Hillary term of my 3rd year

It is fifth week of Hillary term and 104 days till my exams. These are the ‘fearsome’ Finals, the main exams of my undergraduate degree. There are no exams in the 4th year, only research and thesis.

104 days may sound like a lot but trust me even if you revised responsibly every day at least 7 hours you wouldn’t manage to learn everything they might want from us. The exam papers are tough. That’s why we can choose 5 out 8 questions to answer in each exam and the passing grade is only 40%. The best of the best may get something above 70%. Nonetheless we are still learning new material and still have new problem sheets to do so there is not much time for revision yet.

At the beginning of this term we had an option to choose out of two modules – Characterisation course and Modelling course. Characterisation involved using techniques like scanning electron microscope and X-Ray diffraction and the Modelling was focused on running simulations on materials behavior from electronic structure scale to hot fluid flow in the fan of a computer. Since I have already done some X-ray diffraction and other measurements during my internships at Jaroslav Heyrovsky Institute and UCSB I chose the Modelling course to learn more from theoretical and computational side of research. It was a two-week course at the end of which we had to write two reports on two individual computational tasks. It was a new experience for me and I believe I will find these new skills useful during my Part II project next year. Already before we handed in the reports on the Modelling course we started taking new lectures. This term I have chosen ‘Advanced Polymers’, ‘Advanced Manufacture with Metals and Alloys’, ‘Devices, Memory and Storage’ and ‘Advanced Engineering Alloys and composites’ courses. I chose 4 instead of just 3 courses as learning 4 courses gives me the advantage of wider choice of questions in the forthcoming exams.

Besides getting my current work done and revising for exams I am also trying to organise my Part II project for next year. Although it is not very common I decided to organise my project outside Oxford. I took advantage of good relationships between Oxford and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)  materials department and managed to secure myself a project at (arguably) the most prestigious technological university in the world. Therefore, I will likely be going to Boston next year to spend 7-8 months conducting research at the institute. The project will involve sintering of nanoscale powders, a method that allows us to prepare new material systems. I will then write a thesis on the project and defend it back in Oxford.

I believe that doing research at MIT is going to be an incredible experience. Besides the great reputation this university holds, I will be working with a young, inventive professor who besides holding more than 10 patents and having a spinout company is also the head of the MIT’s materials department. At the same time this is partly fulfilling my dream as when I was younger I was watching some of the MIT’s opencourseware lectures on solid state chemistry and admired their professionalism and quality of the lectures.

Nonetheless, I can start looking forward to the fourth year once I finish the third one. There are still the Finals which are priority number one. There are many lecture notes for me to memorise, books to be read and questions to practice during the next 104 days.
 

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