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

Please send me any questions, criticisms and kind words you might have.

Good Luck to everyone still in exam mode!!!

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

This made me smile

I was in such a good mood after my last exam. So good a mood that I practically skipped home and proceeded to tidy all the revision clutter from my room as if I were recoding a movie-style montage. The one thing I failed to do was utilise this rare moment to get some blogging done. Predictably, since then I’ve had another exam that went horrendously badly. Fortunately, the sun, the old faces I bumped into today and the Tesco lemon sorbet (Corrie’s Tweet, My Response) working its cooling magic down my oesophagus, have kept my spirits high enough for this to be a happy blog post.

So why was I in such a good mood a little bit ago? Simply because the exam I had that day went very well. This was rather significant, as prior to that one I had taken 4 papers that I had described as violating, repugnant and all the nasty profanities, I’m not allowed to use on this blog, in between. My morale had been shattered and I had no drive to carry on with all this tedious revision. Thanks to that exam and my housemate’s birthday party over the weekend, I was able to relax and re-invigorate my efforts to remain sane until June 11th.

Over the weekend we had a surprise party for my housemate Alex, who became what can only be described as, 21 years old. These kind of birthday parties are always fun, especially in the lead up, because of all the lying and deception involved. However, when the surprise party is to be held the weekend after the subject’s birthday, the levels of deception become a bit too overwhelming for anyones liking. Alex obviously wanted to organise something herself, so we all had to play along with the idea that there would be a party for her on Monday (when our one was on Sunday). Seems like a small inconvenience, but it involved: keeping communication regular and synchronised across 2 Facebook groups, involving over 20 people; faking bookings and reservations, by delaying everything by a day; and me lying about the dates of my exams (which gave me a false sense of security for a good few days). Luckily, all of this climaxed at a positive end and we were able to greet her in the restaurant with loud noises and party poppers. She didn’t suspect a thing.

My Irreplaceable Housemates

We had a huge meal, courtesy of Alex’s, very lovely, parents and her sister Jenni (who deserves a lot of recognition for the tremendous effort she put into the party). Afterwards went to the Ice Bar near Regent’s Street. For those of you unaware of the ice bar, it is exactly what it says on the tin. Imagine a relatively small room made entirely of ice: everything from the walls to the counter-tops to the drinks glasses. Now imagine the insatiable urge to lick everything that follows you into the room. You literally can’t resist it, and I certainly don’t regret it. This also sparked a little bit of competition between me and my housemate Mini, as we pressed our ice cold cups onto each others cheeks to see who would succumb to the cold first. It ended in a rather desensitised stalemate.

Do Try this at Home

After that was a bit of frolicking with lovely people in the park before returning home to play card games and chat until 4 in the morning. All the best bits about student life packed into one marvellous day. As part of the celebration the house made two short videos where we said a little happy birthday message to Alex. I promised them I wouldn’t publish any of this to the internet, for fears that it would humiliate them to the point of irreversible blushing, so I won’t, but I will say a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Alex here, as anyone who has read my first blog post will know that she was the one who persuaded me to become a Student Blogger and, is subsequently, in need of a massive hug and a great deal of thanks.

Now I return to the myopic schedule that will carry on for yet another week. I noticed today, upon meeting some lovely faces from last year in the library (Eluned, Goloka, Peggy, Sak & Daniel, if they happen to be reading), that it’s already taken over everyones social skills as we literally have nothing to talk about besides exams and what we are dreaming of doing after exams. Hopefully this week will go quickly and painlessly and my physical health and general state of mind can remain in tact for a celebratory blog post when it’s all over.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx