Getting kicked out of LSE

Hi everyone,
I'm sort of seeking advice from current LSE students and students from other universities, and generally anyone to be honest.

LSE has been extremely difficult - and the courses on my quantitative degree there have been some of the hardest of my entire life - I've worked harder than I did for GCSEs and A-Levels and even had to get a tutor for a year, and still have failed too many units to reach the progression rules (https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/what-if/dont-progress). I will likely be barred from re-enrolling for 3rd year in September, by which point I would be effectively kicked out of the university for a year as an unregistered student with no possible way to stay at the university but to pass every single exam I have at least one resit remaining for at Christmas and study from home - which is not going to be remotely likely considering I've already had a tutor and worked extremely hard for my exams last year. I'm exhausted from both the continual threat of being removed and the amount of focus and time I put into my exams, and frankly my degree is not enjoyable anymore at all. Several others on my degree feel similarly, and complaints have been made to staff in the department - I'm not naming names so that no one's identity is at risk.

I enjoy and am great at the modules on my degree that align with my actual skills and interests in databases, programming, regression and data analysis and such - but modules in maths and statistics are taught remarkably badly and their exams are very hard. I've scored 2:2's,2:1's and 1sts mostly in the former, but have failed mostly the latter. I find it really surprising that a top institution like this (even though it only has Bronze teaching quality so I was semi aware before coming) has such poor teachers. Lectures aren't quite as bad as classes, and I'm able to learn from them - but in modules with the hardest maths I've ever seen, this still isn't enough. Friends with 4A* and Further Maths amongst other qualifications and competition level maths skills are struggling, so I do not stand a chance without further maths - I'm the only one I know on my degree without it and on other similar degrees too.

To top it off, the support from student services, the student union, my academic mentor and my department has been lackluster and has summarised my options to effectively A) pass everything and try your hardest B) apply for exceptional progression but only 2 or 3 people get this a year and they usually have very extreme circumstances so don't bother betting on that C) Go to another institution, as my academic mentor recommended was the best option for me.

As someone who's actually really good at about a third-half of my modules and enjoys them, I would hope the university would be more lenient to try and improve the (brand new as of my year) course to line up with what students actually want out of it, and reduce the frankly unusual amount of advanced maths and statistics content. Several of my friends are upset/stressed and at risk of being removed too.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi,

I’ve been the same position ish as you just a year earlier.Was doing Maths and Econ and failed 1.5 maths mods.Went thru an appeals process to try get into third year and retake but it hasn’t quite worked out-the appeals time is very very strict and doesn’t really look to favour students and rather look to uphold their standards.Ik Someone in similar position disregarded appeals and is restarting in Pure Econ and I regret not looking at doing this earlier bc I feel like I’ve left it too late and has left me limited in options.


That being said if you feel like u can stick it out at LSE it is worth it but if it’s too difficult you could look at transferring to other universities as Ik most the deadline are for January to trasnfer for sep of that year.

You could also look at trying to switch courses to something easier at LSE.

I’m assuming you wanna do something finance related (big assumption) so ultimately it’s more about experience gained vs incredible grade from top uni.

Hi, thanks for the info, what was your outcome? Were you allowed to progress to 3rd year? Thanks!

(Original post by Anonymous)Hi,



Personally, I wasn't able to progress as I had already had 2 sits of the exams in question and still have an ongoing appeals process that's dragged out while looking at finishing/starting over elsewhere.



However, one of my friends who had a sitting remaining in one of the modules but lacked credits to progress did so through the exceptional progression and has taken exams this year.



In terms of pushing back, I think you can sit the exam in any exam period if you push it back far enough, but your whole degree will still be subject to you passing the necessary credits worth for 2nd year which is 3/4 credits passed.

Many thanks!!

Is it possible to start LSE from first year over again in a different course if you can’t progress at the end of second year?? What are the chances of that happening?

@gjd800 - any thoughts for our OP?

Hi,

I’ve been the same position ish as you just a year earlier.Was doing Maths and Econ and failed 1.5 maths mods.Went thru an appeals process to try get into third year and retake but it hasn’t quite worked out-the appeals time is very very strict and doesn’t really look to favour students and rather look to uphold their standards.Ik Someone in similar position disregarded appeals and is restarting in Pure Econ and I regret not looking at doing this earlier bc I feel like I’ve left it too late and has left me limited in options.


That being said if you feel like u can stick it out at LSE it is worth it but if it’s too difficult you could look at transferring to other universities as Ik most the deadline are for January to trasnfer for sep of that year.

You could also look at trying to switch courses to something easier at LSE.

I’m assuming you wanna do something finance related (big assumption) so ultimately it’s more about experience gained vs incredible grade from top uni.

Hi,

Personally, I wasn't able to progress as I had already had 2 sits of the exams in question and still have an ongoing appeals process that's dragged out while looking at finishing/starting over elsewhere.

However, one of my friends who had a sitting remaining in one of the modules but lacked credits to progress did so through the exceptional progression and has taken exams this year.

In terms of pushing back, I think you can sit the exam in any exam period if you push it back far enough, but your whole degree will still be subject to you passing the necessary credits worth for 2nd year which is 3/4 credits passed.

Thanks!

It's really disappointing that the OP has not had better guidance, especially from their Academic Advisor (LSE has a bit of a rep for this, but that's another story).

Do you hate the degree because it's so hard, or is it just that you really dislike the amount of maths even if youw ere passing those units?

OP, the unfortunate fact is that the LSE maths units are hard, and it's unfortunate for you that they eedm to constitute about half of your units. If you have utilised all the support available to you (office hours, extra sessions, I see that you employed a tutor!) and are still failing, then much as it pains me to say it, you might consider if this course is really the one for you. The fact of the matter is that they aren't going to change the layout of the degree programme for you, so you do have to face this head on, one way or another.

The issue you have in enrolling again/elsewhere is that you've used half your funding allowance (assuming you have SFE funding). You might be able to re-enrol on a different course at LSE. You should speak to the relevant admissions people to see if you need to go via UCAS or if they'd just let you do it I know where I work we have a bit of flexibility in this type of arrangement.

What resolution do you prefer? What would you like to happen in a perfect world scenario?

Hey mate, hope you're doing alright. Honestly, I feel you. I did not progress into 2nd year after my first year at the LSE and I felt like I'd hit rock bottom with little hope of actually being able to pass my resits when the time came. MA100, in particular, was a beast haha - it felt almost hopeless revising for it seeing as the mock assessments were so much tougher (+ way more structured) than the problem sets.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get onto Repeat Teaching - I attended EVERY single class, did every single problem set, revised hard, went to office hours / maths support and I passed. I'll be advancing to Year 2 this Sept.

So bottom line is, not progressing is not the end all. You also get 3 tries for each module (as far as I'm concerned) so please don't worry about getting kicked out because you failed once.

The benefit of this is that you have a whole year to focus on just these modules that you find challenging. You'll be going over old content, you'll have so much time to truly absorb it - I'm positive you'll be fine provided you grind this year.

And you can go into 3rd year with a fresh plate, plus you get to choose your modules so you can avoid these ones!

You've got this. Feel free to reach out if you need any advice or support as I can relate - I've been there.

Sadly I have now failed MA100 in my two resits, so it is now a confirmed fail - meaning I have to pass every other remaining IRDAP exam first try or I will no longer be able to progress at LSE. While grinding is something I really would like to do, realistically I spent the latter half of this year at LSE grinding for my resits knowing how problematic it would be if I failed any again, and then I did fail them again. MA222 and ST206 are significantly harder than MA100, and I feel it is close to impossible to pass all 4 of my resits (MA213, MA102, MA222, ST206) considering I've already worked the hardest I realistically can alongside a tutor. Going into 3rd year with a fresh plate would truly be ideal, as the modules in 3rd year are *much* better suited to me - I knew this from the beginning of choosing this degree at LSE but assumed struggling in 2nd year would be okay and I would simply have to work hard and would be guided through. I only have one remaining try in remaining exams - and alongside the stress of the situation, this is why I deferred them this summer to the next IRDAP period - effectively as soon as I sit those 4 exams I am extremely likely to confirm my inability to continue at LSE.

I'm sorry to hear.. all those MA modules are definitely incredibly challenging, especially MA222 & MA102.

What do you think you're going to do, are you going to study and try to pass all 4 next IRDAP? Or have you thought about potentially transferring elsewhere?

I understand. I really am so sorry to hear about this. Has LSE been able to offer you any counselling regarding this issue?
Always here if you need to talk