Charlotte - Geography

Name:  Charlotte Burton   

Subject:  Geography
Year: 3rd
A-levels taken: Geography, Maths, Biology, History AS-Level

What does your working week entail?

Each week you have one lecture for each of your papers (five in the first
year and 4 in the second and third years), which means a typical day usually
involves one or two (or ocassionally three) lectures in the morning with
more often than not free afternoons.  Some days may be entirely free of
lectures.  You have 2 supervisions each term for each of your papers. These
can usually be arranged so you have around one a week, which means your time
not in lectures is spent reading for and writing around one essay a week.
There are also some projects to complete throughout the term in the first
and second years, which you have around one hour-long practical session a
week on and work on independently throughout the term. In the final year you
work on a dissertation throughout the year.  So with few timetabled hours in
the week means you are able to organise and manage your own working week
yourself to a large extent.

How easy was the transition from A-level to the first year of your degree?

There is quite a large jump from A-Level in terms of the volume of work, the
amount of reading and the complexity of the topics you're covering. However,
you will find some familiar topics from your A-Level course as well.  While
it can seem like a shock at first, you soon find it is challenging but
manageable.  And there is plenty of support from supervisors and your
Director of Studies, as well as from geographers in the upper years at
Christ's through our supportive and friendly Christ's Geography Society -
COGLES.

How easily can you fit social activities into your working week?

With few lectures througout the week and with being able to arrange
supervisions quite flexibly, there is plenty of opportunities to be involved
in sports teams, the arts or any society.  As long as you are able to manage
your time sucessfully, having a good time is certainly possible - infact
it's what geographers are known for!

What sort of things did you talk about in your interview?

The interview felt quite informal. We discussed my A-Level Geography
coursework and other things I had mentioned in my Personal Statement.  I was
also given a graph to interpret and we had a discussion around it.  You are
not neccessarily meant to get the right answer to questions first-time, but
to show some logical thinking and apply things that you have learnt in your
courses to unfamilar contexts. Nothing to panic about!