Hi Red Richie,
Thank you for your questions!
Okay so geography at university is different to school because lecturers are key in their fields and so are very knowledgeable and passionate about their topic. In your second and third year at King’s you will have 2 compulsory modules and the rest you will pick yourself, which is great as you can select modules that you are interested in!
You can focus on human, physical or select modules from both. The good thing at Kings is if you first apply to do BA as you feel you are more a human geographer you are able to change at the end of your first year/beginning of second if you have changed your mind and want to do BSc and vice versa.
In your first year you will not select any modules. You will do a mixture of both human and physical but this is to bring everyone up to the same level!
When I was in first year I had assignments roughly every 3 to 4 weeks. Occasionally you will have a time when the work load is more and others when you do not have as much to do. I did numerous essays on first year but here are a few topics I did them on: invasive species, colonialism, floods, globalisation and a sustainability diary. Throughout the year you will do independent study, reading the textbooks/ journals they advise.
Third year will probably be the hardest year, it is what counts most towards your overall degree. There will be a compulsory module, you will undertake an Independent Geographical Study (IGS) which is a 10, 000 word report on anything you wish! Then you will select 5 other modules. Also consider that with geography you can sometimes select 1 or 2 modules outside of your department e.g. philosophy. The IGS may sound a lot but you are allocated a supervisor and it will actually be fun studying and conducting your own research on something you can choose!
In your second year at Kings you will also go on a weeks fieldtrip to either Paris, Morocco, San Francisco or India. I went to India and it was incredible, best trip I have ever been on! It is something to definitely look forward to!
Regarding exams I had all my first year exams in the summer however, the first years this year had one exam in January as well, as they felt it was best to break down the exams. This year again all my exams are in the summer however, physical geographers had one exam in January. Exams vary depending on subject e.g. could be part multiple choice, short essays, unseen essay exams or seen exam essays (whether you get informed of the question or not), and some online. In second and third year modules some are 100% examinations but others are 100% coursework, and therefore no examinations and others are split e.g. 50:50 or 75:25
At Kings in your first year there is approximately 6-10 hours contact time a week, which at first I thought was little but then with assignments and reading you need to do you will be busy when you are not in lectures or tutorials! In second year you will notice a change again as your contact hours will increase a lot, for example I was in up to 5 hours a day. It again depends on what modules you select etc. Regarding tutors etc. everyone is easily accessible, you can always email a tutor and they will get back to you within a few days, usually the same or next day. They are always happy to meet up if you have any problems, queries with grades, questions to ask etc. Also, every lecturer in the geography department has 1 hour a week where students can just knock on their office without emailing or asking before-hand. This is again if you have any queries, and it is very helpful. You can even go in a group if a few of you have the same question/ problem.
Hope this helps.
Thank you,
Paige