A year in the life of a Bath Student
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Original post by SeanFM
"I'm just about to apply there, actually... oh, you've got an assessment centre there?"
Week 8.. the end of the 11 weeks of teaching is almost in sight.
The last day of lectures is Friday the 11th (not the 13th
). I believe that 6th form/secondary etc go on for a week after. What do lecturers do between weeks 11 and 15.. probably scattered around the university buildings like the Krillitanes from Doctor Who. 
Just joking, of course. They probably have loads of research papers to do and or Masters'/PhD students to look after.
What's been going on this week in Bath?
It's been windy and cold on the campus. It seems like gloves are a must some times. And yet, there are people wandering around in gym shorts and without a coat! How do they do it.
I was talking to a friend, who I nickname 'Mr Employability', asking him how placements were going amongst other things. Today he's flown off back to Belfast for an assessment centre, and next week he is off to London for another one! He applied to a company that I was planning on applying to this weekend, passed the interview stage and is headed off for his interview, which is quite daunting considering I've not applied yet.
He's possibly one of the most charming/nice people I've ever met at the university and it's taken him a long way. He's a treasurer for one or two societies and after tutorials he always says right, I've got a meeting at this time.... see you later, and if it's not a meeting then it's one of the sessions run by the careers service (mock assessment centres, workshops, presentations etc). He is doing it right and they must love him at interviews.
Myself, on the other hand, have only just heard back from Sainbsury's. I've made it through to the final stage - assessment centre!
They've given 3 possible dates, one of which is next week and then the other two slots are on the same day, but one in the morning and one in the evening. I haven't made up my mind as to which one I'll ask to go to, and I'm wondering whether it's worth asking if I can go to the first one or not. And as luck would have it, there's a mock assessment centre being run by the careers service just for Maths students.
So yes, I'd just ask people who are applying to Bath, or indeed to any university, see if there's a placement year along with your course as they are great and really popular. If not, summer internships are probably what you need to be doing. Also, get involved in loads of stuff!
A few weeks ago I was working really hard on my stats coursework, and amazingly the tutors seem to have marked it in record time. Lo and behold, the first thing I've ever done at uni that actually counts towards my degree!
Weeelll... it counts for 10% of the Stats module, which is 20% of the semester, or 10% of the whole year, so that's 1% of this year's work done. Seems huge when you put it into perspective.
The second one is worth 15% and seems easier than the first, oddly, but more because it's about Type 1 and Type 2 errors, and powers of tests, which I've done in S4, a module that hardly anyone does at A-level.. It's at this point that I appreciate the choice of degree I've made. I really love Statistics and R, and probability isn't so bad either, and hopefully both will be very useful when it comes to being an actuary.
I was going to have gone through all of the existing probability lecture notes and go through an example of a question in this post, but I've priorotised my coursework and a few applications so that'll be coming next week. Sorry! There may or may not be a mystery guest popping along to give a review of one of the facilities at Bath, just to give a different perspective on things.
I've heard that next week, Bath's renowned Christmas market is starting up again, so I may be able to get something nice.
I'm off to do some revision on Sainsbury's, their competitors and Statistics. See ya!
Week 8.. the end of the 11 weeks of teaching is almost in sight.
The last day of lectures is Friday the 11th (not the 13th
). I believe that 6th form/secondary etc go on for a week after. What do lecturers do between weeks 11 and 15.. probably scattered around the university buildings like the Krillitanes from Doctor Who. Just joking, of course. They probably have loads of research papers to do and or Masters'/PhD students to look after.
What's been going on this week in Bath?
It's been windy and cold on the campus. It seems like gloves are a must some times. And yet, there are people wandering around in gym shorts and without a coat! How do they do it.
I was talking to a friend, who I nickname 'Mr Employability', asking him how placements were going amongst other things. Today he's flown off back to Belfast for an assessment centre, and next week he is off to London for another one! He applied to a company that I was planning on applying to this weekend, passed the interview stage and is headed off for his interview, which is quite daunting considering I've not applied yet.
He's possibly one of the most charming/nice people I've ever met at the university and it's taken him a long way. He's a treasurer for one or two societies and after tutorials he always says right, I've got a meeting at this time.... see you later, and if it's not a meeting then it's one of the sessions run by the careers service (mock assessment centres, workshops, presentations etc). He is doing it right and they must love him at interviews.
Myself, on the other hand, have only just heard back from Sainbsury's. I've made it through to the final stage - assessment centre!
They've given 3 possible dates, one of which is next week and then the other two slots are on the same day, but one in the morning and one in the evening. I haven't made up my mind as to which one I'll ask to go to, and I'm wondering whether it's worth asking if I can go to the first one or not. And as luck would have it, there's a mock assessment centre being run by the careers service just for Maths students.
So yes, I'd just ask people who are applying to Bath, or indeed to any university, see if there's a placement year along with your course as they are great and really popular. If not, summer internships are probably what you need to be doing. Also, get involved in loads of stuff!
A few weeks ago I was working really hard on my stats coursework, and amazingly the tutors seem to have marked it in record time. Lo and behold, the first thing I've ever done at uni that actually counts towards my degree!
Spoiler
Weeelll... it counts for 10% of the Stats module, which is 20% of the semester, or 10% of the whole year, so that's 1% of this year's work done. Seems huge when you put it into perspective.
The second one is worth 15% and seems easier than the first, oddly, but more because it's about Type 1 and Type 2 errors, and powers of tests, which I've done in S4, a module that hardly anyone does at A-level.
. It's at this point that I appreciate the choice of degree I've made. I really love Statistics and R, and probability isn't so bad either, and hopefully both will be very useful when it comes to being an actuary.I was going to have gone through all of the existing probability lecture notes and go through an example of a question in this post, but I've priorotised my coursework and a few applications so that'll be coming next week. Sorry! There may or may not be a mystery guest popping along to give a review of one of the facilities at Bath, just to give a different perspective on things.
I've heard that next week, Bath's renowned Christmas market is starting up again, so I may be able to get something nice.
I'm off to do some revision on Sainsbury's, their competitors and Statistics. See ya!
Wow well done on your first result!! Good luck for the second
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Ben4
Thanks
I hope that your A-levels are going great.
Original post by SeanFM
A few weeks late, sorry!
It is being silly about me uploading this photo into the relevant post about the medical centre so I've popped it here.
Looks like a cottage from a fairy tale, no?
And I only took this photo very recently as the medical centre is on the edge of campus so I didn't really get a chance to pass it until this week, when I had a dental appointment next door. But that's another story.
It is being silly about me uploading this photo into the relevant post about the medical centre so I've popped it here.
Looks like a cottage from a fairy tale, no?
And I only took this photo very recently as the medical centre is on the edge of campus so I didn't really get a chance to pass it until this week, when I had a dental appointment next door. But that's another story.
So that's what the medical centre looks like...
Sincerely,
A second year
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Pro Crastination
So that's what the medical centre looks like...
Sincerely,
A second year.
Sincerely,
A second year.
PRSOM.How to survive living with your flatmates.
I thought I'd share something that's useful for students everywhere rather than just prospective Bath applicants.
Firstly, read 'Our Iceberg is Melting' by John Kotter. It's a great book that you can relate to a lot of situations in life, and plus, it's about penguns! Who doesn't love penguins?
Moving in:
Don't worry too much about when you move in. If you move in during the first few days (which is usually before 'Freshers week' you'll be fine. If you move in later on during the week, people have got to know eachother a bit and gone out or stayed in together doing things, but it's not impossible to catch up, and one person in our flat did just that.
You can't go wrong with having something like cake or apple crumble or anything like that, made by yourself or your parents, to offer to everyone. First impressions take 7 seconds to make, apparently, so what better way to start off? In fact, one of the house parties I went to in the first week, one of the guys handed everyone a can of beer! How nice.
Have some tissues handy. There may be some tears (either of sadness of joy) when your parents drive off (or in my case, catch the bus to the train station) and you're realise you've got some independence now and you should start worrying about what you're going to cook.
Claim some cupboard. freezer and fridge space. Try to gauge where you'll be least likely to get in the way of someone else and it's not too high or not too low. Heck, if there's room left over, claim a second one!
...but be prepared to share if there isn't enough space. Don't buy tonnes of stuff you won't eat for another month - weekly shopping will do it.
Get to know your flatmates. Add them on Facebook. Find embarrassing photos of them. Ask about their interests, what societies they want to join, find things you have in common.. as, if you need to find your own accommodation next year, some of them may well be your future flatmates!
Keeping things clean:
Figure out who the people who can see reason / are organised / want to keep things clean and get them onside for anything. Then call house meetings for anything serious that needs to be done. If there are none, see if you can take charge or consider moving out if they are just too much.
It's all too easy to just get pieces of paper everywhere in your room. File them or recycle them. Get a washing bag to put all of your used clothes in - you don't want to have no floor! And a clean desk is a happy desk.
Clean up after yourself. Some people say it's more efficient to clean up all of your washing in one go, but there's a limit to that, and you don't want there to be no room for anyone by the sink. And there's nothing worse than coming downstairs in the morning to find that you need to wash up a bowl to actually have breakfast. Learn from my mistakes.
House cleans are a must. People'll come round every so often to inspect and threaten you with joint fines (I think the standard here was like £120 for minor offences, so about £10 per housemate). Just next door, there were people who put grafitti in their own house (they were drunk, in fairness) and got fined for it. Good job. Anyway, give everyone a role and keep track of who's doing what. And hoovering is one of the easiest jobs
(you hoover hallways and main areas), apart from one role we had to make to make up 1 role per person in our house which was to wipe down cupboard surfaces.
Being polite:
Don't be the guy who doesn't shower very often.
Don't be the person who walks around in their underwear (or nothing at all - I've had the misfortune of seeing someone naked, in the kitchen, and not their own room. They can do as they please behind closed doors).
Don't be the guy who plays music really loudly during the day. The person who I saw naked wasn't a great housemate on the whole, and he was a fan of playing music really loudly, which I had to ask him to turn down so that I could do an online reasoning test.
And don't make too much noise at night - between 11:00 and 7:00 it should be pretty quiet outside and there are probably rules about this in your handbook.
And most importantly.. have fun!
I can only stress how much I loved all but one of my housemates and they made the first year of university great fun for me. Get together as a house to watch TV shows, or go on nights out, or talk about stuff very late into the night, it's great fun.
I thought I'd share something that's useful for students everywhere rather than just prospective Bath applicants.
Firstly, read 'Our Iceberg is Melting' by John Kotter. It's a great book that you can relate to a lot of situations in life, and plus, it's about penguns! Who doesn't love penguins?
Moving in:
Don't worry too much about when you move in. If you move in during the first few days (which is usually before 'Freshers week' you'll be fine. If you move in later on during the week, people have got to know eachother a bit and gone out or stayed in together doing things, but it's not impossible to catch up, and one person in our flat did just that.
You can't go wrong with having something like cake or apple crumble or anything like that, made by yourself or your parents, to offer to everyone. First impressions take 7 seconds to make, apparently, so what better way to start off? In fact, one of the house parties I went to in the first week, one of the guys handed everyone a can of beer! How nice.
Have some tissues handy. There may be some tears (either of sadness of joy) when your parents drive off (or in my case, catch the bus to the train station) and you're realise you've got some independence now and you should start worrying about what you're going to cook.
Claim some cupboard. freezer and fridge space. Try to gauge where you'll be least likely to get in the way of someone else and it's not too high or not too low. Heck, if there's room left over, claim a second one!
...but be prepared to share if there isn't enough space. Don't buy tonnes of stuff you won't eat for another month - weekly shopping will do it.
Get to know your flatmates. Add them on Facebook. Find embarrassing photos of them. Ask about their interests, what societies they want to join, find things you have in common.. as, if you need to find your own accommodation next year, some of them may well be your future flatmates!
Keeping things clean:
Figure out who the people who can see reason / are organised / want to keep things clean and get them onside for anything. Then call house meetings for anything serious that needs to be done. If there are none, see if you can take charge or consider moving out if they are just too much.
It's all too easy to just get pieces of paper everywhere in your room. File them or recycle them. Get a washing bag to put all of your used clothes in - you don't want to have no floor! And a clean desk is a happy desk.
Clean up after yourself. Some people say it's more efficient to clean up all of your washing in one go, but there's a limit to that, and you don't want there to be no room for anyone by the sink. And there's nothing worse than coming downstairs in the morning to find that you need to wash up a bowl to actually have breakfast. Learn from my mistakes.
House cleans are a must. People'll come round every so often to inspect and threaten you with joint fines (I think the standard here was like £120 for minor offences, so about £10 per housemate). Just next door, there were people who put grafitti in their own house (they were drunk, in fairness) and got fined for it. Good job. Anyway, give everyone a role and keep track of who's doing what. And hoovering is one of the easiest jobs
(you hoover hallways and main areas), apart from one role we had to make to make up 1 role per person in our house which was to wipe down cupboard surfaces. Being polite:
Don't be the guy who doesn't shower very often.
Don't be the person who walks around in their underwear (or nothing at all - I've had the misfortune of seeing someone naked, in the kitchen, and not their own room. They can do as they please behind closed doors).
Don't be the guy who plays music really loudly during the day. The person who I saw naked wasn't a great housemate on the whole, and he was a fan of playing music really loudly, which I had to ask him to turn down so that I could do an online reasoning test.
And don't make too much noise at night - between 11:00 and 7:00 it should be pretty quiet outside and there are probably rules about this in your handbook.
And most importantly.. have fun!
I can only stress how much I loved all but one of my housemates and they made the first year of university great fun for me. Get together as a house to watch TV shows, or go on nights out, or talk about stuff very late into the night, it's great fun.
UCAS, y u no reply!
On the University of Bath applicants thread, I have heard that some people are getting offers (but Maths seems to be quite slow), so I thought I'd talk a bit about offers, accepting them and the whole shebang.
So, you've got your offers, now what?
According to UCAS, if you get your last offer before the 31st of March of next year, then your deadline for making a decision is the 4th of May, so plenty of time! There's absolutely no need to rush and to know exactly where you're going to before the end of this caldender year.
You need to decide what your firm and insurance will be. Usually, the insurance choice will have slightly lower entry requirements unless things go wrong. If you've got 5 out of 5 offers, then it may be slightly tough, but don't write any off just yet!
Offers Holders days - these are important, particularly if you haven't been to an open day. For some courses they may not offer those (I'm not sure about this), for some courses you have to come in for an informal interview before you get your offer, and for the lucky ones, you don't have to go to an open day or have an interview or anything at all! So if you get invitations to these types days, go to them! It'll be a nice break from studying and you get to see another part of the country.
But more importantly.. you get a feel for the university. Bath itself allows you to stay overnight in some accommodations to see what it's like - how nice! For Maths, you also get a talk from a very decorated lecturer (Dr Geoff Smith) as well as the chance to talk to some students, who will actually give you tours around the campus, and you can fire as many questions at them as you'd like. Ultimately, you're going to be at university for 3 or more years, so you want to be somewhere that you think will have a great atmosphere, has all the things you need within reach and so on.
I've had a look at the universities and/or visited them, what now?
Now it may be time to make a list. Have the names of the universities on them, and then list as many pros and cons as you can think of. Some things to ask are:
...and you'll end up with a pretty long list. Friends are helpful to talk to, parents, well.. sometimes.
Okely dokely, I've firmed a university. Now they're emailing me about accommodation!!!11
At Bath, the 'accommodation portal' (where you look at accommodation) opens up in April, so I suppose you'll want to have made a decision by then, but it's not imperative. I actually chose my accommodation in May and was given the chance to switch in August as unfortunately people didn't meet their offer, so spaces opened up, so don't worry if you end up with accommodation in the city (not what you want to be doing in the first year!)
At Bath, some of the best accommodations are swept up in a matter of days, so I would suggest looking into it beforehand and knowing what decisions you'll want to make. Again, a list of all of the accommodations and their pros and cons would be a good idea. You get to choose up to 3 options in order of preference, but don't be disheartened if you don't get your first choice of accommodation. I stayed in the cheapest accommodation at Bath and had the time of my life.
Bath is also good in that you can apply for single gender houses (if you have a really strong preference, for religious reasons etc) or share a room with someone for slightly cheaper rent, has easily accesible facilities etc and even bike sheds for some accommodations.
You can read more about accommodation here.
It's results day,
Hopefully you'll have received an email giving you an all clear in the morning. If not, don't panic. I'm sure that your school will have some kind of support system in place. My school brought in some people I'd never seen before to help those in clearing.
Adjustment/clearing can be tough, as you're making a very big decision in a small space of time. It's all worth noting that not all universities do participate in Adjustment. It's worth a look, but I would say unless you're very happy/confident you should consider taking a year out, perhaps with the opportunity to resit exams in some subjects if they are allowed.
Once you know what's going on, start preparing! Tickets, who's coming down to help you, what kind of things will be provided, what you need and so on. Check that things are in place (like student finance) and everything is okay.
Hooray, you've made it to university.
On the University of Bath applicants thread, I have heard that some people are getting offers (but Maths seems to be quite slow), so I thought I'd talk a bit about offers, accepting them and the whole shebang.
So, you've got your offers, now what?
According to UCAS, if you get your last offer before the 31st of March of next year, then your deadline for making a decision is the 4th of May, so plenty of time! There's absolutely no need to rush and to know exactly where you're going to before the end of this caldender year.
You need to decide what your firm and insurance will be. Usually, the insurance choice will have slightly lower entry requirements unless things go wrong. If you've got 5 out of 5 offers, then it may be slightly tough, but don't write any off just yet!
Offers Holders days - these are important, particularly if you haven't been to an open day. For some courses they may not offer those (I'm not sure about this), for some courses you have to come in for an informal interview before you get your offer, and for the lucky ones, you don't have to go to an open day or have an interview or anything at all! So if you get invitations to these types days, go to them! It'll be a nice break from studying and you get to see another part of the country.
But more importantly.. you get a feel for the university. Bath itself allows you to stay overnight in some accommodations to see what it's like - how nice! For Maths, you also get a talk from a very decorated lecturer (Dr Geoff Smith) as well as the chance to talk to some students, who will actually give you tours around the campus, and you can fire as many questions at them as you'd like. Ultimately, you're going to be at university for 3 or more years, so you want to be somewhere that you think will have a great atmosphere, has all the things you need within reach and so on.
I've had a look at the universities and/or visited them, what now?
Now it may be time to make a list. Have the names of the universities on them, and then list as many pros and cons as you can think of. Some things to ask are:
•
What's the course content like?
•
Will it be interesting?
•
Is it close to home?
•
Is it as far away from home as possible 
?
•
What are the prospects like?
•
Student satisfaction?
•
What do I think I'm going to get for my results (if you don't already have them), and which one would be a good idea to put as my insurance?
•
What do students actually think about the accommodation/course?
Okely dokely, I've firmed a university. Now they're emailing me about accommodation!!!11
At Bath, the 'accommodation portal' (where you look at accommodation) opens up in April, so I suppose you'll want to have made a decision by then, but it's not imperative. I actually chose my accommodation in May and was given the chance to switch in August as unfortunately people didn't meet their offer, so spaces opened up, so don't worry if you end up with accommodation in the city (not what you want to be doing in the first year!)
At Bath, some of the best accommodations are swept up in a matter of days, so I would suggest looking into it beforehand and knowing what decisions you'll want to make. Again, a list of all of the accommodations and their pros and cons would be a good idea. You get to choose up to 3 options in order of preference, but don't be disheartened if you don't get your first choice of accommodation. I stayed in the cheapest accommodation at Bath and had the time of my life.
Bath is also good in that you can apply for single gender houses (if you have a really strong preference, for religious reasons etc) or share a room with someone for slightly cheaper rent, has easily accesible facilities etc and even bike sheds for some accommodations.
You can read more about accommodation here.
It's results day,
Hopefully you'll have received an email giving you an all clear in the morning. If not, don't panic. I'm sure that your school will have some kind of support system in place. My school brought in some people I'd never seen before to help those in clearing.
Adjustment/clearing can be tough, as you're making a very big decision in a small space of time. It's all worth noting that not all universities do participate in Adjustment. It's worth a look, but I would say unless you're very happy/confident you should consider taking a year out, perhaps with the opportunity to resit exams in some subjects if they are allowed.
Once you know what's going on, start preparing! Tickets, who's coming down to help you, what kind of things will be provided, what you need and so on. Check that things are in place (like student finance) and everything is okay.
Hooray, you've made it to university.
Original post by SeanFM
I stayed in the cheapest accommodation at Bath and had the time of my life.
Grrr, how many of our beanbags did you steal last year?
Original post by Pro Crastination
Grrr, how many of our beanbags did you steal last year?
I should explain for the benefit of anyone who doesn't understand.
During Freshers Week, you get people called Freshers Crew giving you a few tours during the day and teach you drinking games at night. They also challenge you to steal a certain amount of something from other people's accommodations. For some people it was toasters, beanbags and even ironing boards (who knows how they managed to steal those), and we got the beanbags but I don't think we managed to steal any! (One of us had somehow aquaired a Quads 4 t-shirts and it was planned to use that to sneak into Quads but...
)There are some other things I could share on a similar topic but whatever happened and whatever was stolen will stay between myself and the 11 other poeple who lived with me.
Where does time go?
I don't think I'll ever stop asking that question.
This week was the last week of term. There was a choir singing carols outside the library, and people collecting things for charity around this time of year. Societies have their final socials of the calender year and the nightclubs are absolutely packed, or so I'm told.
This it what a, well, my, exam timetable looks like.
If there's one thing that I dislike about Bath itself, it's the timetabling. In the first year, I was expecting second year timetabled nicely so that you tend not to have 9:15 starts or have too many hour long breaks but it doesn't work like that, sadly. As for an exam that starts at 9:30, well.. I'll have to be up at a silly time to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the buses etc. And as for how the exams are spread out.. I suppose that it could be worse, could be better. And anyway, timetabling is probably an issue at every university for some students.
So, how do exams work at university? Good question. I can only tell you how it works at Bath. It's a bit like A-level in that you have to show up some time before it starts, and everyone slowly shuffles in, panicking about stuff they haven't learnt or how stressful the exam is going to be.
You place your bags (and possibly coats) in a designated area of the venue. If your exam is in a lecture theatre(!) it will usually be at the front. If it's the founder's hall (a massive gym-like area) then it's the centre, by the nets.
You find your seat number (which you've tried to remember and forgotten just before you enter the door) after doing some laps of the seats and feeling like you're being judged by all of the other people who have already sat down. A calculator is provided if you're allowed one for your exams - you aren't allowed to use your own.
There are some things that you need to fill out before you start your exam - the name of the exam, the exam code and your candidate number, as well as your signature declaring that it is indeed you that is sitting your exam, and you have to have your library card visible on your desk for an invigilator to walk around and check.
The exam markers won't know who you are as you've written your name and candidate number and folded that bit over on a piece of paper. Be warned - it is sticky. I stuck the sheet to the desk once and had to spend a few minutes of exam time unsticking it without drawing too much attention or ripping up the exam sheet. Sadly, that is a true story.
And lastly, you have to fill out a sheet saying which question numbers you've attempted. A bit silly, really, and in truth I think I forgot to do this for one of my exams last year but I can only imagine that it wasn't a problem.
You then get some pieces of paper where you have to write the question number that you're answering as well as the exam code, and then answer questions as you wish.
For Maths students in particular, in the second year all exams that I know of are 4 questions, and the best 3 are marked. You can attempt all 4 if you wish, but I imagine that it would be too time consuming, and demanding really.
The first year had a section A and section B, with all of the section A questions being compulsory (usually short or multiple part questions) and then the best 2 out of 3 longer questions.
A few do's and don'ts:
Do: get enough sleep.
Do: revise.
Do: bring water and plenty of pens.
Don't: drink too much water. You can go to the toilet, escorted by an invigilator, at certain times, but either half an hour or 15 minutes to the end you are no longer allowed to leave the exam hall.
Don't: leave after 30 minutes. You do get the option of leaving early, again during certain times but not too early or not too late. Someone on my course left after 30 minutes for almost all of his exams. He must have been incredibly gifted, though I am not sure if I have seen him in lectures this year. Use all of the time provided. You never know, something may click. Attempt as much as you can.
Don't: Keep your phone turned on! I don't know what the consequences are at this stage.
Hopefully this has been useful. This'll be my last post of this year, although I may update this blog with some information about the units I've been studying, which I've been promising and promising for a long time now.
Have a great Christmas and good luck with the (mock/real) exams in January.
I don't think I'll ever stop asking that question.
This week was the last week of term. There was a choir singing carols outside the library, and people collecting things for charity around this time of year. Societies have their final socials of the calender year and the nightclubs are absolutely packed, or so I'm told.
This it what a, well, my, exam timetable looks like.
If there's one thing that I dislike about Bath itself, it's the timetabling. In the first year, I was expecting second year timetabled nicely so that you tend not to have 9:15 starts or have too many hour long breaks but it doesn't work like that, sadly. As for an exam that starts at 9:30, well.. I'll have to be up at a silly time to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the buses etc. And as for how the exams are spread out.. I suppose that it could be worse, could be better. And anyway, timetabling is probably an issue at every university for some students.
So, how do exams work at university? Good question. I can only tell you how it works at Bath. It's a bit like A-level in that you have to show up some time before it starts, and everyone slowly shuffles in, panicking about stuff they haven't learnt or how stressful the exam is going to be.
You place your bags (and possibly coats) in a designated area of the venue. If your exam is in a lecture theatre(!) it will usually be at the front. If it's the founder's hall (a massive gym-like area) then it's the centre, by the nets.
You find your seat number (which you've tried to remember and forgotten just before you enter the door) after doing some laps of the seats and feeling like you're being judged by all of the other people who have already sat down. A calculator is provided if you're allowed one for your exams - you aren't allowed to use your own.
There are some things that you need to fill out before you start your exam - the name of the exam, the exam code and your candidate number, as well as your signature declaring that it is indeed you that is sitting your exam, and you have to have your library card visible on your desk for an invigilator to walk around and check.
The exam markers won't know who you are as you've written your name and candidate number and folded that bit over on a piece of paper. Be warned - it is sticky. I stuck the sheet to the desk once and had to spend a few minutes of exam time unsticking it without drawing too much attention or ripping up the exam sheet. Sadly, that is a true story.
And lastly, you have to fill out a sheet saying which question numbers you've attempted. A bit silly, really, and in truth I think I forgot to do this for one of my exams last year but I can only imagine that it wasn't a problem.
You then get some pieces of paper where you have to write the question number that you're answering as well as the exam code, and then answer questions as you wish.
For Maths students in particular, in the second year all exams that I know of are 4 questions, and the best 3 are marked. You can attempt all 4 if you wish, but I imagine that it would be too time consuming, and demanding really.
The first year had a section A and section B, with all of the section A questions being compulsory (usually short or multiple part questions) and then the best 2 out of 3 longer questions.
A few do's and don'ts:
Do: get enough sleep.
Do: revise.
Do: bring water and plenty of pens.
Don't: drink too much water. You can go to the toilet, escorted by an invigilator, at certain times, but either half an hour or 15 minutes to the end you are no longer allowed to leave the exam hall.
Don't: leave after 30 minutes. You do get the option of leaving early, again during certain times but not too early or not too late. Someone on my course left after 30 minutes for almost all of his exams. He must have been incredibly gifted, though I am not sure if I have seen him in lectures this year. Use all of the time provided. You never know, something may click. Attempt as much as you can.
Don't: Keep your phone turned on! I don't know what the consequences are at this stage.
Hopefully this has been useful. This'll be my last post of this year, although I may update this blog with some information about the units I've been studying, which I've been promising and promising for a long time now.
Have a great Christmas and good luck with the (mock/real) exams in January.
A new beginning?
Right, the first week of the second semester has finished, so let's get cracking!
At Bath, you have two semesters between late September and the very end of May. After January exams there's a week off, and then 'refreshers week' where societies advertise during the first week of the second semester. I may have to get more involved just to be able to tell everyone else what it's like. There was a poor chap in speedos for what I presume was the swimming team or whatever the name is - it was freezing as well!
Someone has asked me to sum up my experience at Bath in a post. I find it difficult to sum up a week in a post without going on, but here goes nothing!
Right, the first week of the second semester has finished, so let's get cracking!
At Bath, you have two semesters between late September and the very end of May. After January exams there's a week off, and then 'refreshers week' where societies advertise during the first week of the second semester. I may have to get more involved just to be able to tell everyone else what it's like. There was a poor chap in speedos for what I presume was the swimming team or whatever the name is - it was freezing as well!
Someone has asked me to sum up my experience at Bath in a post. I find it difficult to sum up a week in a post without going on, but here goes nothing!
Spoiler
The people of Bath
I often get asked about what the students at Bath are like, so I thought I'd do a quick post on that.
Bath seems to be an attractive place for one of the choices for someone that is also applying to Oxbridge. The term most people use is 'Oxbridge reject' but I think that the word 'reject' is too harsh so I don't use it.
The entry requirements are generally quite high (AAB-A*AA) so not just anyone can get in. So you'd expect most people to be level headed, smart, sensible etc.. but what's it really like?
There are over 15,000 students here (according to this), with a pretty nice gender balance (though this varies from course to course - Physics for example has a lot of male students, whereas Pharmacology has more girls. So as you'd expect, there are all sorts of people here - luckily, almost all of the ones I'v'e met are sound.
First years that you live with:
Taking my accommodation as an example, I was in a place with 11 other guys (not by choice, and single gender houses are very rare unless you specify that you want to be in one for religious reasons). Out of those 11, I feel like I connected really well with 4, maybe 5 of those people, who I'd be able to go out with or watch a film etc. The other 5 people were fine, civil people, but I didn't connect as much with them, but there weren't any problems and they were nice people. The last person, however, was the odd one out, and we just didn't get on for a number of reasons but we were just civil and living there was fine. We hit a few bumps in the road to do with cleaning up dishes, grafitti (from someone from another house) but apart from that, it was fine.
Coursemates
Again, people are generally nice. From what I've seen on my course and heard from others on theirs, people tend to find their groups and stick to them, and there isn't really a huge effort in lectures after that to make new friends there - though in tutorials, there's that option. There are facebook groups for courses and sometimes even tutorial groups! Unfortunately, on my course I've witnessed one person being cyberbullied, which isn't very nice, but that's just people in my year, on my course. Not very nice and not what I'd expected at uni.
Societies
There are some really experienced people running the shows around here. The debating society for example, had a lot of interest at the start from freshers but there were also a few experienced debaters in the years above. The people I've met there have been nice.
Sports
The amount of talent that Bath has is quite impressive, and the first team for many sports can be quite difficult to get onto. But there are also more relaxed things that go on, like departmental football and inter hall basketball, I can't tell you a huge amount about the people doing them, though it seems that a lot of people carry hockey sticks or rackets, and wear a blue jumper that says 'Team Bath' on it. A lot of people here are very sporty.
Diversity
No, not the group! Bath is.. alright. I would say that the majority of people are white, but there are a significant amount of international students as well. Some stick together, some don't.
Is everyone just an antisocial bookworm?
Certainly not! There are loads of social things going on here, whether it's connected to a society or the SU, and you can meet people from Bath Spa on nights out in town too.
Anything else?
There are a few mature students on my course but not a huge amount. There are also some people who are one or two years older but you can hardly tell!
The non-students of Bath are also lovely people. My neighbours are awesome and the bus drivers are some of the nicest people that you could meet!
It's a wonderful place to be.
I often get asked about what the students at Bath are like, so I thought I'd do a quick post on that.
Bath seems to be an attractive place for one of the choices for someone that is also applying to Oxbridge. The term most people use is 'Oxbridge reject' but I think that the word 'reject' is too harsh so I don't use it.
The entry requirements are generally quite high (AAB-A*AA) so not just anyone can get in. So you'd expect most people to be level headed, smart, sensible etc.. but what's it really like?There are over 15,000 students here (according to this), with a pretty nice gender balance (though this varies from course to course - Physics for example has a lot of male students, whereas Pharmacology has more girls. So as you'd expect, there are all sorts of people here - luckily, almost all of the ones I'v'e met are sound.
First years that you live with:
Taking my accommodation as an example, I was in a place with 11 other guys (not by choice, and single gender houses are very rare unless you specify that you want to be in one for religious reasons). Out of those 11, I feel like I connected really well with 4, maybe 5 of those people, who I'd be able to go out with or watch a film etc. The other 5 people were fine, civil people, but I didn't connect as much with them, but there weren't any problems and they were nice people. The last person, however, was the odd one out, and we just didn't get on for a number of reasons but we were just civil and living there was fine. We hit a few bumps in the road to do with cleaning up dishes, grafitti (from someone from another house) but apart from that, it was fine.
Coursemates
Again, people are generally nice. From what I've seen on my course and heard from others on theirs, people tend to find their groups and stick to them, and there isn't really a huge effort in lectures after that to make new friends there - though in tutorials, there's that option. There are facebook groups for courses and sometimes even tutorial groups! Unfortunately, on my course I've witnessed one person being cyberbullied, which isn't very nice, but that's just people in my year, on my course. Not very nice and not what I'd expected at uni.
Societies
There are some really experienced people running the shows around here. The debating society for example, had a lot of interest at the start from freshers but there were also a few experienced debaters in the years above. The people I've met there have been nice.
Sports
The amount of talent that Bath has is quite impressive, and the first team for many sports can be quite difficult to get onto. But there are also more relaxed things that go on, like departmental football and inter hall basketball, I can't tell you a huge amount about the people doing them, though it seems that a lot of people carry hockey sticks or rackets, and wear a blue jumper that says 'Team Bath' on it. A lot of people here are very sporty.
Diversity
No, not the group! Bath is.. alright. I would say that the majority of people are white, but there are a significant amount of international students as well. Some stick together, some don't.
Is everyone just an antisocial bookworm?
Certainly not! There are loads of social things going on here, whether it's connected to a society or the SU, and you can meet people from Bath Spa on nights out in town too.
Anything else?
There are a few mature students on my course but not a huge amount. There are also some people who are one or two years older but you can hardly tell!
The non-students of Bath are also lovely people. My neighbours are awesome and the bus drivers are some of the nicest people that you could meet!
It's a wonderful place to be.
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