available to you as a university student. This may include activities like calligraphy, pole-dancing, kendo, photography, skydiving, or even archery.
Your No. 1 mission is to go to ALL the stalls at the Freshers Fair on October 4th.
In a bigger city, there are also many charitable causes to volunteer for, and many opportunities for a part time job, like bartending or tutoring.
The point of trying lots of new things is to genuinely learn what you’re into and not, rather than saying “I don’t think I’ll like it.”
3.Learn how to learn
The lecture starts, and you pull out your paper and pen, but you see your classmate across the room with a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with his stylus ready to jot notes down on MS Word.
We all have our learning styles – these are whichever helps us learn more effectively. See what things you have available to aid your learning, apply them and evaluate how helpful they are, in order to find out your most effective learning method.
And I mean whichever method aids your learning. (Taken during our Halloween dress-up)
Personally, writing things down helps my learning a lot. I vary from using pen and paper to a laptop depending on the pace at which the lecturer speaks. If lecture notes are already provided, then I would print them or work on an iPad or other device to edit the .pdf file.
4.Not everything is a competition
If you’re sportive, you may understand the competitiveness of a race – from start to finish, your efforts are invested into the steps you need to take in order to win. But at university, I don’t believe there should be competition where your academic performance is to be compared to those of your classmates. Sure, you may want to get good/great grades, but don’t seek to get the best grades.
When I started my 1st year, I felt I had get (one of) the highest grades in my year group. I did for our first summative (graded) assignment. Afterwards, however, I felt unnecessarily stressed in trying to maintain that standard. Instead, I felt I was not performing as well as I knew I could. Took me a while to realize and accept this as I am within a group of students who normally perform academically excellent.
5.Figure out what you want out of your time at uni
You may be starting your studies at university because you want to become a doctor and open up a hospital, or you want to contribute to the development of bionic prosthetic devices (this one’s mine). If your goals are crystal clear to you, and advancing your education at university is the next step, then figure out the following steps you need to take to get to your goal at whatever pace you want.
However, you may not be 100% sure about what you want. And that’s fine. Your first step is not to worry too much about it. Then spend some time exploring the many opportunities available to you. One of them must resonate at your frequency. When you’ve got it, take massive action on those first steps and accelerate towards your goal.
6.Keep a budget and track your expenses
As you’re moving out of your home, leaving your parent(s) or guardian(s), you will need to be on top of your finances if you want to survive.
Just kidding, you will definitely survive! However, knowing exactly where you’re spending your money allows you to cut back on the unnecessary costs and save up for what really matters to you.
Want to purchase a new computer/camera? Then start saving up a couple pounds a day by, for example, making your own food rather than buying food at the cafeteria.
7.Don’t be afraid of disappointing anyone
Give it your honest, best shot. You’ll realize you’re more capable than you think.
In your years ahead at university, you will come to face great challenges that will test your will. These may be mostly academic, but they may also involve another person, group, business/company, etc. Whatever the case, lose the fear of what anyone will think about you if you don’t get that job, or fail the test, or not end up as the top student, or simply lose.
Honestly, it’s a toxic feeling that will eventually break your will, no matter how try you hard to fight it. I experienced it during my exams. As I was afraid of disappointing one particular person, I did not perform as well as I really could on two exams. I’m glad I still passed both, but I learned my lesson the hard way.
But I didn’t lose. No. Battles are only lost if you learn nothing from them. But I definitely did.
You may be asking yourself how. I asked myself that so many times. It all boils down to accepting yourself as you are at any moment, and simply focusing on the task at hand and nothing else. Sounds easier said that done; it is, but it also becomes easier with practice.
8.Be encouraged, rather than discouraged
Here at Imperial, you will come to meet people who have a deep passion about what they do – whether that is their degree course, a sport, or even an art – and they’re really good at it.
But instead of “comparing your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20” (Yahya Bakkar) and feeling discouraged, talk to that person about their passion and learn from them. Ask them what makes them passionate, and how they’ve been able to keep at it for however long.
So if you share an activity as a mutual interest with someone else, learn from that person instead of distancing yourself from the activity altogether. Trust me, I understand that it could be quite scary being honest, but if you truly want to grow in that area, then have faith it will all be alright, because it will.
9.Cherish your time at university
Make friends and spend valuable time with them.
I was once hiking through the Seven Sisters Country Park toward Eastbourne, and I came to meet a UCL graduate. Curious to know what advice she had for a fresher like me, she told me this: Cherish your time at university.
She helped me to remember the position I am in, that after 3 years I may start working for a company and may no longer get to experience the spontaneity and liveliness of a university campus. I have come to know that I greatly enjoy it, and I will dearly miss it.
So I give you the same advice as you’re about to start uni. From start to finish, spend every second doing something significant to you, be happy and appreciate what you’ve got.
10. Do more than the expected minimum
While being around London, I once met an Imperial alumnus who studied Physics and later on went to do a PhD at Oxford in Physics as well. At such encounters, I always try to ask for advice a new student like me could use. He told me that though I receive a minimum amount of work in my course, which is expected of me to complete/do, to go beyond that and seek further knowledge.
This means that, for example, though your lecturers will assign problem sheets for the next session, do not only complete those, but also seek extra problems from the list of supplementary books. And more! Your lectures will probably be a collection of specific details from different sources, like mines were, but do search for those reading materials and read up on extra details, which may help you understand the whole subject!
Remember to never do less, but more.
11.Love and develop yourself
I am beautiful no matter what I wear, do or have.
You are a body, mind and soul, and you can develop all of these three with appropriate training.
Body: As a university student, gym memberships are normally cheaper, so set up a routine, go with a more-experienced friend, or whatever else may work out for you and build the beautiful temple that is your physical body.
Mind: Here you will come to learn new things that will challenge all that you’ve learned previously, which you also may find truly interesting. If so, invest the necessary amount of time to expand your knowledge and understanding of your degree course or anything else that may interest you.
Soul: As for your soul, happiness is key. Carefully pick the activities you take part in, the people you spend time with, the places you visit, and how you spend your time in general. Make sure that whatever you’re doing, you are genuinely happy or know that you will be happy after having finished/overcome something.
Note that I am not an expert in any of the three. I am still learning of ways to develop myself in these aspects, and I’ve come to realize that there is also no deadline. Anyway, for further inspiration I would suggest meeting those that are experienced in person, or following them online.
As I post this, it’s September 30th and the final batch of freshers arrive at the halls tomorrow. For my 2nd year at Imperial, I chose to be a hall senior and have worked with the other hall seniors, sub-wardens and wardens of the Woodward Buildings (and the Costume Store this year!) to organize a fortnight of daily events that we’re sure our freshers will enjoy.
This year, I aim to be much more consistent with my studies and extracurricular activities, which also includes blogging. Though my 1-year term as an Imperial blogger is coming to and end, and I am uncertain that I will get the opportunity to continue. Though for the length that this blog is up, I’ll try to promote it as much as I can. If I could help to spread some advice to at least 1 fresher, I’ll be more than happy! 😀
If you have found any of these tips useful in any way, please let me know in the comments! I like comments. 😀 It lets me know people actually read this stuff (because I have no way to track views) and appreciate it enough to say it or ask a question.
Going through my sent box today I came across the piece I submitted to the student blogger search back in October 2013, when I had been in London for about a week and was still bright-eyed and excited about arriving in the Greatest City Of All Time. I still love London because why wouldn’t you, but life is very busy at the moment and I’m feeling so tired and worn out by work and revision! It was fun to relive my freshers week through reading this old post, which I don’t think made it on to this blog originally, and I thought I’d share it with you today. Join me as I arrive at Fisher Hall for the first time (how sad is it that by the time this year’s intake of applicants arrive at Imperial in October, it’s unlikely that my old halls will be taking freshers anymore!) and sign up to way too many societies during Freshers Fair. I love being reminded of how much I do actually love both London and my degree at a time where everything is quite tough!
How do you even begin to describe moving to London for the first time? Driving around South Kensington trying to find my new halls of residence was stressful enough, (Mum: Should I pull out? SHOULD I PULL OUT?! Dad: BE MORE AGRESSIVE) but let me tell you, being a pedestrian in London is particularly terrifying for someone who has never experienced the Big City this intimately before. Just walking to campus on the first day I was nearly run over at least four times. Since then I have learnt to be a more assertive pedestrian but I still frequently find myself stranded by the crossing as my friends laugh at me from the other side of the road.
Aggressive road users aside, I’m absolutely loving South Kensington life. I’m lucky enough to live in Evelyn Gardens (yes, I live in Fisher, no, it’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be) and every time I step out of the front door I can’t believe that I’m living in such a ridiculously swanky area for a ridiculously cheap weekly price! Settling in to hall life has been a lot easier than expected, helped no doubt by our lovely hall seniors who have been amazing at shepherding most of the hall around on the tube to various Freshers events and throwing down some serious dance moves with us at the Mingle. One thing I love about my hall is how sociable everyone is. I may not be able to remember everyone’s names yet (it’s a work in progress ok?!) but it’s always lovely to go down to the common room and find someone to have a chat or play a game or two (or five) of table football with.
Midway through our Freshers week came the Freshers Fair! It was every bit as crazy as people had told me it would be, with spokespeople and flyers coming at me from every direction. Imperial don’t lie when they say there is a society for everyone (although I’m not sure that synchronised swimming is my thing despite accepting a leaflet!) and I signed up to around six different groups. Kind of regretting that now that my inbox is flooded almost daily with reminders and updates from various societies that I’ll probably not be able to keep up with. That aside, I’ve been along to a few Christian Union events already and I can’t wait to get involved with the French society and Women in SET. Social-wise, it’s shaping up to be an amazing year!
Of course, the social fun of Freshers Week can’t last forever. Saturday was my last night out, as Freshers Week culminated in the Freshers Ball. It was great to get dressed up and hang out with all the people I’d met during the week, though I’m feeling all those late nights now… the dreaded ‘Freshers Flu’ has definitely caught up with me! Monday saw my first day of biology lectures and getting used to the lecture style of learning is definitely going to take some time. We were eased in (haha) with two lectures on phylogenetics (evolutionary trees and ancestral relationships between organisms) and then two lectures on primates on Tuesday. I also got to pick up my lab coat on Tuesday which I’ve been looking forward to all week! I feel like a proper scientist now, although the lab coat buttons to the side rather than straight down the front so I think it makes me look like a chef. With safety glasses.
Freshers at Imperial has been amazing, everything I hoped for and more, and although the academic side is definitely challenging (I genuinely have a lecture on ‘The Proliferation of Fish’ next week), I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store – both for biology and for everything else that London has to offer.
I have finally FINALLY reached the end of the academic year here at Imperial and it feels A M A Z I N G. I sat my cell biology and genetics exam exactly one week ago today and despite it being a fair bit harder than the ecology and evolution exam we sat the Thursday before, it went very well and I’m very pleased. In comparison with my January exams (which were a complete and utter train wreck) I really could not be happier with how they have gone 🙂
There’s been a lot going on this week as I’ve finished uni and had a ridiculous amount of time on my hands! Let me tell you, the week after finishing your summer exams is one of the weirdest you will experience. It’s like everyone just completely loses their sense of purpose when they don’t have to study anymore – all my friends were slightly dazed, wandering around, not really knowing what to do with themselves!
Upon finishing cell bio my whole year when pretty much directly from the exam room to the union for a much deserved post-exam drink! I hung out with my course mates for a while and then went shopping with a friend who I literally hadn’t seen in three weeks due to us locking ourselves away to study! We had such a great time, was fab to relax and indulge in some retail therapy, despite the ridiculous crowds on Oxford Street! As a side note, High Street Kensington is waaay more chilled for shopping, Oxford Street is obviously bigger but I would choose the High Street over it any day – fewer people, you don’t have to navigate the scarily enormous Primark and you don’t have to have a heart attack every time a clueless tourist tries to cross the Marble Arch ring road and nearly dies. I then came home and did a little bit of packing.
I spent most of the rest of the week packing, spending time with friends and spending as much time as possible in the beautiful London sunshine! One of my good friends from home came up to visit on Friday and we had a lovely lazy afternoon in Kensington Gardens. On Friday night I went to a birthday party and on Saturday we had a fantastic Christian Union BBQ in the chaplaincy garden. The CU president and I thought we would definitely manage carrying all the shopping to the chaplaincy on our own, and we did but it was probably the longest (and sweatiest) 20 minutes of our lives. W as definitely worth it to spend the afternoon eating great food and hanging out with some of my favourite people in the world. #culove4eva
The Summer Ball rounded off my first year experience and it was pretty good (although I don’t think it was really worth paying £35 for…) – after all with free dodgems and a ferris wheel what more do you need?! I got up early to finish packing on Sunday morning and then my parents arrived to bring me home. It’s absolutely lovely to be at home, spending time with my fam and friends and abusing having free laundry again (it’s the little things) but I miss my London buddies already. It’s crazy how close you can get to people in the space of just nine months! Already making plans to visit people around the country!
Thus concludes my first year at Imperial. It has been the most stressful, difficult and amazing year of my life so far. Despite the ups and downs and challenges I have faced this year, I wouldn’t have wanted anything different. Can’t wait to move in to my new house in September and get stuck in to second year!
Chinese New Year and Christmas Jumper Day
