Blog posts

What’s the difference? (2/2)

ERASMUS+ exchange student

I‘m still walking around the Imperial College every day and keeping a keen eye on every deviation from the German university system. In my last blogpost I gave my opinion of the professors, the learning atmosphere and the general concept. Today some other aspects follow 🙂

Exams

In London, the “you have to pass everything in this year” puts much greater pressure on students compared to at my university. If you don’t pass a subject at my university or you want to drop out by yourself (yes, that’s possible!), you can do the exam either in the same or the following semester.

First Time Dissecting a Cadaver

MBBS/BSc Medicine

Before I jump right in- kindly note that it’s pronounced dis-section, and not di-(s)section. Literally the one thing I can recall from the intro to anatomy lecture from Freshers’ week.

Safe to say our very first dissection session was highly anticipated amongst my cohort. We’re currently learning about the thorax- part of the body between the neck and abdomen. At Imperial, we do full-body dissections rather than prosections. Each group consists of 10-11 students and we are assigned a cadaver per group for the whole of the anatomy course, which lasts into year 2. The dissections are done at our Charing Cross campus.

Doing a Masters in Public Health without a science background

Master of Public Health (MPH)

I don’t come from a background in science – my Bachelor’s is in History and I’ve spent the past five years working in marketing – so I often get asked how I’m coping with doing a science degree like Public Health.

And the answer is: not too badly, so far. At least judging from my results for term 1, especially statistics and epidemiology.

Part of this is definitely down to pure elbow grease: extra hours rewatching lectures, consulting YouTube tutorials and making sure I got all the homework done. But thankfully, it’s also because postgrad education is more about the application of technical knowledge to the real world than whether you can memorise formulas.

Linstead goes to Budapest

Aeronautical Engineering

Your hall is your home for the first year and your flat mates shall be your family.

Every year, Linstead does a hall trip. This year we went to Budapest for a weekend.

Here’s to the memories that we will remember

Here’s to the people we won’t forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwWYD0c6mjw&t=3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bjoOVHtyI&t=19s

What an Imperial student does outside of lectures

MSci Geology and Geophysics

I can’t believe we’re now already 5 weeks into term (6 if you count exam week)! So far I can say that I’m somewhat enjoying my degree (the lecture part at least, not so much for the exam/ assignment part) but there are times when I feel like I am so done with Geology and *flips table, throws papers/ notes everywhere*

When those times come, I know that I need a short break from all the rocks/ reports/ looking through polarising microscopes/ lectures and just take a breather. So what else can you do when you’re not going in and out of lectures?

Swimming the Channel for the St Mary’s pool

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Going for a swim at the St Mary’s pool after a long day of classes has become something of a ritual for me now that I’m almost two thirds through my course. There’s nothing more therapeutic, and it’s also a bit surreal remembering that Alexander Fleming used to do laps here, as have generations of students since it first opened 80 years ago.

That’s why I don’t want to see it closing down this July. To save it, I’ll be swimming 22 miles – the width of the English Channel – at St Mary’s over the next 12 weeks as part of the Diabetes UK Swim22 Challenge.

My Typical Monday #Geology&Geophysics

MSci Geology and Geophysics

Hi everyone. So, my mentor had us do this time-management activity where we have to take note of what I get up to every 15/ 30 minutes and I thought it’ll be interesting to share the findings? results? with you guys. I actually did the original assignment last week over two days (Thursday and Friday), but I wanted to share my schedule on Monday instead as a message that, ‘Hey, Monday’s not too bad after all even if it’s the start of another week of lectures…’ and also because Friday’s baking day (because what better way to celebrate the end of schooldays other than a fresh-out-of-the-oven baked goods).

Forbes 30 Under 30 List

MBBS Medicine

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

I was honestly over the moon to find out that I was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 List for Europe. What an absolutely amazing honour, and am so grateful for the team at Forbes for including me! It all started back in November when I was emailed explaining that I had been shortlisted and asked me for a bit more information about myself. I remember that morning I had been on a paediatric placement in High Dependency Unit and had been a part of my first paediatric “crash call”. I had been so down from the day and receiving this email completely changed it.

What’s the difference? (1/2)

ERASMUS+ exchange student

In this blog entry I would like to start by briefly comparing my previous impressions of the educational systems in Germany & UK. It’s not that easy, it’s actually like comparing croissants with Berliners. Both quite tasty, but fundamentally differently conceived. I would like to emphasize at first that these are only my personal impressions. Of course, the factors outlined beneath cannot be generalized to whole systems. Hence, no system should be put in a bad light.

Concept

The concept at the Imperial College is fundamentally different from my educational institution. We have lectures and examinations over a period of six months.

Let’s talk about Mental Health

Mathematics and Statistics

So how are you really feeling?

Thursday was Time to Talk Day 2018, a chance for us to speak openly about mental health, something that doesn’t happen as much as it should. There is a certain stigma associated with mental health, however when 1/4 people are affected by mental illness each year, it really is time to stamp out the sigma and talk about mental health. Following on from Paula’s post about what to do if you are worried about a friend’s mental health, I thought I would share some first hands tips of how to stay mentally healthy in a university environment and what to do if you feel that you are suffering in any way.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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