It has been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve managed to get finger on keyboard, and blog. So long that I’m worried I’ve forgotten how to do an adequate job of it. Much like the sportsman coming out of retirement for one last push, please forgive the rough edges and the slow start, but you are more than entitled to believe that the end result will be a flourish recalling the glory-days.

My excuse is simple and predictable: exams. Second year has and will always be a living embodiment of hell itself, for almost every university degree. However, the examination period this year struck me unlike any other. During this time, I’ve had very few nice words to say about the university, myself, or the computing department at Imperial, and as several TV shows always say: if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Fortunately, that’s never been a motto I’ve subscribed to, and based on the 5 tortuous papers I’ve sat these past two weeks, I would like to have a mini rant. Everyone has a different method of revising, be it: early in the morning or late at night, in the central library or chained to their own desk; fully suited or comfortably naked. Some like reading, some like writing, some like doing, and others like visualising. Whatever your style, it all combines into a series of past paper attempts.

These papers are completely useful, because it abstracts away from the broad descriptiveness of lecture notes and the steady progression of problem sheets. The four questions on your desk are of an identical style, format, font, wording and grading as the paper that will determine your future in a few weeks, days or hours. When you can conquer these past exams, you can make it to the next year.

For most subjects, students have easy access to past papers and answers, and can approach them however they like. I prefer to attempt questions, research lecture notes and tutorials I’ve completed to fill in any blanks in my knowledge, and, failing any inspiration from those, reverse engineer the answer sheets. I learn more by working through the process, than by reading a wordy bullet point. But one thing I can guarantee, is that by the end of my attempt, I will come away knowing what my examiners expect from me if they were to pose a similar question in May or June.

This is the case for the EEE department, as well as most of the other departments around Imperial. However, this year I took 5 modules with the Department of Computing, and they have no such policy. In DoC, we get no answer sheets, which would be fine if the problems sheets throughout the year were comprehensive and of an “exam format”, but again, DoC has no such policy. For vast periods of this past month, I’ve felt like I was in an incredibly unhygienic aquatic area without a means of forward propulsion.

Having to decipher past exams, when you have no means of discovering the intention is demoralising, when one is revising. In many cases, I saw questions appear in these papers, which were not present in problem sheets, and were very vaguely described in lecture notes. Some unfortunate year of students were presented with a question that they were never told how to answer. Internet research does of course help, but ultimately, you are blindly guessing what the marker wants, which is impossible for anyone beneath Professor Xavier (Imperial students are good, but not THAT good). Examinations have never been an accurate representation of intelligence or reflection of real life, but for me, this exam period has taken all of that to the extreme. While it is fair and justified to say this is their way of challenging us, weeding out the chaff, if felt more like they wanted me to fail.

**pause, with a deep cleansing breath**

And now I’m calm

That 650 word rant was just what I needed after a tough two weeks, I still have an Artificial Intelligence exam coming up on Monday, but it’s a subject I really enjoy, so I don’t expect it to be too taxing.

One thing I will say, is while I found DoC to be an incredibly tough department, and would love for them to ease up by including past exam answers, there are those who fully commit to them for 4 years and really do have to work their cotton socks off to get their degrees. I can criticise all I like, but the quality of the students they and the rest of Imperial produces really is an undeniable rebuttal to anything I can write in this small student blog. Heed my post as a warning, no matter what department you apply to, you will have to work harder than you’ve ever worked before. Their is wonderful, comprehensive and, should you choose, sordid social life waiting for you at Imperial upon entry, but it is around this time when you pay the price and really prove your worth.

It seems tough and unappealing when I write posts like this, but when I can boast that I have at one point been employed by my dream company before the age of 20, it all quickly becomes worth it.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

Tis a glorious season at Imperial, as lectures end; the chocolate-filled Easter holiday begins; and the sun shines brightly each morning, filling you with an optimistic view of life, the universe and everything. The irritating early birdsong that once indicated your “all-nighter” was nearing completion, is now a pleasant greeting welcoming you to the day.

My Progress Bars

After an amazing 8 seconds of indulging in this lovely Spring feeling, I remembered I have bucket loads of work to do towards exams and resumed the hermit-like state that I’ve spent most of the year in. Revision is a very stressful time, but it is slowly something I begin to enjoy. I am an incredibly misleading example of an Imperial student, in that I don’t work particularly hard on anything that doesn’t spark my interest, and have an attention span that goldfish would judge me for. Nevertheless, having the fight or flight adrenaline rush of an impending exam goes a long way to converge my attention onto this one, gargantuan task and approach the modules at my own pace. I like that for the majority of my subjects I begin to see the beauty and relevance of what is going on, even if it does take 17 stressed-out hours to make this discovery. There are, of course, notable exceptions for every course at Imperial, but we all have our ways of dealing with those (I opt for chocolate, Red Bull and self-deprecation on my blog).

I will do my best to keep blogging as much as I can during this period. This year, I’ve found myself more stressed than most years, mainly due to the increased consequence of failure thanks to my application to study in Singapore next year. With that in mind, my next plan for blogging is to do a detailed description of the year abroad scheme here at Imperial as I go through the application process. If that is something you would like sooner, rather than later, keep on commenting and reminding me to get writing!!

Very sorry for my absence from the blogosphere, I promise I will try harder from this point on

Thanks for reading,
Chris xx

The campus has became incredibly political, as candidates for the Sabbatical Union roles emerged from various dark corners of the university; each of them engaging in a more hand-shaking, baby kissing outlook on sociability. These roles are incredibly important and require a great deal of responsibility, on behalf of the entire student body at Imperial. Needless to say, I had no desire to put myself up for such a role, but I applaud the people who did, and congratulate everyone for their substantial effort.

One thing I’m not a fan of is politics, most likely due to the airbrushed, synthetic characters we use to portray it in this country. I do read manifestos prior to voting, but to be completely honest, the majority of my support stems from advertising. I like design and seeing the campus wallpapered in colourful posters is rather nice. In my opinion, how much effort you put into a poster is a fair enough indication of how much effort you are able to put in your desired role. The same applies for CVs, a tattered, poorly spell-checked, horribly formatted

document would lead me to the conclusion that the person in questions is equally tattered, poorly spell-checked and horribly formatted. This may not be the case, but there is no adequate reason to think otherwise besides optimism. I also have the unyielding rule that any use of Comic Sans should be punishable by being dropped into a den of adolescent Lion siblings, wearing the blood-stained fur of their murdered mother.

For me, the best poster goes to, presidential candidate, Danish Khan’s. It grabs your attention with a pleasing colour scheme, has a short snappy message for any brief glancers and immediately gives us the impression that Dhanish is approachable and fun.

I’m also a big fan of the font matching the image scheme, a subtle touch that shows real effort was put into the design. I could be knit-picky and say more emphasis should have been placed on his name, but it really doesn’t matter – amazing poster.

Indy (running for Felix editor) has a much simpler poster, but one which is incredibly effective. Anyone with a Mac could make it in 5 mins (add another 20 for people with PCs), but the main elements of a good poster are still present. The pastel blue is a safe, appealing colour, the main message is prominent and the picture is a positive portrayal of Indy. I also really like the t-shirt text effect, a simple effect, but one that shows a bit of effort was put into the design. Not a big fan of the amount of text involved, but at least it’s small print, and I really don’t like the “for Felix editor” which looks out of place, but all in all, very good poster.

One of the eventual winners Nicolas Massie had a comprehensive poster campaign with various designs, of varying amounts of text, colour, etc.

I’m not a fan of this approach, as it helps to have a consistent image in peoples peripheral vision for as long as possible.

However, one of his posters really caught my eye. For those who don’t like plastering their face everywhere, this simple design is very effective. Good colour scheme (though it could be a bit more striking), use of shadows to give a touch of depth, and the use of the word “I Voted” rather than “Vote” makes it seem stern and confident, rather than needy.

There were plenty of other good ones, but those were the posters that really stuck in my head. What were your favourite designs? and Are there any advertising campaigns out there you think are particularly comment worthy?

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

Hey Everyone,

Over the past month I’ve had a total of 7 courseworks which has, as you can imagine, been quite the hindrance. Along with the obvious impact on time, duration and quality of sleep, sunlight absorbed and time spent on Facebook (that is the only one that magically manages to increase during this kind of ordeal), there is a significant degradation in one’s ability to be sociable.

As repetitive as it is, the formula that works when it comes to conversation introductions is:

Person A (hereafter referred to as Chris): Hey,

Person B (hereafter referred to as Keira Knightley): Hello, How are you?

Chris: Not bad (lies), yourself?

Keira: Really good thanks, been up to anything lately?

Chris: Coursework, Coursework and more coursework

Keira: Oh, right, I’m going to go to those people in the corner who look like they have something interesting to talk about. Goodbye forever.

For this horrible month, I have had this kind of conversation over and over again, never reaching the stage where Kiera Knightley feels it appropriate to reveal her true feelings for me.

Thus far I’ve managed to complete 5 of the courseworks mentioned above, in a time where I was incredibly stressed out. I felt it better to post nothing than to post something rushed and low-quality. But fear not, Chris shall be back soon and he will NOT be writing about coursework!!!

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx