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A Week in the Life of a Warwick StudentTSR Wiki > University > University Guides > University of Warwick > A Week in the Life of a Warwick Student
BiologyYear 1Review by floralteapot (2011) Biological sciences timetables change every term from what I gather so in first term they were quite busy with various lectures and labs as well as other classes (equivalent to what I would call seminars I think). 2nd term this died down a little, but there seemed to be more labs and 3rd term obviously nearly everything is stopped by 5th week. They've had quite a lot of lab reports to hand in, both at different times as it depends which lab sessions you are in so your coursemates may all have different deadlines, they also had mini multiple choice test throughout the year which seem to have posed no massive difficulties to them. I know that they probably missed a good proportion of lecures end of term1 and term2 which shows that its not necessary to go to them all, although they are regretting this a bit now its exams and they have them all to work through! Through first term they both probably went out at least twice, probably 3 times a week; similarly through 2nd term, maybe a little less so there's plenty of time for a social life with the subject. As your probably know biomed and biologys first year are the same and they can choose from the same modules (or so I understand) so there is the option to change to biomed after first year if you've applied for biology initially which is what one of my flatmates has done for second year! Year 2Review by 94asm (2009) The course for Biochemistry is very tough to begin with with high contact hours from the offset (what with Warwick starting lectures from day 1 etc), but does get less intense after week 5 of the first term and then less intense each term after that. That said, despite the course being interesting, being thrown in at the deep end to start with made it difficult to make friends other than people on my corridor and now, just under halfway through 2nd year, I can say I'm not enjoying the university experience.
My second year was the 09/10 academic year, and some changes have been made to the course since then. I chose to switch to Biological Sciences for this year, because the modules were more appealing. I had some core modules, and a lot of optionality. I believe that the new system allows people to pick two options, but check with the department on what the most recent rules are. The newer system requires students to take fewer modules and thus fewer exams: it was really intense for us, and apparently still hard for the new guys. Labs become A LOT more fun this year. Instead of single week labs, they run for a few weeks, and you get to do more interesting experiments. The reports become more important marks-wise, but also fewer. Essays get ramped up a lot, but after an abysmal initial one, I hit my stride and got into the groove of writing academic essays. I think that the second year is much more enjoyable than the first, because there's a lot less recapping of A levels and a lot more new material. You start to feel more like a scientist. Year 3Review by Jale (2011) My final year was the 10/11 academic year. This can technically be your fourth year if you take the year in industry. On the Biology stream I had complete control over my options, and so did six things that I was interested in. Everyone does four pieces of assessed work, which will be an essay, a 'seminar' (15 minute talk given to your class), or a lab, depending on your options. For me, this was two essays and two seminars. The third term has the final exams (which were hard!) and then the final project. I had chosen to do something in Neuroscience and worked out with a staff member what my project would be. I had months to read up on it, but you only get six weeks to do the experiments and write it up. It was very challenging, but I got a good mark. You just have to be organised, pay attention, and keep lots of notes on what you are doing. ChemistryYear 1Review by Sophie90 (2010) Mhmmm so this term I have about 3 lectures each for organic, inorganic and physical chem a week and each lecture is 50 mins. then about 2 maths lectures a week. Its just A level maths stuff.. there are 2 maths tests you have to pass... you get 3 chances for each lol On thurs and fri I have labs from 11-4pm.. but you can leave as soon as your experiment is done.. so the faster you work... the earlier you leave and you have to do a lab report for each one I usually have 1 tutorial a week. They're an hour long and there are 5 people in my tutorial group. you get set the questions and have to hand them in 24 hours before the tutorial so your tutor can mark them.. randomly have workshops every now and again... had a computer workshop this week. theyre pretty easy.
Review by Nirgilis (2011-12) Summary: The weekly hours do vary immensely, however, we have a minimum of 20 hours a week (after consulting last term's timetable) if you turn up to all the compulsory lectures and the non-compulsory maths lectures (I'll explain later). Some weeks have lectures, labs, tutorials and workshops all crammed into 5 days, with several weeks a term matching or exceeding 30 hours. While 9am to 7pm with an hour for lunch is unenviable (especially with arts students on 7-9 hours a week :erm:), those days do exist (though they're much more rare for straight chem as opposed to the option chemistry degrees) and you're definitely getting value for money. Lectures: You will take 5 modules in the first year; organic, inorganic, physical, maths and labs. Of these you will have lectures for all of them except labs with 4-6 lectures for each module a week. Lecturers are all top quality, though the physical chemistry thermodynamics lecturer is sooooo dull, only a select few people can stay awake. However, so long as you can do the problems sets provided, you will be fine. The lecturers (other than maths and thermo) only take sets of about 8-10 lectures, so it's rare to have the same lecturer for more than 3 weeks. You will find everybody turns up to the first lectures and then attendance rates lower throughout the term, but I can guarantee that turning up is the best option. Maths: This is a special case. Every 1st year has to pass maths with 80% or above in order to proceed to 2nd year (you get 4 attempts). This is only A2 level standard of maths, so if you have done it to A2, it's really nothing to worry about. Lectures for these are non-compulsory, however, once the syllabus for the maths exam has been taught, Professor Bon does start to explain the underlying principles of thermodynamics. But, unless you are Albert Einstein, you are probably unable to understand any of it, hence the non-compulsory nature. Labs: Labs are tough. No way around it. Undergraduate labs are every Thursday in term 1 and every Thursday AND Friday in term 2 (first years). The evening before your labs you must complete a theory test on the upcoming labs. Try 10 times and don't get full marks, you get 0 for the experiment. The labs themselves are gruelling. Technically we get 11-4 to do all the experiment - not enough time for some of them by a long shot. However, if you are not cleaning up by 3.30, 5% will be docked for poor time keeping. This often means no lunch break, and sometimes no break for a drink! Postgraduate students are on hand in your group of 5/6 to help and answer any questions, and they will mark your write up. We also have an overseeing professor who is analogous to Professor Snape from Harry Potter - he is the essence of evil. If you don't have any idea why you just added one thing to another, you are a failed chemist and are better off becoming a chef as even they can follow experiment protocol ('recipes'). He will dock marks for poor lab practice, whether it be weighing material incorrectly or have apparatus that isn't set up securely. You can view this in two ways - he's just teaching you the labs oldschool, or he's evil :H. If, however, you know the experiment and can do them correctly, he's perfectly nice. He also will not take offense in asking for his assistance. It's just a matter of doing that before he gets to you :lol: . The write-ups take anywhere from 2-6 hours to complete, though you have 7 days to submit it. Overall, the labs will take up 36 credits - more than any other module, so it's best to spend some time to get the most marks. Tutorials: You are assigned a tutor for each module. Three or four times a term, worksheets will be set for you to complete, hand in and get feedback for. This happens in your lab groups of 5/6 and are pretty much like an A-level class. The marks don't count, though you do have to try the sheets as they can refuse you entry to the tutorial and this will get recorded on your record. Workshops: These happen with about 70 of you in a lecture theatre and they are basically large tutorials. You get given a sheet, two or three professors then wonder around giving you help should you need it! These will not be taken in and not marked. Assessment: The entire degree is assessed by end of year exams, though there are January 'feedback' exams. Unfortunately, the first year does count (10% BSc, 5% MChem). You are required to reach 40% in each exam to pass into the 2nd year (apart from maths) and any score below 40% will require you to resit in September. If you then fail again, you cannot proceed. While the workload is great, the course is great fun Comparative American StudiesYear 1Review by Grape190190 (2010) Monday 11am-12 - literature seminar. Term 1 was North American lit in which we studied Walt Whitman's poetry, Rabbit Run by Updike and All the Pretty Horses by McCarthy. Term 2 was Latin American lit with a different tutor but at the same time and in the same group. We did One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits. This seminar and the work you do it for it makes up half your grade for the Comparative Literature and Hist module (which always baffles me because there's nothing comparative about it). You do two two thousand word essays for Lat Lit and two for North Lit, with only the best of each counting - yes, that does mean you can just hand in a two thousand words of drivel if you get a good mark in the first one. The essays are extreeeeeeeeeeemely easy to do well on - you can bag yourself a first just by writing confidently and making some interesting assertions about a text. The seminars themselves were always kind of awkward. Seminar tutors do most of the talking. The idea of them is just to nick other people's ideas for your essay - which is one reason why I never really said anything. Another is that I was invariably behind on the reading. Monday 1pmish (I think) - Comparative lecture. These are occasional lectures (one every three weeks, maybe) comparing various themes across the Americas. So, they might compare how slavery worked in the USA to Brazil, or something like that. The purpose is to feed you ideas for your end of year Comparative project (which makes up the other half of your Comparative Hist and Lit mark). I went to one of these and it was crap, so I can't offer much of an opinion on them. Monday 5-6 - Spanish. You learn Spanish at a level which suits your past experience. It's INCREDIBLY boring, but probs worth going to since it's the hardest bit of the degree. Tuesday 2-3 - Latin America lecture. It's kind of embarrassing but I rarely made it up for 2pm on a Tuesday (Monday nights - drinking! YAY!), and if I did, I didn't go to this. But it probably would have made my life easier if I had. They feed you enough that you can blag the seminar on the Thursday. This won't help much with the essays, I don't think. But it may have made the exam easier if I'd had notes - still the exam was MEGA easy and you're allowed to just rewrite your short essays in it. So meh. Wednesday 12-1 - North America lecture. Pretty much ditto, except the exam is slightly harder (the questions are more specific), so if you're gonna go to one or the other, probably this one. But they do almost always put the podcast on the Internet, so whenever the textbook let me down in revision, I'd just listen to the lecture. Wednesday 1-3 - Spanish. DOUBLE FECKING SPANISH. This was definitely the worst two hours of my week. I wanted to die. Thursday (every other week) 10.30-12 - Latin America seminar. This is the worst seminar of the three by a long shot. It's early in the morning. I was usually hungover. The tutor sets individuals a specific area to talk about. And they cared a lot if you didn't turn up. Do what I never did: read for this seminar - save yourself the anxiety of reading a chapter of Penguin Hist outside the room by doing some reading. On the other hand, the essays are nice and easy again. My tutor had a policy of giving me 68s for every single one, and the exam incidentally. (There's a weird first year marking system whereby they don't give you your actual mark but an arbitrary point on the marking system closest to what you should get. It's weird and hard to explain but basically you can't get exactly a 70 or a 69 or a 71.) I'll talk more about essays below. The seminar was again awkward. But the tutor was reaaalllly nice. Like, kinda demanding Thursday 2-3 - North America seminar. Okay, so this one in general was a lot better. It doesn't help in any way with exams or the essays, mind, but it was just more lively. Quizzes and sweets and stuff. The other seminar groups were apparently AWESOME, though: we were the only CAS group to have our tutor, and so we kind of feel like we missed out. Essays are basically the same as Lat, except most people seemed to find they were marked slightly more harshly (not a lot, mind, but still). Essays I did all mine in one night per essay. It's the best way. Try and get a group who you write your essays with and just stay up all night with them. There are so many CASers in the Learning Grid the night before every deadline - it's wicked. You can spur each other on, order lots of food and then when you're all done go hand them in on the way home. Also: if you do the same question, you can share books. This is important. Don't worry too much about them. They don't take up much time. You basically need to read something basic about the topic, decide arbitrarily what you're going to argue, and then use quotes and facts from other books to make it seem researched. If you just write a strong intro which says "I am going to argue this. The main reasons for this are 1, 2, 3, 4", and then follow that through, you will probably get a high 2:1. Apart from Spanish, this is a low-work degree in first year. If you want to read lots of articles and books, you can impress seminar tutors and maybe bag a few extra marks. But if you want to do other things, pursue other interests, you definitely have time. Computer ScienceYear 1Review by secretmessages (2009) Ok, here goes. In first year, everyone doing computer science, computing systems, or computer and management science follow the same "syllabus". That is, everyone has the same core modules, and the same optional modules to choose from. After first year, depending on your degree, you split off and have to do different core modules to everyone else. You can usually switch between those three courses at the end of the first year without a problem. Right, so. There will be 6 core modules: two in term 1, two in term 2, one which is spread over both term 1 and term 2, and one which is spread over the whole year. There are also several optional modules that take place in various terms. First term Programming for computer scientists. This is basically your introduction to Java. There are two pieces of coursework, one due half-way through term 1, and the other due at the end of term 1. Don't worry about this for now. The first piece of coursework will be spoon-fed to you and by the time the second piece comes around you'll know loads of Java. A lot of people get 100% on both pieces of coursework. Last year this was 2 lectures a week for 10 weeks, plus about 5 or 6 group seminars during that time Mathematics for computer scientists 1. This includes logic, proof, set theory, relations, functions, graph theory, and probability. 3 lectures a week for 10 weeks, plus 10 seminars which will help you with the four problem sheets that you have to complete throughout the term. Computer organisation and architecture (terms 1 & 2). This module doesn't start until mid-term. It's concentrated on the hardware side of things, like buses and CPUs and RAM, motherboards, chips, bits... In term 2 you'll have a number of three-hour lab sessions where you can experiment with the hardware, and towards the end of the second term you'll be asked to do a mini project by programming in C to interact with the hardware (C is taught briefly during the module). 2 lectures a week for 10 weeks. Introduction to computer security (optional; terms 1 & 2). Starts mid-term 1 and finishes mid-term 2. Speaks for itself really, it's all about computer security - hacking, viruses, malware, worms, encryption. There's a cool piece of coursework you have to do where you have to hack into a specially made sandbox-system to try and find security flaws with it . This is 2 lectures a week for 10 weeks, plus 5 lab sessions and 5 seminars. Statistical laboratory 1 (optional). This runs for the 10 weeks of term 1 with 2 lectures and 1 seminar per week. It's run by the statistics department but it's a popular optional module for first year computer scientists. If you've done maths or similar at A-level, it's very similar to S1 and S2 (distributions, probabilities etc.) and it's really not hard at all. 2 small pieces of coursework. The exam for this module is usually in December. Term 2 The second half of computer organisation and architecture The second half of security, if you do it Design of information structures. I think this has a weird structure, something like 3 lectures a week for 7 weeks. Anyway, this is an extension of programming for CS, so more advanced Java. You'll have 5 two-hour marked lab sessions, and a relatively large programming coursework. The exam is quite hard but only worth 50% of the module. Mathematics for computer scientists 2. More maths, 3 lectures a week for 10 weeks, plus 8 seminars. More proofs, vectors, linear equations, and lots of calculus. 4 problem sheets, just like maths 1. Terms 1, 2, 3 Professional skills. This is horrible. In term 1, you'll learn all about using the UNIX system, and you'll have one lab session a week in which you'll build up a "portfolio" of what you've learned, which will be examined. In term 2, you'll learn about the professional aspects of computing, such as ethics, computing/data laws etc. You'll also have one seminar a week on writing skills, and you'll have to write an assessed fact sheet, critique, persuasive piece, and final essay at the end of term. In term 3, you'll have a class test on term 2's lecture material, and you'll have to give a group poster presentation and individual oral presentation. All of this is assessed, but there's no exam for this module (other than the informal class test). There are other optional modules than the two I listed above, such as mathematical programming (from the business school), economics, philosophy... a list of suggested optional modules is here. You will find you'll need to take 2 or 3 optional modules to make up at least 120 CATS credits for the year. Other Comments In general, the workload is pretty easy-going. You may have stressful periods such as during exams in term 3, or the week before a coursework is due, but other than that it's quite easy. Definitely don't have as much work to do as mathematicians or physicists . You should find (depending on the optional modules you take, of course), that the first five weeks of term 1, and the last 5 weeks of term 2 have the least happening work-wise (10 to 15 hours of lectures/seminars combined per week), and the 5 weeks either side of Christmas have the most work to be done (15 to 20 hours per week). English LiteratureOverviewReview by Miss_Scarlet (2010) Obviously quite heavy reading on some modules (the 'Epic' one for example), so I advise making a start as early as possible so you can stay on top of it! You have plenty of module choices, especially in your final year, as the English department is very big- a benefit of coming to Warwick. There is a big library on campus too, so most of your study/research needs can be met easily. Staff are mostly very friendly and helpful too. English is based in the Humanities building which is quite central on campus and easy to get to. You usually have one or two assessed essays (throughout the year) and exams (end of each academic year) in each module. Marks from the first year do not count towards your final grade, if I remember correctly, but most second year marks DO carry across and go towards your final degree grade. Not sure how many hours a week are spent in lectures/seminars, varies per year, but in my first year I clearly remember having Monday and Friday completely free (my other 3 days were pretty packed though!). Year 1Review by floralteapot (2011) So basically so far Term 1 and 2 have been pretty similar. I have 8 hours a week of contact time, that's 4 lectures and 4 seminars, so there's plenty of spare time around that to get stuff done. My monday is empty until 5 and my friday is completely free so it's like having a 4 day weekend which is excellent! Being the nerd that I am I haven't yet missed a lecture/seminar but at least 2 of the lectures a week you could miss and easily catch up as they are recorded and loaded onto the website so you can listen again easily and catch anything you missed. The majority of my seminars are groups of around 8 and are basically just informal chats about the book we're studying/chapter etc. Some of my tutors don't like you to take notes and prefer it to be a discussion however some you can scribble away quite happily in. In terms of assessment, they spread the essays out quite well over the course of term. In Term 1 I had a 1000 word unassessed commentary due about week 5 and a 2000 words unassessed essay for the same module due week 10(end of term). For another module I only had one 2000 word unassessed essay all term. 3rd module I had about 2 unassessed essay, spread out over term and my last module I had 2 unassessed essays due week 5 and week 8. So far I've written 2 assessed essay which are the ones that actually count towards your year mark; one due at the start of Term 2 and the other due week 5 term 2. For these you get the questions about 6 weeks prior to the deadline and so you get over the Christmas break to do them. I'm enjoying the course so far. Before I came I was definitely apprehensive about modules such as The Epic Tradition, and more so when you begin to read them but after a while it all makes sense and you become interested in what you're studying more than you initially thought! EconomicsYear 1Review by Poltry (2008) Term 1 About 12 hours of lectures plus about 5 or 6 hours of seminars a week. First two weeks of actual lectures start off really slow and easy. It almost feels like you have nothing to do. But then all the lectures speed up incredibly and the work piles on. A typical week id say, is to go to about half of the lectures and definitely all the seminary. Every lecturer puts in-depth notes on the internet, which makes it very easy to catch up on whatever you misssed. After about 3 weeks you realize that for many lectures it is really not necessary to go. On the other hand, seminars are extremely important and very very useful, as they really explain what was taught in the lectures, and also give help for all the weekly assignments. Most modules will have weekly, or bi-weekly assignements (some assessed, some not),and others will have essays, keeping you very very busy. In fact you will spend a lot of the time in library or in the learning grid!!!! a lot! If you take Mathematics for Economists, one of the optional modules, be prepared to give up thursday nights at Evolve, as assignments are assesed and due every friday of each week! Microeconomics will most proabably pose the most problems (as it has done for most students i know), and so when the bi-weekly assessed assignements are due, you will find yourself staying up very late. Overrall id say you definitely get more work than most other subjects at warwick ( from i can tell from my friends on other courses), and in fact you dont get as much free time as most other first years, but the course is really really interesting! One advantage is that most lectures are never before 11 am (except one or two 10 oclocks), unless u take accounting and finance module, which is usually 9 am. Tuesday mornings are usually freee, whihc is very gooooood considering Top B is monday night )) If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. EngineeringYear 1Review by WaterfrontWAR (2011) We have three core modules Tech Sci 1 Design for Function Economics and etc. etc. etc. And an Optional (I would personally reccommend something like Multimedia tech, not a language [people who do a language often fail], not philosophy [3 exams!] and not Rights and Wrongs of the engineering profession and society [since it's the one i'm doing and I really dislike it]) Tech Sci is, in general not too bad. Throughout the year it seems quite hard, then it gets to exam time and you realise that everything other than mechanics makes sense (Especially if you work through past papers) Design for Function (Today's exam - eek!) has a lot of project work. At each stage (pretty much) there is an electrical, a mechanical and a civil laboratory and you pick your labs at the beginning of the year. A Quick note: For Reverse Engineering, The Bridge Project (civil) is group assessed, the Motor Project (mechanical) is individually assessed. The Bridge isn't too difficult but if you have a bad group like I did, then you will end up doing ALL of the work and be up til stupid o'clock in the morning to try and finish it. At least on the motor project you aren't relying on anyone else. I would really recommend the Load Bearing Framework lab for Stage 2 Project as it teaches you something that you also need to know for mechanics (tech sci) but how it is taught is an awful lot clearer. The exam... Might be a nightmare, I don't know yet. Economics is quite interesting in my opinion, lots of people hate it as there are no quantitatively right answers. There are two 'mini tests' at the beginning of second and third term which assess the learning from the previous term and it's really worth doing well in those as it takes the stress off for the exam. For the exam you get a cast study two weeks beforehand to analyse, so it shouldn't be too bad. Every week you'll have a meeting with your personal tutor to check how you're doing and go through answers to each week's set problem list (Usually these arent too bad, but a couple are absolute nightmares. You arent expected to get them all right, just to have had a go.) It's worth making friends with your personal tutor, they're there to help you plus they mark some of the work that you do throughout the year. You do three laboratories through the year for Tech Sci. Then, near the end of second term they tell you on 9 am on a Monday morning which lab you have to write up and you have until 12 noon on the Wednesday. Quite honestly I don't know why they didnt cancel lectures for those few days since absolutely no-one turns up. Most people were doing all nighters to try and finish the lab report (I was one of those people, awake for 3 days and calming myself down with a walk round the lakes at 4 am). That is the only 'stressful' deadline that we have had this year, the rest you always have enough time to prepare for. First year engineering isn't really that bad - you get out what you put in and it's quite easy to balance a social life, a couple of societies and do well on your course with time left over for eating and sleeping . There is no 'typical' week as your time table will be different every single week (literally) If they do things the same next year as they did this, you will have 9 am's probably 3 times a week in your first two terms, most of your lectures will be concentrated in the mornings and afternoons will be free (this is where all your example classes and laboratories go) Later yearsReview by Greg1989 (2011) Both my flat mates were engineers, and lived with them in halls first year too if you are doing the 4 year masters version as they did I know there is more pressure as you need to keep your grades at a certain level just to stay on the 4 year course. They found some things harder than others such as thermodynamics was apparently quite hard. In the 3 years I was living with them they did have to study quite hard compared to some other subjects but not to bad. They both are on course for 1sts and I know for a fact one spent the majority of his time either watching films of gaming (he didnt like going out much). The other studided a bit more but had plenty of time to watch films with us, and was in a couple of sports teams that took up his weekends. All in all depends a little which modules you choose as your optional ones. This term I dont live with them as ive graduated but they have apparently had almost no free time. Just going off skype chats and things its been pretty hectic trying to get all of their projects done and still find time to revise. But it is partly as the first term this year was very very quiet and then most of their subjects (or at least the hard parts of the subjects) were this term so everything came at once. Again I think this is partly due to options. French StudiesYear 1Review by Misteryom (2011) My week really isn't that strenuous, and I'm a very laid back person... you shouldn't take your fresher year too seriously as for most subjects your first year does not count towards your degree, you should focus on acquiring key skills that will help with the rest of you degree/life. Attend your seminars, you will be followed up on it if you miss more than about 2 a term, lectures... go to most of them at the start of term, get a feel for which are useful and carry on going to those, I find that my French Imagination lectures are very informative whereas the grammar lectures teach me nothing. I'll add that I am in old Rootes accommodation... which is reputedly the 'party accommodation' good fun times. So here's an average week. Monday 8am... rise from my pit, shower, much on toast. 9am, essay seminar... essay skills and such. 10am, this varies between; Go back to bed and Do some work before everyone else starts distracting each other. Dither around... people usually are up by about 12 so have some chats with them and such, maybe have some lunch. 2pm, Oral Seminar... just an hour of chatting in french I suppose, nothing too strenuous. 3pm onwards, Lounge about and chat with mates, get generally no work done, Monday night, Ignore what this video says by all counts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKczu_5Gx1o) Usually get the uniexpress (uni run busses that get you to/from clubs with tickets including Qjump and entry) at 10.30 to Notorious mondays at evolve in Leamington Spa, this is a good night out and is biweekly. Tuesday I have tuesdays off so I usually get up at around midday. I designate this as a day to do a lot of my work... If I have an essay to write I will usually write it on a tuesday, or at least the majority of it. Tuesday evenings will, undoubtedly take you to smack in Leamington at some point, BE CAREFUL from experience this is always a rather drunken night, £1 vodbull goes down a treat, watch out for the Queue on non-notorious weeks though, can end up Queueing for an hour or 2. Wednesday 11am Lecture which I often miss (modern contemporary france isn't very interesting, at least it wasn't in term 1, got better in term 2). 2-5pm French for Business seminar... I would advise you not to take this module. Although it is very informative and has taught me a lot, 3 hours is hard work, and often boring... especially seeing as the rest of the university has wednesday afternoons off. Not a lot goes down anywhere on a wednesday night so maybe hit up the dirty duck (on campus pub) or the terrace bar (campus bar)... if you didn't get the picture yet, me and my flatmates drink quite a bit. Sports clubs hold their drinking circles in the union on a Wednesday from 7... Im not a member of any clubs but they always look like good fun if you want to get involved, they lead straight into POP! which is the unions '90s' club night... often with fancy dress theme, but circles themes usually differ. Thursday Usually get some work done in the morning... wake up at 11ish normally. 2pm Modern contemporary france seminar... much more interesting than the lecture but be prepared to be asked questions on the spot. 3pm French Imagination seminar. These are invaluable! Go to them! great help with themes and imagery when writing essays. Thursday nights people tend to head up smack or evolve in leamington but there's nothing major going on there. Varsity (a pub just off campus) has £1 drinks and a DJ on a thursday night, definitely worth trying out, can get fairly busy though... They do good food too! Friday 11am, French Imagination lecture, This is my favourite lecture... I am so committed to going that I threw up behind a parked bus on my way there... and carried on! Make lots of notes, very useful for essays. Lecture slides and often podcasts are posted on the website though if you do miss out. This is where you see lecturers who have a passion for their field of expertise. 12-1pm Grammar Seminar... Deadly boring... don't really get very much done. 1-2pm Grammar lecture... Also deadly boring... I think I've been to about 2 this term... They use this slot to give you talks about going abroad in your vacations and stuff though, they are worth attending. Friday night will either take you to TopBanana on campus... an ok night out but you will probably adopt the habit of heading to Kasbah in Coventry. Good night out... club is very hot and sweaty but amazing (discover sweet shop and BBQ in smoking area) Weekends Leamington is a nice place to go if you fancy going to some shops (Coventry has good shops but they are mixed in with all the rubbish shops... and Cov city centre makes you feel depressed.) If you want some fresh air public footpaths in the countryside are easily accessible from campus. Students tend not to go out on weekends 'cause all the clubs are more expensive cause it's when all the locals head out, terrace bar and dirty duck still worth a hit... or watch a film or something. Most people tend to do work between midday and dinnertime on Sundays I've found... but then the banter is up again in the evening. Other Information
Finally... appreciate always that you are not at Coventry Uni... That is all History and PoliticsYear 1Review by Quinion (2009) There are three core modules, one for History (Making of the Modern World, from the Enlightenment to present) and two for Politics (Introduction to Politics and World Politics). MMW has two hour-long lectures a week, as well as a 75 minute seminar in groups of 8. IP and WP combined have three hours of lectures a week (in our first term there were 2xWP and 1xIP; this changed round for second term) and each has a 60 minute seminar per week, in groups of about 12-15 usually. In addition you pick one further history module (there are a series of short presentations in the first week of term by the module directors to help you decide) - these usually have a weekly lecture and a fortnightly seminar. In terms of weekly workload, MMW is the most demanding. You'll need to read about 5-10 specific sources per week (you're given them on a DVD at the start of the year, so there aren't any excuses about 150 people trying to get hold of one book in the library) which can take up to a day to read thoroughly, then talk about them in your seminar discussions. IP and WP have "suggested reading", so it's best to read a couple of journal articles or chapters so you understand what's going on. You'll need to write about 12 non-assessed essays over the course of the first year, i.e. three in each module, which partially count at the end of the year in History but not in Politics (see below). They are always from a selection given to you in the module handbook, and will typically be about 1500 words for the politics modules and 2000-2500 words for history ones, though this obviously does vary. In my experience researching thoroughly can take at least 2 days if not more, and writing about the same. Week 6 of the first two terms is reading week, i.e. there are no lectures or seminars, so this tends to be a good time to get them written - you'll probably find there you have a couple due in week 7 anyway. For assessed work, politics is straightforward - you take a 3 hour paper in IP and a 3 hour paper in WP. That involves writing 4 essay-style exam answers. History is more complicated. You don't take an exam in your optional module; instead, you are assessed on the basis of the best 2 of your 3 essays over the year, plus a further long essay of 4500 words. This essay is of your own choosing and needs quite a bit of research - it's due by about week 4 of 3rd term, so it's best to get it done over Easter. In MMW, I believe you are now assessed by a) the best 2 of your 3 essays over the year, b) a one question one hour exam in the summer, c) a group presentation from your seminar that you have researched and delivered together. I don't know much about this as it didn't exist until last year. Nothing that is assessed in first year counts towards your final degree. You simply need to pass (i.e. get over 40%), and it is virtually impossible to fail to be honest. Year 2Review by Quinion (2009) You take one core Politics module, Political Theory from Hobbes, which is essentially a history of the most notable political philosophers. The second politics module is your choice from a range of national political systems and similar (eg Politics in the UK, Politics of the USA, Politics in the 3rd world). In History you choose two optional modules, one of which I think has to be from the early-modern period. In Hobbes you will be in a seminar of up to 18, sub-divided into three groups, each of which will need to give a handout and presentation on one of the seminar questions. It's up to you how you do this, but our approach was to meet in the library having each done a bit of reading, pool together our findings and then we'd take it in turns to type everything up into a handout and then deliver it in class. This is not in any way assessed. You will have one compulsory essay to write in first term, and one optional one in 2nd term - basically, it's in your interests to do it but you aren't required to. Essay requirements for the other modules will be much the same as first year. With all second and third year modules you will have choice over how you are assessed. In second year, you can choose either 100% exam, a three hour paper, or 50% exam 50% assessed essay. So for the latter, that will be a 90 minute or 2 hour exam paper and a long essay like the History one from first year, with the deadline being about the same. No matter how much you might prefer essays to exams, it is definitely not worth attempting more than two long essays. Year 3Review by Quinion (2009) Third year options are more complex. History have some modules which are double-weighted - that is, they count for half of your year. The actual amount of reading and seminar work is the same as it would be for a regular module, but you have to do either 2 exams on it or one exam and one dissertation-style essay of 8,000-10,000 words (tutors encourage the latter). With this in mind, your options for choosing modules are: a) A double-weighted History module, a regular History module and one Politics module, b) A double-weighted History module and two Politics modules, c) Two single weighted History modules and two Politics modules, or d) One single weighted History module and three Politics modules (though if you take this, one of your Politics modules must be Issues in Political Theory, which is core for all students doing straight Politics). Politics modules are very varied in style for final year - I'm personally taking one on Middle East Regional Relations and another called Shapes and Shadows of the Cold War (I'm also doing a double-weighted History module on America in the 1950s). You can also choose to do a Politics dissertation in place of one of the two Politics modules, though this isn't a great idea if you're doing a double weighted History module. Assessment in third year is like second year, other than you can choose to do two long essays and no exam if you wish. The condition for all of this, however, is that over the course of second and third years at least 50% of it must be exam-based. But this is for your own good really - if you were doing more than half of your assessed work researching and writing huge essays you would definitely struggle to get everything done. Final Comments Final degree classification is done by combining second and third year work - you do eight modules over the two years. Your lowest score for any one module is discounted (so you won't be heavily penalised if you happen to have one really bad exam day), and the grade is worked out from the remaining seven. To be honest, I've probably made it sound a lot harder work than it actually is. Contact hours a week are very small when compared to science subjects - about 12 for first year, 9-10 for second year and 6-8 for third year. This is obviously because you are expected to read widely, but in practice if you do an average of 2-3 hours reading per module per week (excluding essays) you ought to be fine for 2:1 standard. Independent work and time management are skills you're encouraged to learn, but they aren't hard to pick up. If you do, there's no reason at all why you can't spend more of your uni life at Warwick enjoying yourself and engaging in other activities than actually doing your degree. ItalianYear 1Review by jeh_jeh (2009) My timetable is static throughout the three terms, so I can't see my routine changing very much. I don't have that many contact hours - 9/week - so I tend to spend time reading (or, most likely, sleeping). On a Monday, I have a lecture 1-2pm, so I generally sleep in 'til 12:30pm-ish, and then have an uber rush to the Social Studies building to get there in time. Every week, I promise myself I'll wake up earlier the next week, but this inevitably never happens. Not only am I pretty lazy, but Monday tends to be essay hand-in day for the Italian modules, so I've most likely gone to bed far too late on Sunday evening. I'll come back to my room at 2pm and do the reading and prep for the matching seminar that's 4-5pm. Again, I'm not very organised here, either, so this two hour gap is a lifesaver. I'll often prat around on the internet (read: obsessively stalk people on Facebook) during this time, too, or pop to Costcutters and indulge in my usual Fresh2Go chicken salad, Diet Coke and Special K Bliss bar (yes, I'm a creature of habit). After my seminar, I'll come back to find my sciences and Maths hallmates (who supposedly have more contact hours [and therefore pressure] than me) sleeping, and our kitchen deserted. Warwick has a bit of a reputation (or at least I got this impression before I started) for being somewhat of an antisocial university. I can refute this claim entirely with the student madness that is Top Banana! A few strategic knocks on doors and the sleeping beauties are awakened for a night of hardcore drinking. £2 entry + £1 drinks = good night out < £10. I never knew the university before the Temporary Events Structure occupied Tocil Field, and I have to say that although Top Bs have been a bit hit-and-miss there (they started off very crowded and, as a result, far too hot 'cause the air con. was crap), I'm weirdly gonna miss the floor that bounces like it's about to give way now that it's been abandoned in favour of Tempo and the Grad@Cholo in preparation for the launch of Phase1 of the Union rebuild at the beginning of Term3. For someone with such few contact hours, I have a horrible timetable. My only 9am of the week is on, you guessed it, a Tuesday morning. Because we never got straight to bed after Top B (kitchen parties, ftw), it's inevitably a crazy hour at which my bed is reached (if at all - it's often easier not to sleep, 'cause then you don't have to worry about sleeping through the alarm) and so Tuesday combined lecture/seminar (the only two hours we get for the particular module) pass in a tired and hungover daze. I then come back to my room and die for a couple of hours (and do grammar and conversation homework. See a pattern emerging yet?!) in preparation for my double whammy of Italian language (advanced) from 1-3pm. After this, I'll often come home and work (writing up grammar notes from the points covered in class, etc) until my hallmates are back. Tuesdays are pretty quiet as far as the SU's concerned, so sometimes we go to the Student Cinema (off the Science Concourse in L3) ('High School Musical 3' has been a particular favourite this year...!), or just drink in-kitchen, being the raving alcoholics we are. Wednesday is fairly relaxed because I only have one seminar. It's for the optional outside module that I had to take - in my case it's The Epic Tradition - and my seminar tutor is incredibly passionate, which is good. However, I often feel that all the Classics geeks know so much more than I do, so I tend to be pretty quiet. The rest of Wednesday is primarily either a sleeping day, or a hardcore essay day. Wednesday evening is Score!, which we go to sometimes. I'm not a huge fan, so sometimes we go to the Cinema, or just hang out in the kitchen. I guess socially it's slightly different for me because one of the boys in our kitchen isn't eighteen yet, so we haven't been able to do the Coventry/Leamington club scene yet. Wednesday nights often end up being quite unpredictable, and late-night walks to the Library foyer for Ben&Jerry's icecream are not unheard of. We've even taking to going to the Tesco's just off campus. Thursday morning is translation class, for which my attendance is slightly luck-of-the-draw, depending on the night before. And then I have the lecture for Epic, which is always a bit of a waste of an hour, to be honest, but I have to go otherwise I don't get the notes and, believe me, I need them. Thursday night isn't regularly anything in particular, either, so we often go to the Kami Lounge, or the Grad, and have a drink. We inevitably either end up going back to one of the other halls, or having people over in our kitchen, so there's always something going on. Friday is completely lecture-free day for me, so I sleep in late and then either procrastinate the day away or, if I have an essay looming (ie in for the following Monday), I get my head down and work. Often, I'll also go food shopping with a friend, and then eat together. Sometimes I'll go home for a long weekend, although this is becoming rarer. Friday evenings are spent, pretty much, in a drunken haze. Every other week is the Union's indie night in the nightclub, Tempo, and we tend to unwind nicely after a stressful week. On a Saturday, I sleep in late and wait for the after-effects of the night before to wear off. If I need to do laundry, I do it now. Saturday night we either go out, or hang out in the kitchen, and Sunday is one long sleep catch up ready for another busy week. In the evening, I go to the Christian Union, and then tend to go and catch another film with my hallmates. Other Comments I think I've been very lucky with my kitchen, in that we've all bonded really well as a group, so even if there's nothing very appealing going on at the Union, drinking in the kitchen turns into a lot of fun, and we've been known to have some rather "epic adventures" (read: completely stupid ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time and are completely hilarious in retrospect) together. The workload in Term1 wasn't that bad. I had a commentary to write for after reading week for Epic, an essay and then an essay set to be handed in after the Christmas holidays. I had one essay for each of my two Italian content modules in Term1, too. This term is proving to be more work intensive, yet it seems that as we're bonding more and more as a social group, we're drinking more and so work is taking more and more of a back seat. I'm not entirely sure that it's the correct correlation, but since my first year doesn't count (not above the 40% required pass grade), I'm not too stressed. As for how long I spend on an essay, I'm a bit crazy in that I work best under pressure, so it really just depends how long I give myself. I don't find that giving myself longer produces better grades for me personally, either. Yeah, see, told you I'm weird. I've joined a few societies, too, although I rarely go to their socials - if I have any spare time I sleep!
Year 2I spent this year as an Erasmus student at university in Italy.
Years 3 and 4I'm going to talk about both of these Honours years together because the modules are shared across the years (with the exception of the final year dissertation). I'm Single Honours, so a dissertation is compulsory but it's not too bad. In third year I did three 15CAT modules a term for two terms (plus compulsory language) - Dante, Renaissance Italy and Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching. The modules were excellent, but it was a bit crazy doing so many 15CAT modules because I had 2x 5,000 word essays and 1x 2,500 word essay due in straight after Christmas, and 1x 5,000 word and 2z 2,500 word essays due in after Easter. They were enjoyable, though, and because I did so many longer essays it took the pressure off the exams slightly. Also, you obviously didn't have to do to matching 15CAT modules, although I did, so there's much more flexibility in module choice. In Year 4, my timetable is pretty evenly spread from Monday to Thursday. I'm doing L'Italia nel '900 (Twentieth Century Italy) and English and Italian Short Fiction, plus language and dissertation. They're both good, although you have to write an essay in Italian for '900. We'll see how that goes! Language is really useful this year - lots of grammar consolidation. LawYear 1Review by Amberine (2011) i had 8 lectures a week and 4 seminars - one for each module. that means LOTS of reading and preparation. If you can keep up with readings BEFORE lectures, I believe you have an advantage. (I never did this.) Make sure you put lots of effort into seminar work though as tutors DO ask their students questions at random. If there is one thing I can think of to do regarding you course though, is make sure you DO go and see your personal tutor and if you don't like him/her, request a change. Your personal tutor will be the person who is supposed to give you support. Law is very intense and sometimes it is good to have that support. Or, some find they can build quite a good rapport with some of their seminar tutors. Most of the tutors are extremely friendly and welcoming anyway (unless you are unlucky enough to get those that come from outside of the uni to 'teach'.) In my first year, the earliest I started was 9am, and 6pm was the latest I finished. I recommend that you join the Law Society or, if you are doing European Law or a year abroad, the European Law Society. I lived at tocil and it was fantastic. Just don't get on the wrong side of the cleaners no matter what accom you are in. In hindsight, I wouldn't choose Warwick if you are after a uni with a fabulous nightlife. It does have a couple of good nightclubs, which you have to travel off campus for, however its nothing to rave about. But, the key is having a good set of flatmates or friends. As for second/third year and living off campus, choose Leamington! Review by xstrim (2010) I take Law and Business... So i guess i can tell you guys abit about the law bit haha... 1st yr you take... Tort Law: Has to remember a bunch of cases...but i heard its more interesting than criminal n property...however 1st term..the lecturer wasnt so good...i went to the first lecture and thats it...(i heard everyone clapped @ the last lecture because they are finally done wif him hahaha) 2nd term a lady came and she was quite helpful...I personally find the course interesting..but..the lectures...it depends on the lecturer... you might find the seminars quite helpful...i find it helpful..however once i notice that my seminar tutor doesnt take attendence..i stopped attending haha. Assignments...you have one 2500 essay due after easter (ihavent started working on it yet -_-), well you also have 2 other assessed essay which isnt really that hard if you can spend...5-6 hours on it? Modern English Legal System (MELS)....Basically u learn about facts facts and facts..Boring class i didnt attend any....Doesnt cover much anyways coz its only 1 term Property: I heard its hard....you have to remember different statutes and crap... Legal System: Philosophical stuff? It's abit similar to ...ToK if you guys took IB...Have to hand in an essay after easter (many different weird topics to choose from) Criminal: Don't know much about it haha but if you wanna know about life in general....I dont go to class @ all so..yeah it can be pretty chill..but i care about my assessed essays and stuff...so i do spend some time in the library to study..but dw if you dont go to class and you have an essay due...it wont take long to study&finish that essay.... and for the business part...if you are like me and you dont like to go to class...you probably will hate business integrative project (depending on what kinda person you are, i dont like to meet all the time and work on something that wastes time imo....)...otherwise first year bschool...is a joke. Dont Worry. ManagementYear 1Review by mlleflorence (2011) Management is a relatively relaxed course compared to other courses at Warwick, something you wouldn't really expect considering WBS is highly ranked in the UK. Most modules are exam-based, which means 7 exams in term 3. 2 of my modules were essay-based, assessed at the beginning of term 2 (got first honours!). You really do get to fully experience uni life. I didn't have any 9 o'clockers in term 1, but this changed in term 2 (and the timetable got a lot more complicated as well), so I'll just give you a peek in a typical week in term 1.
I do most of my seminar work/lecture preparation (that I eventually gave up on) on Wednesdays and on Sundays. Social life wise, I go out quite often, and coming from Rootes, that is definitely not surprising. However relaxing the course might be, the intellectual content catches up with you when you slack off during term time and decide to leave everything until the holidays. So try to keep up with lectures, even a little bit, every week or so! It's all about self-motivation. Also, we might not have as much work as other students (especially Bio students, they have lab reports to hand in almost every week) but it is an enjoyable course nonetheless, it gets more interesting after going through the introductory chapters in every module. MathsYear 1Review by princess1729 (2008) Terms 1&2 I had about 25 hours of lectures, 3 of support classes (1 teacher, about 30 students booked in, many less actually showed up), 2 of supervisions (1 4th year, 4 students, although there was usually 1/2/3 there). I occasionally went to a supervision, went to the odd support class when it for a hard module, and went to about 20 hours of lectures. Some were skippable as you can buy the notes and go through them by yourself/flick through for the first time the week before an exam. I had 9am lectures most days as they try to timetable later years modules for later in the day as they have to travel in and we're on campus. Irrritatingly, they don't have the lectures in a block, they were spaced from 9 - 7 with a few hours in between each. Plus my programming classes were 7-9pm! Typically, I'd have 2 assignment sheets due in Monday, one Thursday and a test on Friday. All of which count towards my degree in some small way (year one is worth 10%, assignments/tests are worth about 15% of the year) so have to be done well. The weekend and wednesday afternoons (when there aren't ever lectures) would be spent working solidly. I often worked in the evenings too. Term 3 No lectures. Some useful revision lectures, 1 or 2 per course. Most of the time spent messing around doing nothing, until 6 weeks in when mad revision started. Then 2 weeks of absolutely nothing at the end of term. Social Stuff There is Top Banana, an event in the Union Monday nights which is £1 entry, £1 drinks which i usually went to. Then Thursdays the pub Varsity which is on the edge of campus has £1 entry, £1 drinks which is also a good night but not a nightclubby one. The union has various other events as do places in Coventry/Leamington Spa but these are more expensive and you have to bus to Cov/Leam and taxi back which is costly. Twice a week was enough for me! I don't do anything with societies much although they are good. I dabbled with cheerleading, pole dancing, rock climbing (AMAZING indoors wall) and I go to Christian Union stuff a fair bit which are excellent even for the nonreligious. They do nice things for people like give out free hot chocolate after Top B which is great for the cold walk back to halls! Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)Year 1Review by LFCDRM (2009) think i got 10 lectures, and 4-5 seminars per week. Work is a lot if you want it to be (doing all the reading and preparing well for seminars), but you can get away with working considerably less, as along as you prepare for tests and do good work on your essays. Economics1, World Politcs and Introduction to politcs are all good modules so far. But not sure if I like the Mill and Descartes one. The teaching quality in economics and politics have been great so far imo. Especially the economics1 lecturer is amazing. Philosophy is not as good, but guess i might be biased as i don't like it as much as the other two subjects. Lecturers are in big rooms with several hundred people, and than we have seminars with approximately 10 people in them. And there is always office hours or e-mail if you are wondering about something. To be fair I haven't spent much time in Coventry. Mostly on Campus (which is good, but it gets a bit old after a while), and in Leamington (which I really like, lots of nice restaurantes, bars and some cool clubs). PsychologyYear 1Review by jem_angel (2009) There are about 120 people in each year (psychology is a popular course ) You are usually in the humanities building (the one with the purple stones outside if you've been to an open day!) In your first year you will do 4 modules which run throughout the year... intro to psychology which is made up of 4 parts: Psychobiology and cognitive science (which are 5 weeks each and run in the first term) and personality and developmental psych (which again are 5 weeks and run in the second term) Of these i know that people found psychobiology hard (esp. if you didn't do a level biology) but it is do-able... cognitive science is good if you are into the science side of psychology (i'm not)....personality is ok and if you've done a level psychology it covers some of the same stuff and developmental psych is my interest so i loved that part 2nd module is further psychology which is made up of history of psychology and social psychology (which usually run parallel to psychobio and cog science) and psychopathology and memory (in second term) History of psychology is pretty simple but as it's one of the first modules you do it can be frustrating to learn about philosophers before you even start on the psychology lol it's interesting if you give it a chance though social psychology has a great lecturer but is not really my interest Psychopathology is awesome... a lot of people are interested in it and we didn't get to do it in second year (i'm not sure if this has changed) so enjoy the module in first year! Memory is also interesting and will build on stuff from your a level 3rd module is methods and is the practical aspect of the course... it is split up into: statistics and practical classes... statistics is assessed by an exam and in the lecture you learn about different statistical test and when to use them practical is assesed through practical reports and your own project (working in groups) in your 2nd/3rd term... in the classes you learn about different research methods, how to write up experiments and using computer based statistical programs (not as scary as it sounds) 4th module is one that you choose from another department i did spanish and i know people that did modules in sociology, film studies, philosophy and education...it's a good opportunity to do something else you are interested in... You don't tend to have a lot of lectures in your first year (which you will get teased on if you have any science subject friends lol) There is a 1 hour lecture for each modules so one for further and one for intro every week.... plus you have a seminars a week for either further or intro (they work on a fortnightly basis).... in the first year the seminars don't tend to be that useful For the statistics part of the methods module you will have an hour lecture a week plus a seminar a week and for the practical part you have a 3 hour class You will also usually have a lecture and a seminar a week for your extra module So that's about 10 hours a week. That's pretty much it for your first year.... you will have some form of assignment for each part of each module usually an essay but they are moving more towards giving short answer questions now (you can find out which modules do which once they update the psych website in mid-september) which is worth 33% of each module ... so in your first term you will have 4 assignments and you will also have to do about 2 practical reports for your practical module (you will also get 10% of your credit for that module from taking part in some of the lecturer's research as participants...easy marks) and then the exams at the end of the year which are worth 67% Other comments Although you will have less lectures that your science subject friends you are supposed to do quite a bit of reading around the lectures and for the seminars and assignments.... a lot of people don't do this (myself included) and end up trying to do it all in the easter holidays before exams which is not fun so it's probably best to try to do some each week... as you don't get a reading week (similar to a half time) like the arts subjects because psych is classed as a science Ok that's a reaallllllllllllyyyy long post I would say to join the psychology society as you can get a mentor who will be a 2nd or 3rd year and they are really helpful when you are stuck at essay times or when you have to find journal articles on the internet. SociologyYear 1Review by screenager2004 (2010) Please note that they change the times of lectures/seminars every year, so while this might give you a general 'feel' for the course, it won't be the same as your timetable. There are also a lot of optional modules, I took Sociological Imagination and Investigation (now split into two separate modules 'Sociological Perspectives' and 'Researching Society and Culture'), Social Welfare in Britain, Gender Class and Empire (which has now been semi-incorporated into 'International perspectives of Gender') and a language module - your timetable depends on what modules you choose I was in Westwood in my first year. Monday: Wake up at about 11am. Roll around in bed for a good 30 minutes, then drag myself out of bed. The walk from my dorm in Westwood to central campus is 10-15 minutes. (Depending on how heavy my bag is) 13.00 to 14.00: Social Welfare in Britain Lecture. (Affectionately known as 'Swib' - Very Historical module, and delves into economic history a lot too, you study the development of social welfare policy from the 18th Century Poor Laws right through to modern day welfare state.) 14.00 to 15.00: Gender, Class and Empire Lecture. (Again, another historical module mainly on gender roles throughout pre and post industrial society, very qualitative.) 15.00 to 16.00: Social Welfare in Britain Seminar. (In a seminar we discuss the topics and issues that arose in the lecture earlier as a group.) After that three hour sesh of epic learnage I usually go to the library for half an hour, and try to sort out my reading list for that week. For each module, each week you are set about 4 or 5 chapters of core, key readings from various sources, which can amount to a good 12 or 15 chapters of reading per week - many people don't bother and quite comfortably get a low 2.1, but being the geek I am I actually did read most of it every week, so be prepared to read a lot if you want a high grade! You can tell the dweebs who don't bother in seminars, they stick out a mile! Monday evening is the student night, Top B, which most of my halls usually want to go to, so we will socialise in the kitchen from about 6pm (eating dinner) through to about 10pm pre-drinking, then go to Top B, and get home about 1/2am. Tuesday: Wake up at 10am. 11.30 to 13.00: Sociological Imagination and Investigation (now SP/RSC) Seminar (The core module, a.k.a SII; more discussion of the key concepts.) 13.00 to 14.00: Gender Class and Empire (now IPG) seminar. (which I quite enjoy. The seminar leader for this module is also one of my favourite, she does a lot of group work, there is often a group presentation exercise where you go up to the front and talk, and then everyone questions you. Which is a lot of fun.) 14.00 to 15.00 I have a free gap. Which isn't really enough time to go home and do anything, so I'll either spend it in the library, or I'll pop to the Dirty Duck and meet a friend for a drink or something to eat, or run home because I've forgotten to print off the lecture notes for SII. 15.00 til 16.00 is the Sociological Imagination and Investigation Lecture (this looks at the key thinkers of sociology; Durkheim, Weber, Marx and their opposing methedological perspectives.) On tuesday evenings my hall has a communal meal, meaning we will all pay £1 and have a big meal together prepared by one of us. We've had Stews, Chilli, Curries, Carbonaras, Pizzas etc. Lots of fun, might hang out in the kitchen or watch a film together afterwards. Wednesday: I have nothing timetabled, as does my friend, so we usually spend the day in Coventry or Birmingham shopping/eating (go to the bullring in your first time for shopping heaven!). On wednesday Nights is 'Pop' at the Students union, which my flat usually all goes to. Thursday: I have Japanese from 14.00 to 18.00. One of your first year modules in Sociology is an optional module choice, you can take something from the Sociology department, or you could take something from economics, philosophy, history, english literature or a language module. There is a huge selection. I took Learning Japanese 2. (I had a little test in the first week to see which group I'd be put in) Friday, Saturday: I have nothing timetabled, this is my weekend. I spend it engaging in silliness. Sunday: I finish any reading that has been neglected, or needs to be done urgently before tomorrow. |
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