A Day In The Life Of...

... A History Student

I'm hoping to go to uni this year to study history.

Oviously I know every course and uni will be different but if anyone can give me a simple idea of their weekly activities eg are there generally lectures everyday? How long on average to they last etc? How much work do you do out of leactures etc?

Basically what is your typical day?

Reply 1

Lottie

Not working, feeling guilty about not working, finally doing a bit of work before getting distracted by whatever's on the iPlayer.

Reply 2

Cessie

This year (my 2nd year) I had uni Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.................altogether I had 4 lectures, 1 hour each; a 1 and a half hour seminar; a 1 and a quarter hour seminar; one and a half hours of French. My first lecture/seminar started at either 10, 11 or 12 usually, and I had to leave my house about 3/4 of an hour before that to get the bus. Once I was done I'd sometimes stay and work in the library for a bit but would usually just go and get books and then work at home.

I'm not really sure how much work I did outside of lectures etc in terms of hours. For a seminar reading could be anything from about half an hour to a couple of hours. For French we got set homework. For each module (we did three) there were 3 essays of 2000wrds to do over the year but they were non assessed. Then we had an assessed essay of of 5000 words in each module in the summer term, and an exam of 2-3 hours in each subject.

Reply 3

blondevalkyrie

To start I had two lectures a week and 1 seminar so 3 hours in total, but after a month it went down to 1 lecture and 1 serminar a week, thus 2 hours in total.

Reply 4

fake plastic love

I only had to go into uni 3 days a week.

Basically you'll find yourself watching an incredible amount of This Morning, Loose Women and Jeremy Kyle.

Reply 5

apotoftea

fake plastic love

I only had to go into uni 3 days a week.

Basically you'll find yourself watching an incredible amount of This Morning, Loose Women and Jeremy Kyle.

Noo, it's Jeremy Kyle, then This Morning then Loose Women, (then before Neighbours moved to channel 5) it would then be Neighbours followed by Doctors and Quincy.

Then you think about doing the pile of seminar reading for 9am the next day :biggrin:

Reply 6

*River

Lottie

Not working, feeling guilty about not working, finally doing a bit of work before getting distracted by whatever's on the iPlayer.

. Having a book open on your desk whilst you watch TV is work.

Reply 7

apotoftea

*River

. Having a book open on your desk whilst you watch TV is work.

And putting post it notes on 5 different pages just to show you've actually used the book :biggrin:

Reply 8

-CBee-

Depends on the day really, this year (my first) I had 2 terms of 5 hours a week contact time and 1 term of 6 hours a week. Meant I didn't often have more than one thing in a single day. Average day included a bit of reading, a lot of procrastinating, a bit of contact time and plenty of jibes from people doing Bsc's that I'm lazy and my degree is worthless.

When you have a deadline to work to everything changes though, that's when I actually spend all day working. At least in first year you can coast when you don't have essays in.

Reply 9

ames123

First year I had about 12 hours a week, slightly less in second year and then about 5/6 hours a week in third year. Third year was mostly made up of seminars. Hardly did anything in first year, second year did some work and did quite a bit in third year. Went to the library everyday in third year, but I still could of done more. Third year weekdays for me, normally got up about 11/12, went to seminar, had lunch and then went to library for a few hours, came home, did tea and watched tv.

Reply 10

Mr_K_Dilkington

I will be starting History at Queen Mary in September. I want to join the officer cadets (1 evening (4 hours) and 1 whole weekend a month) and also get a part-time job (say 2 evenings a week at a bar (10 hours total) or something). Will I be alright doing this without it affecting my studies?

Reply 11

Cessie

Jay Riall

I'd say so yes. Personally, I didn't work at all during my 10 week terms, and just worked in Xmas/Easter hols but I know plenty of people with bar jobs during term time. As long as you organise yourself it shouldn't be a problem. The only problem might be if you have a few assessed essays due the monday after you do a whole weekend with cadets. But, as long as you're organised, you'll have plenty of warning for when an essays due so you can make sure you've done it before.