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A typical day in the life of a MathSys MSc student (Term 2)

8am (if you even get up this early...)

The stress that was Term 1 is over and it’s time for you to shine. You roll out of bed, brush your teeth and get you’re game face on for another day of maths. Little do you know however, Term 1 was only the beginning...

9am: It's maybe the best part of the day (except lunch), you're in the MSc office, coffee in hand, chilling with your pals before the lecture. The hot topic of discussion this morning is whether it is acceptable to put ketchup on rice. It's only been one term, is this truly what we have become? You decide enough is enough and weigh in by stating that ketchup on rice should clearly be made a criminal offence. Sitting back in your chair you watch the flames of debate get higher and higher.

10am-12pm: Once again it's time for the compulsory module. It's MA999 this time and as you hurtle between reaction diffusion systems and Turing instabilities at close to light speed, you regrettably wish you'd made an extra coffee. With the kitchen in mind, you realise you've forgotten the banging fried rice you made last night for lunch (*cries inside*). Re-focusing on the blackboard you realise that somehow the class have moved onto fluid mechanics...

12pm: After that whirlwind of a lecture you break out to the common room and the devastation of no lunch hits you.

12.03pm: You are not alone! Five other members of your cohort (and a few PhDs) have "forgotten" their lunch too, which means a short trip to Tesco/Subway/Greggs/WMG/Rootes (or any combination thereof) is in order. The thought of a tuna melt sub is almost too much to bare.

1-3pm: Term 2 has arrived with the gift of optional modules *yay*. Dipping in and out of lectures from comp bio to agent based systems, you realise all of these modules are actually alright. Truthfully, you don't reallyyyyy want to sit any of the exams but it's almost deadline day. For some reason the universe (aka the MSc progression criteria) is forcing you to pick two.

3-5pm: Eurrgghh. With more modules comes, yes you guessed it, more coursework. Finding the flow around pitot tubes was manageable but figuring out the k-clustering algorithm got you like...

5-6pm: The coursework is nowhere near finished but somebody has suggested a quick drink at Varsity and before you know it...

Ten weeks later...

Term 2 has come to an end, all lectures are over, it's plain sailing research from here on out but just as things were looking up, Boris (finally) puts us all in lockdown and Mathsys is forced to go underground/online :(

Brought to you by Kamran Pentland :)