The Student Room Group
Students on campus at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
Coventry

Questions before starting at Warwick!

Could any current students explain to me:

1) How many bike sheds there are around the university, where they are located, and are they sheltered from the rain?
2) Does the University network incorporate antivirus software? I.e: Do I need to buy an antivirus program for my laptop?
3) I've heard that practice rooms (specifically for piano in this case) are severely limited and are hard to get. Does anyone know how this works - is there a booking system?

Thank you very much to anyone who replies!
Reply 1
Original post by nish81
I graduated from warwick this july and used to practice piano in their practice rooms. There're about..8? less than 10 for sure. no bookings system, first come first serve, and if none are free then you wait

I found it easy when living on campus, I normally used to practice sometime between 7-11pm and there was normally a room free, or I had to wait about 15 minutes for a room

when living off campus it was tougher as during the peak hours when i was on campus the rooms would be busier. I ended up being the most realistic keyboard i could find (vmk fatar 188plus) with savings, and put it in my bedroom. I've still made it fit in my tiny bedroom in london, 2 years on, so i suppose it was a good investment :smile:



Thanks very much for your help :smile: Are the pianos in the practice room 'real' pianos or clavinovas/keyboards? And also, do you know what time the rooms are open from? I tend to get up quite early so if I got there are 7am for instance would they usually be free?
Students on campus at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
Coventry
Reply 2
1) There are loads of bike sheds. The ones by the SU and the Maths department are sheltered, but the ones near the science and humanities blocks are not (though there may be other sheltered ones in the area, I'm not sure). These are just the ones I know of, and I am sure there are lots of others.

2) You should never by antivirus software, you can get all the antivirus you need from the free utilities the companies offer. I have heard good things about the AVG one and Microsoft Security Essentials.

3) You get a practise room by turning up and hoping that there is a room free - there is no booking system. During the day it is not uncommon to see queues of people trying to get into one but I have always found that if you are prepared to hang around until 7 or 8 pm, or come back onto campus, there are usually one or two free that you can just walk into, or if there aren't you will just need to wait a few minutes. All the pianos are real but are of varying degrees of quality - if you spend a lot of time in the practise rooms you will quite quickly learn which ones to try to get into. All of them are servicable enough to practise on if it comes to it. Finally, there is an extra music building on the Westwood campus that is maybe a 20 minute walk from the ones in the arts center but in all the times I have been I have never actually failed to get a piano. However, the pianos here are generally in a much worse state and you might not like to practise on them. If you have some free time it is worth going down though, because there are a couple of decent ones including quite a nice grand piano that is fairly often free.
Reply 3
Original post by Bobifier
1) There are loads of bike sheds. The ones by the SU and the Maths department are sheltered, but the ones near the science and humanities blocks are not (though there may be other sheltered ones in the area, I'm not sure). These are just the ones I know of, and I am sure there are lots of others.

2) You should never by antivirus software, you can get all the antivirus you need from the free utilities the companies offer. I have heard good things about the AVG one and Microsoft Security Essentials.

3) You get a practise room by turning up and hoping that there is a room free - there is no booking system. During the day it is not uncommon to see queues of people trying to get into one but I have always found that if you are prepared to hang around until 7 or 8 pm, or come back onto campus, there are usually one or two free that you can just walk into, or if there aren't you will just need to wait a few minutes. All the pianos are real but are of varying degrees of quality - if you spend a lot of time in the practise rooms you will quite quickly learn which ones to try to get into. All of them are servicable enough to practise on if it comes to it. Finally, there is an extra music building on the Westwood campus that is maybe a 20 minute walk from the ones in the arts center but in all the times I have been I have never actually failed to get a piano. However, the pianos here are generally in a much worse state and you might not like to practise on them. If you have some free time it is worth going down though, because there are a couple of decent ones including quite a nice grand piano that is fairly often free.


Thanks very much for your help! I've repped you :smile:
For 2): Are you saying that the free AVG or whatever is as good as buying the full protection copy for £20-£30?
Reply 4
Original post by CJAW
Thanks very much for your help! I've repped you :smile:
For 2): Are you saying that the free AVG or whatever is as good as buying the full protection copy for £20-£30?


Go with Microsoft Security Essentials.
Reply 5
Original post by CJAW
-


Thanks for asking about Piano! I play too and was curious as to how we could practice :wink:

I was wondering whether the Piano society is still up and running? I checked online and the information is from last year. It hasn't disbanded has it? :s-smilie:
Reply 6
Original post by Femto
Thanks for asking about Piano! I play too and was curious as to how we could practice :wink:

I was wondering whether the Piano society is still up and running? I checked online and the information is from last year. It hasn't disbanded has it? :s-smilie:


If you look on pages for other socities, a fair few of them haven't updated either - so hopefully the smaller societies just haven't got around to it :smile:
Reply 7
Original post by CJAW
Thanks very much for your help :smile: Are the pianos in the practice room 'real' pianos or clavinovas/keyboards? And also, do you know what time the rooms are open from? I tend to get up quite early so if I got there are 7am for instance would they usually be free?


I think they are open from around 8/8.30am - I've just graduated this year but remember that I used to go at that sort of time during my first year and there was nearly always a room free :smile:
Reply 8
Original post by Femto
Thanks for asking about Piano! I play too and was curious as to how we could practice :wink:

I was wondering whether the Piano society is still up and running? I checked online and the information is from last year. It hasn't disbanded has it? :s-smilie:


As far as I know, the Piano society is still up and running - I was President last year and passed over the running of it to a great new exec group so I think they probably just haven't got round to updating the info online yet :smile:
Original post by CJAW
Thanks very much for your help! I've repped you :smile:
For 2): Are you saying that the free AVG or whatever is as good as buying the full protection copy for £20-£30?


AVG free is just as good as the purchased one. The bought one contains a few extra functions, but none of them really help more than the already amazing free one.
Reply 10
Original post by kitkatkat
I think they are open from around 8/8.30am - I've just graduated this year but remember that I used to go at that sort of time during my first year and there was nearly always a room free :smile:


Thank you! Yeah that would be a perfect time :smile:

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