My first semester is over

One third of the academic year is over, and I’m starting to realize that just a few weeks of study are left before the start of the exam term. I feel like my first lecture was only yesterday.

As a first year student, I had to discover and learn a lot, and get used to a different system of education. To be fair, I sometimes miss the regular and careful feedback from my high school teachers, but the benefits of my freedom as a university student make up for most of that. I decide on when and how to study, and the corrected assignments are my feedback.

Lectures changed a bit in the second semester. We have learned the basics, so we can focus on issues that are more complex and interesting, and almost have to do with the real world outside the UCL (University College London) classrooms. Our lecturers are different too, and most of us can appreciate that teachers with a comprehensible accent and sense of humor are a very rare species, and worthy of recognition as such.

But studying at UCL is not all about mandatory and optional subjects for me. Almost equally important is experience gained differently, such as in discussions with economics and business celebrities, yoga lessons, and archery practices. I have stopped asking myself where the time goes and learned to hide my surprise when I look at the calendar. To me, this is just another sign of how very happy I am at UCL.