Student blogs

Why would we expect it be any different, during the exam phase everything revolves around exams. I have now finished all exams at Imperial and it went quite well. Most of the exams were fairly constructed, but personally it felt more difficult to reach 100%. The fact that I have written exams in both the Chemical Department and the Mechanical Department allows me to make an interesting interdisciplinary comparison of my observations.

Ban on eating

Fortunately, I was allowed to bring food on the latter, so that I could fill up my sugar reserves after 2 hours of concentration. Unfortunately, this was forbidden in the Chemical Department. I can absolutely understand the ban on crunchy, noisy food. But in my opinion there should be no ban on a banana at a 3-hour test, since there are dozens of studies that correlate the short-term increase in glucose levels with increased concentration capacity.

Seating arrangement

Again, there were differences between the ChemEng and MechEng departments. I personally find the free seat search better.  You don’t have to look for your seat at the beginning and the room is filled much faster. A numbering system was then attached to the seats in the Mechanical Department, so that the name could be assigned later, while one was already in other spheres of the exam tasks.

Non-transparent beverages not allowed

I don’t understand this rule at all. How can you smuggle anything forbidden into non-transparent drinks? There are certainly some creative specialists, but at the risk of being thrown out of university I consider this rule rather absurd. I can’t think of any other possible explanations, maybe you can? Feel free to comment! 😀

Things in the front of the room or in the locker

Another departmental difference, in mechanical engineering, we had to include all things in our locker. At the Chemical Department it was enough to put all things, including the smartphone, in his or her pocket at the front of the room, which I personally prefer, as it can be done quickly and you save yourself detours.

In conclusion, I am of course happy to have passed all the exams. Above all, the compact writing (3 exams in 4 days) was not something I’d experienced in Germany and it brought me to my personal limits of resilience. Respect to all students who do this every year! All the more, I am now enjoying my last few weeks in Europe’s most popular student city! 🙂