Ask a Current UCL Student: The Official Thread

Just finished first year chem eng. First term and second term timetables are different, but I had 9ams 4 days for both, and never finished at 5. There aren't labs in the first year so don't worry about facilities in the first year, can't comment past first year. The course so far has definitely been challenging, but nothing knuckling down can't help! The lecturers - bar maybe 3, are really bad. Spent most the year studying and understanding stuff on my own, and again, only like 2-3 are any good at helping outside of lectures. What I've written may seem pretty grim, don't get me wrong I enjoyed my year though!

Trying to set up an NUS card- UCL hasn't contacted to tell me what my email is going to be yet. Is there a formula I can follow ( ie [email protected]) or will I have to wait for a more random one (ie [email protected])?

Why is the student satisfaction for Physics so low? Considering applying for Physics but this seriously worries me, seems to be a trend across many Physics departments at otherwise amazing instutitions. (Edinburgh too, for example)

Why is the student satisfaction for Physics so low? Considering applying for Physics but this seriously worries me, seems to be a trend across many Physics departments at otherwise amazing instutitions. (Edinburgh too, for example)

Hi I'm trying to book my flight for the term break in advance....when do students usually leave after the term ends?
Because the term ends at 16th of December I was planning on leaving right away but is it possible to? Or do they make you stay longer to do work etc.?

Hey, could you please tell us more about the course? I'm going to be starting Chem Eng MEng this year and was hoping to get more of an insight into the course before I start.

- What advice would you have for a first year Chem Eng student?
- Are there study groups and such?
- Do you take notes during lectures or are they given to you at the end? Are there any websites which have the resources for Chemical Engineering degrees that you found last year?

Thanks in advance!

First year, all you really have are lectures. For 2 of your modules, your time is spent between lectures and tutorial classes, where you go through questions on the last learnt topic. Other than that it's just a bunch of lectures, no labs in first year so couldn't comment on the facilities.

There aren't really ever gaps between lectures, unless you you have some after lunch in which case you have a one hour gap between 1pm and 2pm. You do 8 modules in the first year, in the first term you do 4 (Integrated Engineering, Design and Professional skills, Maths and Intro to Chemical Engineering). Note the first 3 of those modules are ones that ALL engineering disciplines do.

Don't bother reading, don't bother buying textbooks, it's not worth. I didn't do any studying outside of lectures, the only work I did was the courseworks that we were set, although I wouldn't advise having this work ethic, my run up to exam season was brutal because of it aha. You'll have plenty of time for societies and stuff don't worry, I didn't join any cause I'm a lazy git but trust me you'll be fine.

Apart from the 3 modules I mentioned earlier, thermodynamics (second term) is the only other module that you'll have with Biochemical Engineering students. If you're on MEng, you can specialise in Biochemical Engineering in your fourth year though.

There aren't study groups as such, but in your induction week you'll be assigned a second year tutor and be in a group with about 10 other people in your year. They'll meet with you every week for the first term, just to help you out with settling in and stuff. Mine was super useful so make use of them. They should also give you a dropbox link/USB of a bunch of first year tools, pdf textbooks (which is why I said don't buy any), coursework questions and answers, past papers and detailed answers etc, so that's useful.

I didn't take notes in my lectures, most lecturers upload their slides/notes so you can print them and bring them in advance. I suggest you do that, and then annotate as you go through them in the lecture.

My advice for first year would be that in the first term, make as many friends as you can because in all the modules there's a sign in sheet and if you have more friends you have more friends to sign you in if you can't be bothered to turn up. Also, in the first term put a LOT of work into Integrated Engineering and Design and Professional skills, they'll act as your 'booster modules' in case you mess up some of your others, and they're fairly simple to score highly in. Don't go to Maths lectures (there's no sign in sheet for it, luckily), learn it in your own time and do the coursework to the best of your ability (it'll help). Unless you want to, don't go to Introduction to Chemical Engineering (there is a sign in sheet for this though), it's easy enough to learn from the lecture slides, just make sure again to nail the coursework. Get all your partying out of your system in the first term, then in second term buckle down because the modules are a LOT harder, but just enjoy yourself really, the first year isn't worth much so don't stress!

Sorry for the late reply, TSR notifications are broken so I only saw this by accident scrolling through the thread

Thank you so much dude, hopefully we run into each other at UCL in the coming months.

One question though, should I do biochemical instead of chemical or not?

Totally up to you man, I say if you're not very sure go with Chemical, you'll have the choice to specialise in more biochemical stuff in fourth year. Also I think going from Chemical to Biochemical (as in, in terms of knowledge, not switching courses) is easier than the reverse! Don't quote me on that though

I'm just a bit worried about how low the student satisfaction is with the Chemical Engineering department. I mean, the exams at the end of the year will be really hard so I just want to make sure we're getting enough support through the year.

Another thing I was wondering, did you just have exams at the end of the year or were there ones in January? Or small tests now and then after a module? Do these count?