The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
ashy
A lot of you wonder about the amount of stress and the workload at Imperial. To illustrate this, I call my only witness: the internet.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22exam+stress%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Oh the irony.


Also, for those of you applying for Computing, this will be your life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYfIiYLA5QA

Yea I'm on that video :tongue:

i cant believe its not the same in other departments. Half our lectures are like this, with literaly 50% or mroe sleeping
Reply 2
Some guy was posting in youtube
"Computing really is riveting
MechEng>AeroEng>Zoology>Computing "

Is this true at IC?
GoinSideway
Some guy was posting in youtube
"Computing really is riveting
MechEng>AeroEng>Zoology>Computing "

Is this true at IC?


it totally depends doesnt it, on how much you love your subject. if you find it boring you shouldnt have ****ing taken it. its not the lecturers fault youre not interested in the material. if you dont get excited when your program finally models some physics pretty accurately and you dont immediately wanna throw more objects in and start thinking about modelling fluids just to see how close you can get to reality then im sure you'd be bored as hell yeah. it also depends on whether or not you fully grasp the material and are thus in a position to actually think about it rather than remember it. obviously there are good, enthusiastic lecturers and there are lazy, depressing drones but im not expecting to see a frickin song and dance when im being taught solid state electronics or whatever. i just want the most comprehensive education on a subject i love and feel has great potential. its only gonna be boring if its not really for you or you dont have a clue whats going on imho. lecturer sucks=dont go to lectures!lol.
Reply 4
solo2wolf
it totally depends doesnt it, on how much you love your subject. if you find it boring you shouldnt have ****ing taken it. its not the lecturers fault youre not interested in the material. if you dont get excited when your program finally models some physics pretty accurately and you dont immediately wanna throw more objects in and start thinking about modelling fluids just to see how close you can get to reality then im sure you'd be bored as hell yeah. it also depends on whether or not you fully grasp the material and are thus in a position to actually think about it rather than remember it. obviously there are good, enthusiastic lecturers and there are lazy, depressing drones but im not expecting to see a frickin song and dance when im being taught solid state electronics or whatever. i just want the most comprehensive education on a subject i love and feel has great potential. its only gonna be boring if its not really for you or you dont have a clue whats going on imho. lecturer sucks=dont go to lectures!lol.

great point!
also i wanna know the opinions of the people who are already there.
Reply 5
solo2wolf
it totally depends doesnt it, on how much you love your subject. if you find it boring you shouldnt have ****ing taken it. its not the lecturers fault youre not interested in the material. if you dont get excited when your program finally models some physics pretty accurately and you dont immediately wanna throw more objects in and start thinking about modelling fluids just to see how close you can get to reality then im sure you'd be bored as hell yeah. it also depends on whether or not you fully grasp the material and are thus in a position to actually think about it rather than remember it. obviously there are good, enthusiastic lecturers and there are lazy, depressing drones but im not expecting to see a frickin song and dance when im being taught solid state electronics or whatever. i just want the most comprehensive education on a subject i love and feel has great potential. its only gonna be boring if its not really for you or you dont have a clue whats going on imho. lecturer sucks=dont go to lectures!lol.

This is all optimistic thinking at best.

When you have a lecturer take 30 minutes to explain one slide, and basically just say whats on the slide, then you'll find it a bit **** as well.
Reply 6
do they actually explain it well though, in the end?
Reply 7
sunspoon
do they actually explain it well though, in the end?



86% if Imperial computer science grads get firsts or 2:1s, with a slightly higher proportion achieving firsts than 2:1s. So it all seems to work out. :wink:
Reply 8
sunspoon
do they actually explain it well though, in the end?

Lets put it this way: 99.99% of what i learnt i did outside lectures
Gimperial
Lets put it this way: 99.99% of what i learnt i did outside lectures


didnt you expect that lol?i dont understand what people are complaining about. how many unis have students that can teach themselves 99% of the course?all the top ones is the answer. you think MIT,berkely,caltech are any different?hell no. iv watched practically every video lecture available on the net and i have a very good understanding of the quality of teaching at the top unis. the difference between MIT and kingston is the students first, they can learn it all much faster and in much more depth than the latter and then the actual standing of your lecturers comes in when you start getting into real depth (perhaps on a subject you particularly enjoy or can see an application for) as you will find the end of the road as far as most general textbooks and wikipedia will take you but, unlike at kingston where they most likely wont have a fkin clue or any intention/capacity to find out, at MIT or any other world class uni you know that someone, probably your lecturer, will know and be able to fully explain the dynamics of the system youre interested in and point you to a relevant text/paper and if they dont they will either find out or find someone who can.
As undergrad teaching goes you are going to be be at a RESEARCH uni. you want to see the schedules for the lecturers at Imperial there. iv seen a few, available online, they are CRAZY. flat out nonstop. at the end of the day you are they guys who got the best grades possible at A level and thus have top study skills. they know that and thats why they expect you to basically cover it all yourself (this goes for MIT etc as well but perhaps even more so!). unless you really love your subject you aint gonna be able to take advantage of being taught by researchers as opposed to teachers. as im sure you can tell, i prefer it that way. in the last year iv been to 40% of Chem lessons, 70% maths, 15% Computing and 50% physics lol. i was only slightly better last year. but you know i been rockin the "learning resource centre" like yngwie lol. i hate being taught by teachers who are nice guys and very entertaining but when i probe them on anything give me "i dont know" unashamedly or "ill have to look that up" but dont or even blatently ignore me hoping i wont repeat my question. i also hate having all these ideas and finding new proofs or interesting and useful results and not being able to share my excitement with anyone or get some sort of feedback on my idea or how well/**** iv done (that REAAAAAAAAAALLLLLY kills me) and i truly cannot wait to be at Imperial where at least half my peers will be interested in what iv done/thought of/proved and there will be OVER A THOUSAND SCIENTISTS in the college!REAL LIVE SCIENTISTS!!! people who LOVE this stuff and will be delighted im sure to encourage an enthusiastic student. i have only ever met one researcher (phd student) at Swansea uni and he is a good friend of mine. He is infact the reason that i got into Physics years ago when all i wanted to do was fight, play guitar and make millions. the only guy i know that i can have real in depth discusions with is studying physics at Imperial right now and he is amazing. I know plenty of people heading for normal/mid tier unis and they are lifeless drones. I wouldn’t mind so much if they where good at what they did. To contrast I know 2 current cantabs,1 grad (now a teacher) and two soon to be freshers and while they have a comprehensive knowedge of much of their subject they have no soul/love/passion for the subject. all performed absurdly in tests (much better than me at GCSE atleast) but they dont seem to care about what physics means just what it says. advanced technicians as far as im concerned or pehaps they just havnt found their passion yet.
am i saying Imperial is going to be full of people like the guy i know? **** no. it clearly isnt. but thats because of one thing. truly passionate and inspiational people are incredibly rare NOMATTER WHERE YOU GO they are always in the minority as the high flying success whores will dilute even the greatest unis/especially the greatest unis. Passion doesn’t pass tests. Einstein is the most obvious example of that though I could name hundreds more (the greats very often) as I did have a real issue with my cantab mate being seen as better than me in school (which he blatently was but never anywhere near as intelligent). Anyway wow I went of on one there. Basically nothing to do with the original post lol but ill throw it in there because it does have some value I feel. You probably don’t :P
Reply 10
Gimperial
Lets put it this way: 99.99% of what i learnt i did outside lectures


Wow, I'm so much more lazy than you.
Reply 11
Gimperial
Lets put it this way: 99.99% of what i learnt i did outside lectures


is that unique to you or do the majority of imperial computing students have a similar experience? although after watching that youtube movie of copmuting students in a lecture i'm not too surprised. :rolleyes:
sunspoon
is that unique to you or do the majority of imperial computing students have a similar experience? although after watching that youtube movie of copmuting students in a lecture i'm not too surprised. :rolleyes:

We have a LOT of people complain about how little is 'taught' in lectures so then they go and **** up their exams etc.

TBH I wouldn't believe anyone who says they can get a 1st from lectures alone, i.e. they can actually remmember the details the lecturer goes through, at least for my subject.

I use lectures as an introduction to the topic at the best. I remmember my lecturer going on about semaphores for about an hour, I only learnt the name so then I could look it up in the book (I went to sleep half way through the lecture ) lol...
Reply 13
sunspoon
is that unique to you or do the majority of imperial computing students have a similar experience? although after watching that youtube movie of copmuting students in a lecture i'm not too surprised. :rolleyes:


It depends if he means
1) He doesn't gain anything useful from the lecturer in the lecture, so has to study the notes and sample exercises/problems in his own time.
2a) He would gain knowledge from the lecture, but knows it all already. Further knowledge is from surfing Wikipedia well into the night.
2b) He does gain knowledge from the lecture, but does more studying because it's interesting.
3) He would gain knowledge from the lecture, but doesn't for some other reason -- e.g. from staying up until 5am the night before -- so study outside lectures is needed.

People with (1) just have a different style of learning to the people that can absorb everything in a lecture. (3) is quite common ;-).

Feel free to think of more...
solo2wolf
didnt you expect that lol?i dont understand what people are complaining about. how many unis have students that can teach themselves 99% of the course?all the top ones is the answer. you think MIT,berkely,caltech are any different?hell no. iv watched practically every video lecture available on the net and i have a very good understanding of the quality of teaching at the top unis. the difference between MIT and kingston is the students first, they can learn it all much faster and in much more depth than the latter and then the actual standing of your lecturers comes in when you start getting into real depth (perhaps on a subject you particularly enjoy or can see an application for) as you will find the end of the road as far as most general textbooks and wikipedia will take you but, unlike at kingston where they most likely wont have a fkin clue or any intention/capacity to find out, at MIT or any other world class uni you know that someone, probably your lecturer, will know and be able to fully explain the dynamics of the system youre interested in and point you to a relevant text/paper and if they dont they will either find out or find someone who can.
As undergrad teaching goes you are going to be be at a RESEARCH uni. you want to see the schedules for the lecturers at Imperial there. iv seen a few, available online, they are CRAZY. flat out nonstop. at the end of the day you are they guys who got the best grades possible at A level and thus have top study skills. they know that and thats why they expect you to basically cover it all yourself (this goes for MIT etc as well but perhaps even more so!). unless you really love your subject you aint gonna be able to take advantage of being taught by researchers as opposed to teachers. as im sure you can tell, i prefer it that way. in the last year iv been to 40% of Chem lessons, 70% maths, 15% Computing and 50% physics lol. i was only slightly better last year. but you know i been rockin the "learning resource centre" like yngwie lol. i hate being taught by teachers who are nice guys and very entertaining but when i probe them on anything give me "i dont know" unashamedly or "ill have to look that up" but dont or even blatently ignore me hoping i wont repeat my question. i also hate having all these ideas and finding new proofs or interesting and useful results and not being able to share my excitement with anyone or get some sort of feedback on my idea or how well/**** iv done (that REAAAAAAAAAALLLLLY kills me) and i truly cannot wait to be at Imperial where at least half my peers will be interested in what iv done/thought of/proved and there will be OVER A THOUSAND SCIENTISTS in the college!REAL LIVE SCIENTISTS!!! people who LOVE this stuff and will be delighted im sure to encourage an enthusiastic student. i have only ever met one researcher (phd student) at Swansea uni and he is a good friend of mine. He is infact the reason that i got into Physics years ago when all i wanted to do was fight, play guitar and make millions. the only guy i know that i can have real in depth discusions with is studying physics at Imperial right now and he is amazing. I know plenty of people heading for normal/mid tier unis and they are lifeless drones. I wouldn’t mind so much if they where good at what they did. To contrast I know 2 current cantabs,1 grad (now a teacher) and two soon to be freshers and while they have a comprehensive knowedge of much of their subject they have no soul/love/passion for the subject. all performed absurdly in tests (much better than me at GCSE atleast) but they dont seem to care about what physics means just what it says. advanced technicians as far as im concerned or pehaps they just havnt found their passion yet.
am i saying Imperial is going to be full of people like the guy i know? **** no. it clearly isnt. but thats because of one thing. truly passionate and inspiational people are incredibly rare NOMATTER WHERE YOU GO they are always in the minority as the high flying success whores will dilute even the greatest unis/especially the greatest unis. Passion doesn’t pass tests. Einstein is the most obvious example of that though I could name hundreds more (the greats very often) as I did have a real issue with my cantab mate being seen as better than me in school (which he blatently was but never anywhere near as intelligent). Anyway wow I went of on one there. Basically nothing to do with the original post lol but ill throw it in there because it does have some value I feel. You probably don’t :P


As good as some of your posts are they are very very hard to read. Please at least use paragraphs and capital letters, otherwise it looks like one very long sentence :tongue:

Anyway you are hardly going to have the skill to prove / derive something new and useful, so most of the time noone will care. You will learn this when you get here.

Your lecturers are not usually going to discuss with you things not related to their lectures, maybe during tutorials (most likely they'll call over a phd).

Honestly, the best place to share your enthusiasm is to find some physics forums and talk about it there.
Reply 15
LOL. Love that video. Doesn't the lecture mind that people are asleep/filming people sleeping?! Looks like my kinda place tbh :p:
Raquel//
LOL. Love that video. Doesn't the lecture mind that people are asleep/filming people sleeping?! Looks like my kinda place tbh :p:

The lecturer couldn't care less :tongue: (We think). The way they sound they're half asleep themselves :P

TBH I dont think computing is really suitable for lectures. Its more of a "doing" subject rather than "listening" one.
Reply 17
Gimperial
The lecturer couldn't care less :tongue: (We think). The way they sound they're half asleep themselves :P

TBH I dont think computing is really suitable for lectures. Its more of a "doing" subject rather than "listening" one.


Niccccccccce. I like how you add the 'we think', sounds like a bit of doubt in your mind. Haha. I bet they do count it against you. OR they keep a tally, the lecturer with the most sleeping students wins!

I wanna do medicine though, so I think that's slightly different. Kinda life or death if i didn't pay attention :p:
Gimperial
As good as some of your posts are they are very very hard to read. Please at least use paragraphs and capital letters, otherwise it looks like one very long sentence :tongue:

Anyway you are hardly going to have the skill to prove / derive something new and useful, so most of the time noone will care. You will learn this when you get here.

Your lecturers are not usually going to discuss with you things not related to their lectures, maybe during tutorials (most likely they'll call over a phd).

Honestly, the best place to share your enthusiasm is to find some physics forums and talk about it there.


i actually did paste it into word this time and para it but then when re pasting to TSR it went to a huge block again sorry. i would punctuate etc but i actually type with pens wedged inbetween fingers most of the time lol its a technique to cope with RSI. means i dont use fingers to type hence much much better but it makes punctuation really annoying. i dont expect to come up with anything major like a crazy theorem but i have atleast twice had fully formed ideas and businesses ideas before someone else turned them into a reality. one is going to completely change the world and the other will be a killer ap. wont change the world in an amazing way but will be absudly profitable. i may as well mention em since you cant steal the ideas now lol. one is a new system for using credit cards. my idea was that your mobile or some peripheral have a scanner on it to read the card and you must activate the card biometricaly before use. you can then lock it whenevr you want and when a transaction occurs o someone attempts to use the card you are notified by email or text or whatever. there is now such a device in development with an interesting extra, a safety finger for if you are forced to activate the card. if you use the safety finger the police will be notified and a locating algorithm started but everything else will be normal so attacker will not know whats happening!awesome idea. anyway it was that and a new method of farming. cba to explain that one but its been cleared for construction in toronto and will make a lot of money very fast. so iv had a few good ideas and i just cant wait to be surrounded by intelligent people and conferences to attend and discuss things with.
Raquel//
Niccccccccce. I like how you add the 'we think', sounds like a bit of doubt in your mind. Haha. I bet they do count it against you. OR they keep a tally, the lecturer with the most sleeping students wins!

I wanna do medicine though, so I think that's slightly different. Kinda life or death if i didn't pay attention :p:


lol. "oh **** whats this?!thats not what i remember!?oh **** thats what that is!hmmm i hear Iraq needs doctors..."