Hello again!
Today I would like to share a day in the life of a Surrey student, specifically me đ
8:20am: Wake up and attempt to get myself dressed properly. I can never seem to reach the level of fashion that English people have attained, but I can try. Breakfast never seems to happen for me, but I know many people who manage to fit it in before class.
9am: For computing, many of my classes start early. At Surrey 9am is the earliest the classes will start which is a bonus because in many American schools, they will start at 8am. Lectures are two hours usually, tutorials are usually an hour, and labs are usually two hours as well. Lectures will usually come first, followed by a lab, and then a tutorial.
11am: The lecture ends and I have to choose between getting some lunch or starting my coursework. I pretty much always have projects that I am working on, often overlapping with another. In the library, level 4 is for group work, so I will usually head up there to meet the other computing students who are working on their projects. This is surprisingly fun. Having people to struggle with and talk with makes doing work so much more enjoyable. The people are very friendly here. At some point I will usually go down to the Surrey Shop, the mini grocery store below the library, and grab a sandwich and some chips. Food keeps me going.
1pm: I have packed up my stuff in the library and headed over to the lab that relates to the previous lecture. Labs are great. In mine, there are older students as well as the lecturer walking around helping. We get lab sheets that we generally work independently on during the two hours available. To be completely honest, most people do not actually finish the labs in time and will not continue to do it in our own time like we are supposed to. Often, we also end up chatting the last few minutes of the lab. The labs are very helpful to do however. More often than not, labs will directly relate to a coursework that we will have to do in the future. Making sure you understand the lab can save a lot of time later.
3pm: With the lab over, the tutorial is next. Tutorials go very slow and help people get up to speed with things they are confused about. Sometimes they are not mandatory, but other times they are. With this in mind, make sure you know if you need to attend because if you don’t you very well might miss something that is on a test.
4pm: More choices! Food or work…the ongoing struggle in my life. Depending on what type of work I have to do, I will go home, eat, and work in my room or head to the library to keep myself focused. When classes are over you have the choice of being done for the day or doing at home study. At the beginning of the semester, a reading list will be released for each class. Beyond that it is up to you to actually read it. The lecturers might put up a slide of a chapter that relates to the topic that you are learning, but they will not chase you down if you didn’t read it or tell you directly to read it at all. It is up to you. I have made the mistake of not reading one of my books until exams and had to do over 20 hours of reading all within a few days, while also having coursework to complete. It was horrible to say the least. This self-reliance and self-study allows you to choose how much work you do. I know people who seem to have all the time in the world to just hangout, and others who do not go out at all. It really depends on who you are and how well you want to do.
7pm: Dinner time is a great time. At Surrey the last classes will end at 6pm at the latest. The rest of the night I will usually take off to hang out with my housemates and watch movies. Guildford has something going on basically every night of the week. If you want to go out, many people start pre-drinking at 9ish and will go on until about 11:30ish. People go to clubs until 2-3am and if you do choose to drink, pre-drinking will save lots of money, as clubs like to charge a fair amount for a drink.
8pm: Some nights I have dance classes which tend to be rather late. This is to make sure that everyone is not in class and are not working. Everything is only about 5-10 minute walk away which makes going from place to place rather easy.
With this in mind, I have days where I have no class or just one lecture, but other times I have had a day with 8 hours of lectures straight. It does vary every semester. Hopefully you get lucky!
If you have any questions about how much work students have or daily life, feel free to email me đ
Holly
