A Week in the Life: LSE edition

sounds like the law people have their own way of life..... is it true? r u guys different from the rest?

I'm terribly bored and it might come in handy for some of those who have applied for BSc. Government (or a degree within the Government department) so I'll do what Milan has done and give an outline of my typical day. My mandatory courses are GV100 and GV101. HY116 and HY113 are my outside options.

Monday
9-10am - GV100 (Political Theory) class - go over points that you have to make about the political philosopher set for last week's lectures, having first read their magnum opus
10am-2pm - grab some sleep, food, catch up on class work, do some reading before GV101
2-3pm - GV101 (Political Science) class - think back to points made in the previous week's lecture. Go through tasks set by teacher, separate into groups, that sort of thing.
4-6pm - GV100 Pol. Theory lecture - sit through Paul Kelly. It's an endurance task, set to weed out those truly committed to a Government degree from the chaff
6-7.30 - make way back to halls, get some dinner and socialise in the common room/outside/in friends' rooms.
7.30-3am - depending on the week, could be doing reading for essays, coping with the arduous referencing and bibliographies, scrounging books from friends. I tend to catch up on TV, spend time doing absolutely nothing, going to the pub or just exploring London by tube if the mood takes me.

Tuesday
4pm-5pm - HY116 (International History since 1890) lecture. Possibly the best lecture of the ones I have but since the lecturer seems to change every week (or second week), you have to cross your fingers that they've been kind enough to provide a presentation so that it's not impossible to make notes. This one is always in NAB since it's quite a popular course to take as an outside option and I think it might be mandatory for those doing History & IR or straight History.
5pm-6pm - HY113 (From Empire to Independence: the Extra-European World in the Twentieth Century) class - great class. History classes are much more animated than Government ones given that we are interpreting events that happened much more recently and which also allow us to make a much broader range of comments regarding leaders like Nasser or Nkrumah. Usually we're put into groups and set little tasks (such as looking at primary/secondary sources) and we also discuss reading about the previous week's lecture.
6pm-3am - same as Monday.

Wednesday
9-10am - HY116 class. On balance, I think this is my favourite class even if it is the one for which we have to do the most reading. Nevertheless, given that the reading is mostly about the Nazis/the Soviets/the First World War/the Vietnam War, it is never a chore. I'd definitely recommend this as an outside option for those whose courses allow them.
10am-'til 3 next morning. This is the time when I usually do my washing in halls, catch up on reading or sleep. If I'm awake in time for dinner, I'll get that and then chill until about 3 or 4 in the morning which has, scarily, become my normal time for dormancy.

Thursday
12-1pm - GV101 lecture. Not the most exciting of lectures but the content is reasonably easy to get your head round and Hix hardly ever takes up the full hour. Win.
4-5pm - HY113 lecture. Quite a small affair this, there are about 50 or 60 people in this lecture and the room is quite small (it's at the top of St Clement's) but the content is, again, very good and the changing lecturers all make it understandable, underlining most people's interest in the subject.

Friday
I have no lectures or classes on this day, so I effectively have a 3 day weekend - unless one of my contact hours is rearranged, in which case I usually don't go Likewise, I use Friday as a day to explore London, get books from the library and/or find friends. If I'm going back home to Manchester of a weekend, I'll go back on the Thursday night and come back on Sunday at about 4-5pm.

It should probably be made clear, this is the timetable that I'll have in MT and ST of first year. In Lent Term, we have 3 hours of psychotic episode-inducing LSE100 which is just a hopeless waste of time. Also, try to avoid missing the same class two weeks in a row as you'll be reported to your academic advisor who'll want a chat with you if s/he receives, in particular, an email on more than one occasion.

If anyone wants any information about the Language Centre modules - Spanish in particular - but not the extracurricular certificate courses, I'm happy to send you a message. Only thing I ask, since someone has already done it, please don't write to me in Mandarin

What makes you bored than? Your week seems fulfilling.
P.S. I have applied the course of LV21 (Government and History).

I posted it during Christmas break (i.e. recently), this timetable doesn't apply to me at the minute.

Have you got any idea of which outside module you want to take yet?

Can anyone give a week in social anthropology here as a first year undergrad?

Or just a brief overview of what kinda contact hours and homework and stuff it entails

Thanks in advance~

I have a few friends who study anthropology and they always seem to be busy as, from what I understand, ethnographies although rewarding are arduous. They all say that they dislike the prolonged focus on tribes in first year and most of the second year anthros agree that first year is not indicative of what is to come later on in the course. Contact hours are the same as any of the arts degrees at LSE, so here at Government we have 4 one-hour classes, three one-hour lectures and a two-hour lecture. I also have it on good authority that anthro students have a good few presentations to do in classes, though don't be daunted, they're not particularly difficult and every course requires them. I hope this goes some way (even if in a token manner) to answering your question.

Thank you for your reply, I kinda have a vague idea excuse me for my ignorance but I thought at uni things were split into lectures, seminars and tutorials? I didn't know there was classes as such like at school ^^;
Ah presentations they're such a pain, one of my politics teachers makes us do a presentation a week instead of teaching stuff to us himself =.=

Ah sorry, I'm using the definition that I'm accustomed to here in Britain so that might not necessarily translate well across into American English - which is where I assume you're from, given that I regularly have this problem

Essentially, classes are the same as tutorials but as far as I know, seminars are quite rare. I'm not even sure which modules they apply to, I don't have any - I'll text my friend now

Oh no I'm born and bred in London I've just always been told they were split in that way..

I still remember the day when I read every single post of this thread to gather more info about LSE. Now Im a fresher studying BSc Economics here, I think it will be nice to give the info for those who wanna know about my life at LSE.

My background: I got a job at the LSE Career Service, started working as early as in the Fresher Week. I actively involved in Finance Soc and Investment Soc. I take Chinese (Beginner) as my choice for the optional module. I get the Spring Week offer from BoA Merrill Lynch and Goldman, now applying for some other summer internships. (Don't think that I have the 'LSE fever' for internships in the City, I applied to the divisions Im truly interested in with a throughout research beforehand)

For those who don't know: EC102 is Economics module, ST102 is Statistic, MA100 is Math n I choose LN104 which is Chinese Mandarin Beginner.

Monday:

1100 - 1200: EC102 Lecture - Best lecture of the week, often help you refresh what hv been covered last week. I never read textbooks (unless when doing problem set) so I try to listen as well as I can to compensate that.
Then rush to submit the ST102 exercise set before going to the next lecture.
1200 - 1400: LSE100 Lecture (Although attending this means I hv no lunch time, I rather do it than waking at 9am on Tuesday to attend the other LSE100 lecture).
1400 - 1600: Chinese class - I think I enjoy this class the most as it is very small (12 people) but studying a new language is frickin hard for me as my native language has nothing to do with Chinese.
Afterward: Walk back to the hall/ or chill on campus with friends/ or having society meetings/ or check FB in library.

Tuesday:

Supposed to wake up for the 900 - 1100 LSE100 lecture but Ive already attended it yesterday to enjoy some extra sleep.
1100 - 1200: EC102 Class: I got Iain Long as my class teacher and he is frickin awesome. I have never missed a single EC102 class as it is a huge waste for me.
1200 - 1300: EC102 Lecture: Great refresh after EC102 class. Again, try to listen to every single word, as everything Alwyn said counts.
1300 - 1400: Lunch time, I try to have lunch with different ppl every time so make new fds.
1400 - 1500: MA100 Calculus Lecture: The way our lecturer deliver the lecture isn't very helpful but the content of Math here is really difficult so my best bet is to attend lecture so I won't miss a thing (or won't feel guilty about it)
1500 - 1600: ST102 Lecture: Skip - Better use my time to read textbooks/do something else. But Im rather concerning about my ST102 now so I guess I will attend ST102 from next week onward.
1600 - 2130: Working for some career fairs of the LSE career Service.

Wednesday:

This is a totally-free day for me, so I use it depending on my need. Often I come to school to attend some skills sessions/workshops of the career service which are very helpful. Or just spend the whole day for revising/shopping or meeting out with fds.

Thursday

1100 - 1200: Ma100 revision lecture. This revision lecture proves that how hard u try revise it, u still fall so behind in MA100. So i try to attend it to fill in the gaps that i don't know.
1200 - 1300: St102: I hv been skipping it for the past few weeks, but I think I need to go from next week onward as Stat appears to be more and more impossible now.
1300 - 1500: 2 hour lunch - often the time to print out all the lecture notes and revision material in library.
1500 - 1700; Chinese class - Fun time studying with friends but the content is so difficult.
1700 - 2100: Working for the career fairs of the Lse career service again (on demand)

Friday - is the worst day of the week in term of timetable

900 - 1000: LSE100 class. Everyone is so tired and sleepy that they don't say a word, and I feel pity for my class teacher trying so hard to get the discussion going.
1000 - 1100: ST102 class: My class teacher is SUPER slow in term of explaining things, but I guess all stat class teachers are like that so i just bear with it and use some time in class to check/reply emails and finish other tasks.
1100 - 1200: MA100 Algebra lecture: Michelle is rather different from the other MA100 lecturer, the way she teaches is very engaging, but have to say she explaining very fast - like VERY VERY fast - so i try to note down everything she say and think about it later on.
1 hour lunch time.
1300 - 1400: MA100 class: Again, my MA100 class teacher is very slow (explaining things step - by - step) so I attend class but use my time doing something else.
1 hour free. often meet friends/have meeting/go library or finish other piece of work.
1500 - 1700: Chinese class: Last class of the week. Very enjoyable but again, studying chinese from zero is very difficult.

Afterward: Friday dinner with friends/ Go China Town with some group in the society/ or rush back to Holborn (my hall) to manage some deadlines that due on Friday.

My overall experience is: LSE has less of social life than other uni, but it gives you more opportunities. LSE students have the fastest access to information of all sources, but it depends on whether you are the type that can make use of that advantage.

I pay something like £14K for my international tuition fee - so i just wanna make the best out of the university really.

Advice for someone who is looking into the uni: Get involved into AS MUCH things as you can, and prepare to open yourself to a different and VERY diverse environment - LSE has no place for ppl who discriminate against other ppl. Everyone in the school is different and you will learn the most from them, even more than you learn from your teachers and lecturer.

If - AND ONLY IF - you HAVE CONFIRMED a place at the school , THEN contact me, I can show you around and help you with your first steps at the school. I will be a mentor for first year in September by the way

Thanks for the post - I am new on this thread just got my offer for L101 last night . Since you are an international student, did you by any chance take the IB? If so how would you compare IB HL maths to L101 1rst year math? thank you