I’m Wendy, a 3rd year Management student. I was born and raised in Hong Kong and only moved to London when I started studying at LSE. Aside from being a Management student, I’m a part-time tutor at LSE’s Digital Skills Lab (DSL), and have also been heavily involved in a lot of student societies in the past 3 years!
To name a few, I’ve been part of the Consultancy Society, London Strategic Consulting as well as the Alternative Investments Conference Society. However, it wasn’t all career focused, and in my 3rd year I joined the Pool & Snooker club and even went to my first BUCS tournament. With all things combined – DSL, societies and the AU, it's been a very busy 3 years, but also exciting time at LSE.
Despite the end of my final year having come to an abrupt change due to COVID-19, the friendships and experiences I’ve made during my time at LSE and London has been extremely precious. In this post, I want to share some study tips given our exceptional situation as well as recount some of my most fond memories as an LSE student.
I’m currently based in Hong Kong and am under mandatory home quarantine for 14 days, which is compulsory for all returning residents. Although we're in unprecedented times, my commitments as a student as well as a Tutor at DSL continue!
One unexpected upside to mandatory home quarantine is that there’s relatively few things to do to procrastinate so I’m left with spending quite a lot of my time studying and catching up on academic work. Nonetheless, here are some of my top tips for studying at home and adapting to online teaching!
1. Stay up to date with all the emails/Moodle course forum updates from your lecturers and class teachers. Some class timings are changing and there is a lot of additional information and its important you don’t miss any of it!
2. Make use of LSE's Zoom subscription so you aren’t limited to the free features (e.g. a time limit on meetings) of Zoom
3. I find it extremely helpful to study outside of my bedroom to keep where I relax and sleep and where I work separate. It helps me get into the study mood when I study elsewhere outside of my bedroom.
4. We’re all facing a lot of uncertainty at the moment that puts an extra layer of stress on our every day lives. My tip to handle this is to remember that a lot of other people are also on the same boat as you, as well as focus on what you can control and don’t stress about things that are out of your control!
5. The biggest tip is that apart from studying and taking breaks in between is to remember to check up on your friends, teachers and professors!
Apart from catching up on my academics, I’ve also been spending some time working for the DSL – for example onboarding our new tutors for the next academic year. It’s great to have some variety of work to do and not just solely focus on studying. Before becoming an Tutor, I joined a number of the Excel classes, and because it was extremely helpful for day to day Excel skills, but also for my summer internship in Finance, I thought becoming a tutor myself would be a job I would thoroughly enjoy, which was definitely the case once I started teaching. However, apart from just teaching Excel, Web Design and other digital skills, I also gained so much more – I got to work and learn from an extremely supportive and kind DSL team as well as friendships with other tutors.
Another integral part of my student life was joining several student societies. Even though most of them were career-orientated societies, I made some of my best friends at LSE (as well as from other universities) in these societies. What made it even better is that everyone was working towards a collective goal and it made the journey even more meaningful. Being part of the Alternative Investments Conference Committee, each year we organised the world’s largest student-led conference about Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Venture Capital in the London Marriott Hotel and had over 300 students from around the world attend!
However, it’s not all about career societies! In my 3rd year, I joined the Pool & Snooker club and went to my first BUCS tournament which was a unique experience as we spent 4 days in a caravan – something I’ve never done before. Even outside of LSE, I frequently go bouldering with a lot of my secondary school friends who are also based in London, which provides a great break from LSE-related activities. I strongly believe it’s important to have a good balance of activities in your day to day!
All in all, there are numerous opportunities to get more involved in student life at LSE, and my top tip to any continuing or incoming LSE student is to be open minded and try out things you might not have otherwise done! LSE is truly an international platform, but you have to put yourself out there and leave your comfort zone if you want to make the most out of it!
By Digital Skills Lab Tutor Wendy Yang