Imperial typical timetable?

How demanding is a Imperial College degree?

I am aware it is quite hectic with a 9am to 6pm day, compared to most other univeristies this is much more. At most other univerisites you could have quite abit of free time, where you could do loads of extracurricular or other work in term time and pursue hobbies further too.

Is it really that demanding at Imperial College?

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Reply 1

DanielJ

Here's an example timetable for 1st Year Electrical & Electronic Engineering, to give you an idea: http://www2.ee.ic.ac.uk/timetable/Autumn05/g15305.pdf

Note that there are some lectures & study groups on that timetable which only take place once in the term.

However it must be said that depending on the course you may have fewer hours than that.

Reply 2

Tom H

Dynamic_1

I am aware it is quite hectic with a 9am to 6pm day

Is it really that demanding at Imperial College?

I think hardly any course has a 9-6 day. Mine is only 10-11 then 2-4 most days.

Reply 3

Dynamic_1

I am interested in Computer Science. So the typical timetable hours might be similiar to other univerisites?

I mean do you really have 9am to 6pm structured day?

Is there any free time? I have heard rumours Imperial is not for the academically 'faint hearted' ?

Reply 4

SpiderBoy

For a start like every UK uni you get Wednesday afternoon off.
You should always get 12 - 2pm off for lunch (unless you take a language or humanity module which are scheduled to take an hour of that gap)
It is really course dependant however if your timetable says that you have 9-5 most days, chances are lots of these will be labs or tutorials which you only need to attend every 2 or 3 weeks maybe.

in first year Mech Eng i probably had 25ish hours a week, however half of these were tutorials for if you had problems, and i think there is an advantage to a mainly structured timetable - it makes it a lot easier to motivate to work! There is still plenty of free time for extra curricular stuff at IC though, else we wouldn't have so many clubs and socs.

Reply 5

Dead Chic

computing is pretty much 9-6

Reply 6

pole_from_swede

depends on the week i guess. when we had a project going on, whole EE first year group was sitting from 10am till midnight at the uni doing their experiments (including weekends). but if u have normal lectures, then it is about 5-6 hours a day with 2 hours on wednesday. so u will have times when u have to stay a bit longer. but it depends on the subject really.

Reply 7

Dynamic_1

Dead Chic

computing is pretty much 9-6

Some areas of Computer Science are very challenging and become confusing.

Programming especially comes with practice, practice and more practice writing as many programs and finding out why the program does what is does.

Most other areas of Computer Science would not cause me too many problems. :wink:

Reply 8

Wineblood

Dead Chic

computing is pretty much 9-6

ROFL. We have one day where it's 9-6 but that's if you go to the really pointless classes. Most days have about 4 hours of classes a day.

Reply 9

Dynamic_1

Wineblood

ROFL. We have one day where it's 9-6 but that's if you go to the really pointless classes. Most days have about 4 hours of classes a day.

Is this for Computer Science, 4 hours per day?

Reply 10

DanielJ

Your timetable depends heavily on the department you're in. There ARE departments where you don't get two hours for lunch (including EE, but I think there are others), and there ARE departments where you go from 9 am to 6 pm (again including EE). However there are of course many departments where this is not the case.

Reply 11

Wineblood

Dynamic_1

Is this for Computer Science, 4 hours per day?

Yep, that's lectures and tutorials. We also have labs which I didn't count, because it's working on your programming, which I usually do during the weekend.

Reply 12

ally22

This was my timetable for the term just gone! (Biochemistry)

Autumn term2005 timetble.pdf49.3KB

Reply 13

Mehh

ally22

This was my timetable for the term just gone! (Biochemistry)

Note to self. Laugh in face of Biochem Freshers when they get bak to halls next year.

Reply 14

BossLady

https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/internal/timetables/

Comp sci timetables above.

Overall I'd say we do have more teaching hours scheduled than other universities, but Wineblood made a good point in one of the posts about going to "pointless classes"...sometimes you gotta pick and choose what is going to help you, and what isn't...

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Wineblood

Yep, that's lectures and tutorials. We also have labs which I didn't count, because it's working on your programming, which I usually do during the weekend.

I used to do that in first year, ie do my labs on the weekend, but now I try and do as much work as possible during the weekdays and then I'm free on the weekends :biggrin:

...i even go to lab times sometimes now (well I end up spending the time chatting but hey it's still "lab time")

Reply 15

MdSalih

Doing computing @ IC too - just finished first term, first year.

I'm one of the more adament people to get as much free time as possible :smile:

The maximum you can possibly minimise the timetable... without lossing out on work.. is around 20 hrs per week... and on no day do you get more than 5 hrs of stuff going on a day. However, if you are one of the more "dedicated" ( :biggrin:

) students... then you'll have a full time table pretty much.. but nothing as intense as 9-6 - if you do happen to have a 9-6 on any day at all.. your just plainly.. very unlucky :P

However, its the content covered that you should really be considering. At IC they get through a heck of a lot of content in the first term.. at least compared with other places. Students applying here are rarely aware of this fact - I certainly wasn't.. I knew it did a lot of practical stuff.. but not to the sheer extent they really do. And it's not just work for the sake of doing work.. it's stuff thats to the point.. again, unlike other places :P The stuff by all means is certainly managable... I'm guessing thats largely due to the teaching structure... but its a lot of valuable, implicit stuff.. that you'd only get on rare courses.

So what it comes down to is... do you want to do roughly the same number of hours or possibly less and learn less stuff... at a different place - i.e. get more time to waste time... and forget the less stuff that you learnt :P - or come to IC and get stuff taught to you properly... in a humane and perfectly managable number of hours :smile:

MdSalih

P.S. unbiased post... of course :P - but honeslty.. the comp course here is pretty much unmatched... i'm sure u're aware of that to some extent... given you've applied here.

Reply 16

HTale

Don't apply to King's. Well, if you like being patronised, then by all means do. Thank God for a little thing called transfers :smile:

Reply 17

Max Plank

The amount of time spent in lectures is really not the issue. The deciding factor when considering the amount of work is the amount of time you have to spend understanding the lectures. Often courses that have weeks and weeks of very wordy lectures are often very easy, whereas one lecture of a more formal course may introduce a difficult concept in a few sentences that may take hours of you own time to fully understand.

Regards,

Reply 18

Dynamic_1

HTale

Don't apply to King's. Well, if you like being patronised, then by all means do. Thank God for a little thing called transfers :smile:

In London it's Imperial or UCL. Why does KCL take so many applicants from clearing? KCL does not even feature in the Top 20 departments in The Times Computer Science league tables?

Reply 19

HTale

I dont take The Times Computer Science league tables as the gospel for how good a department is. Having said that, they are probably correct in not putting them in the Top 20. I only speak out of experience, and I think anyone who enjoys being pushed academically (rather than socially :smile:

) should apply to IC (for sciences) or UCL (for arts, and some sciences). KCL are very selective in what they do best; the English, Law, Philosophy, War Studies and Classics departments are the only brilliant departments KCL has on offer. All of those subjects happen to be arts based.