What to expect from a bachelor's degree at Cambridge?

The academic aspect of studying at Cambridge is undoubtedly very demanding and consumes a significant part of the working week, but when I compare it with my workload in preparation for the International Baccalaureate exams, it is not such a dramatic leap. As in the last year of high school, it is important to be able to organise time and divide the workload evenly. Students of economics have three lectures a day and a "golden rule" is to self-study at a ratio of 1:3 (one lecture equals three hours of revision). In addition, we have two or three individual meetings every week with academics from our field. We always get a set of questions in advance that we must work through prior to the class and which we then discuss. The lessons are mostly interesting and useful in terms of understanding the assigned problems, but do not offer the possibility of a genuine consultation of the substance under discussion and clarification of the ambiguities that arise in some lectures. It also seems to me that a similar system is well at work at Charles University and other British universities.

The amount of work in the first year is certainly manageable if a student always carefully goes through the material discussed in the lectures and makes sure she/he understands everything. Some of my classmates devoted their first weeks to social activities over revision and now they have a problem catching up.

Social life, however, is an integral part of the college experience at Cambridge. I was surprised by the fact that the students here did not raid individualistic politics, but tried to study, sport, etc. collectively. Due to the challenging nature of the course, it is crucial to have someone to turn to and to share your problems with. Student associations, which organise various events every week are very popular here. The events usually take the form of a lecture by a successful scientist, politician, mathematician and other important external speakers. Although it is undoubtedly interesting to listen to the message of Nobel Prize laureates, these lectures do not come to me personally as very enriching. Quite frankly, I prefer workshops and practical lectures which enable me to gain new skills or improve my current ones. Unfortunately, there are not so many such traditional clubs at Cambridge. The essence of the economically centered associations is the organisation of the so-called networking dinners, where students have the opportunity to make contact with their potential future employers. This is certainly important for older students, but for freshers it seems rather like a waste of time, especially since we don't have much to offer big banks at the moment.